Things have really come full circle for Larry Fitzgerald, Jr.

Years ago, "Fitz" served as one of the Vikings ball boys as a Minnesota high schooler, connecting easily with the players and coaches his father, Larry Fitzgerald, Sr., covered as a beat reporter.

Now, the younger Fitzgerald will be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame along with Vikings Legend Randy Moss, whom he once watched in awe as a young receiver.

It was Moss who gave the coveted "knock," in this instance waiting to greet Fitzgerald and share the news he'd been voted into Canton as a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

"I just have so many memories flooding my mind," Fitzgerald told Moss. "Being out there at training camp and watching you guys — and hoping one day just to have the opportunity to do it. Just the opportunity. Never to imagine having a career that was worthy of being immortalized in the history of the game."

Mark Craig of the Minnesota Star Tribune, who is part of the Hall of Fame voting committee, highlighted the moment, what it means for Fitzgerald and how Vikings Legends including Moss, fellow Hall of Famer Cris Carter and Matthew Hatchette saw a unique talent early on. Craig wrote:

Carter wasn't a speed demon, but he had perhaps the best hands in NFL history. Fitzgerald's game was very similar, Carter said.

Carter told Craig that Fitzgerald was "the crème de la crème" at catching a football, even then as a receiver for Holy Angels Academy.

"He made catching look so natural," Hatchette told Craig. "He'd go up in the air, catch the ball with one hand, do all these things. I'd be looking around going, 'OK, did anybody else just see what I saw, because 16-year-olds aren't supposed to do what I just saw.' "

Craig noted that Fitzgerald played video games with Korey Stringer and basketball with Carter and Moss. And one year, Moss lent Fitzgerald his car for prom.

During a show highlighting the NFL 100 All-Time Team in 2019, Moss sat at a studio desk with Fitzgerald and NFL Media members and shared early memories.

"When I first laid eyes on Larry, I don't really know what came over me, but I was seeing his dad as a beat writer for the Vikings, and knowing that was his son and just seeing how much he wanted to play catch, and how he would field the punts and things like that, I [was impressed]," Moss said.

He recalled one evening attending a Holy Angels game with Vikings teammates to support Fitzgerald.

"We just had T-shirts on. If you know anything about Minnesota, the state bird is the mosquito," Moss quipped. "We go out to one of his games, and they've got the lights on, and the lights are just covered. You could barely see [the lights], there were so many mosquitos out there. So we couldn't even enjoy his game; we're out there just flappin' and fanning, we've got our hats and stuff over us."

Moss and the group were approached by Fitzgerald's mother Carol, who would later pass away in 2003 after a valiant battle with breast cancer.

"God rest her soul, his mother brings us over [mosquito repellant]. She's like, 'I seen y'all over here, and I want y'all to watch my baby's game. You take this and y'all can keep it.' " Moss fondly recounted. "We sprayed it everywhere, all over our shoestrings and everything … [and we were able to] settle in. I know it's a little crazy story but just being able to be outside of the Vikings facility and go support our very own [was special]."

Fitzgerald on Thursday became only the eighth wide receiver to be voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on his first ballot. He joins Raymond Berry (1973), Lance Alworth (1978), Paul Warfield (1983), Steve Largent (1995), Jerry Rice (2010), Moss (2018) and Calvin Johnson (2021).

Since the NFL's birth in 1920, Craig noted, there have been 28,004 players to appear in a regular-season game. Only 331 of them have made it to Canton. Fitzgerald is one of five honorees for the 2026 Hall of Fame Class, joining QB Drew Brees, LB Luke Kuechly, K Adam Vinatieri and senior nominee RB Roger Craig, who finished his 11-season NFL career in Minnesota (1992-93).

As Craig asked in his article, did the Vikings players and coaches spending time with Fitzgerald in the late '90s and early 2000s know exactly where his football career would lead? It's safe to say the late Dennis Green wouldn't be surprised.

Former Vikings quarterback Brad Johnson told Craig, "I remember Denny looking at me real serious and saying, 'That kid's going to be a great one.' Denny had great vision."

See the Vikings 2026 Opponents.

Check out the Vikings 2026 Draft Picks.

View future opponents for the Vikings.

Buy single game tickets.

Download the official Vikings App.