EAGAN, Minn. — Larry Fitzgerald, Jr., and Cris Carter eased into folding chairs.

A wave of current Vikings players had just finished making sure their family met the two members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame last Thursday.

Fitzgerald, who will be enshrined this Saturday as a member of the Class of 2026, glanced 50 or so yards away at young Vikings fans before participating in the interview with "Uncle Cris" on the practice fields at Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center.

In one moment, Fitzgerald's past — one that involved seeking autographs of Vikings from the '80s and '90s during his childhood fandom reconnected with his teenage years when he was a ball boy at practices that featured Carter (Class of 2013) and fellow Hall of Famer Randy Moss (Class of 2018) — ran a comeback route.

He was tabbed by the Vikings to present Carter with a "Century Club" football custom designed to recognize everyone who played at least 100 games with the franchise. Carter's tally of regular-season contests and playoff games totaled an even 200 and included incredible catches and feats that became fathomable for Fitzgerald.

"I was one of these kids, even before I was a ball boy, lined up on the fence," Fitgerald reflected 10 days before reaching football immortality via his enshrinement.

Hall of Fame Weekend festivities begin today in Canton, Ohio, and Fitzgerald is rightfully joining the ranks after a 17-season career with Arizona in which he played 263 regular-season games and finished with 1,432 receptions for 17,492 yards and 121 touchdowns.

The receptions and yards rank second all-time behind Jerry Rice, and the 121 scores rank sixth, although Davante Adams is still active and enters 2026 with 117.

Upon receiving the football from Fitzgerald, Carter said, "I love this place. It's been about 25 years since I left the game, and they still treat me like I'm on the roster. But this is not about me."

He presented a Hall of Fame hat to Fitzgerald, saying, "You are getting ready to join one of the greatest fraternities in the world, and it's well earned. And it's hard when you join a group like that, and you can bring something to it. And that's what I'm looking forward to in the future, the rest of our lives."

So many steps of Fitzgerald's journey, from Holy Angels to two elite seasons at Pittsburgh to becoming the No. 3 overall pick of 2004 to a franchise legend, were enabled from his time on the Vikings sidelines. He soaked up valuable lessons while his father, who passed away June 1 at age 71, pioneered as a sports journalist, rounding out perspective.

"I'm not naïve to the fact that without this experience, being a Viking for multiple years, being able to be around [Cris] and Randy and John Randle and Randall McDaniel and Chris Doleman, some of these legends that are immortalized in history forever, I don't know if I would've set my heights high enough to think that it was attainable for me to be in his position," Fitzgerald said. "They made it a reality, and especially Cris because he welcomed me into his home. He fed me with his own food. He let me stay at his home. He let me train with him. I could ask him questions. He would impart wisdom. He gave me confidence when I didn't always have confidence. He was there for me during emotionally traumatic experiences, losing parents.

"My journey is much deeper than any football catch or any route that I could run," Fitzgerald added. "I call him 'Uncle Cris.' And I don't do that to be perfunctory. It is really how I feel. He is my uncle. And I worked tirelessly to try to make him proud. He endorsed me. He gave me credibility by endorsing me, and that means so much to me."

As Fitzgerald's career blossomed, people asked Carter about the backstory.

"People ask me all the time, 'Cris, did you see something [in Fitzgerald's talent]?' And even his father, his brother, they used to ask me all the time, 'What do you think? Do you think he's D-I? Do you think he can make it pro?'

"I used to always be like, 'Let's concentrate on D-I. Let's get to our college.' But there were a couple moments," Carter said. "And when we used to have the JUGS machine hitting the punts in windy Mankato, and dude was out there grabbing. I'm talking about, poof. I'm like, 'OK, now that's different.'

"The punt off a JUGS machine is the hardest ball to catch," said the man who caught a pass thrown by Peyton Manning off a Manhattan skyscraper. "It's the hardest to judge. But his overall timing and catching it with all hands, I was like, 'OK, now that is different.'

"Going to his home games here, Holy Angels, he used to do the one-hand grab," Carter added. "Across the middle of that one game I came to, he caught that one off the ground, and I said, 'OK, now we might have something.' I told your dad after that, 'Keep it under wraps, but we might be onto something here.' But along the way, athletes like him, you see them and their overall mentality is totally different. And he's been that way since he was 15."

Fitzgerald remembered the Panthers visiting the Miami Hurricanes in 2002. Carter had transitioned from Minnesota to Miami for his final pro season and made the trip to the Thursday game.

"I'll never forget — I caught a touchdown on the left sideline. He was right there with me, gave me a high-five — the way he made me feel. I felt like I could do anything," Fitzgerald said. "It didn't matter if Sean Taylor or Jon Vilma, it didn't matter who was out there. I got my uncle here with me. And it just gave me so much confidence to — "

"And they were loaded — " Carter interjected.

"It didn't matter. That made me feel good," Fitzgerald resumed. "And driving from Boca Raton down to the Orange Bowl … that's an hour and 15 minutes," Fitzgerald said. "That's a long way to drive on a game week, too. … All those sacrifices meant a great deal to me."

Beyond the connection established during Vikings practices and strengthened in more familial situations, Fitzgerald and Carter are two of the most productive players in the sport's history who had some of the lowest levels of quarterback continuity.

During Carter's time in Minnesota (1990-2001), the most consecutive seasons with the same leading Vikings passer occurred from 1990-92 with Rich Gannon leading the way. In 1993, it was Jim McMahon before Warren Moon helped Carter record 122 receptions in back-to-back seasons. Brad Johnson led the Vikings in passing in 1996 and 1997 before Randall Cunningham's remarkable resurgence after Johnson's injury in 1998. Jeff George led the way in 1999 before Daunte Culpepper's first season as a starter in 2000.

Fitzgerald's run with the Cardinals featured multiple QB carousel rides, but it was highlighted with four seasons of Kurt Warner (2005 and 2007-09) and four with Carson Palmer (2013 and 2015-17) as the team's leading passer.

"For him to have that type of career with that type of inconsistency is really unheard of or unmatched, especially in the Hall of Fame," Carter said. "That's the reason why I'm very, very excited to see the journey. He didn't go down a paved road. He did a lot of stuff out on the dirt road where a lot of people couldn't see him, but it all added up to a Hall of Fame career. So very, very proud of what he has done."

Fitzgerald said watching Carter, often credited as having some of the best hands in football history, up close all those seasons instilled the importance of doing his best on every play.

"My job is when they ask me to run a stop, that I run that stop with the very best of my ability, and I'm open. It that ball is there when it comes, I need to catch it. And if it's high, I need to jump. If it's low, I need to go down and get it. I need to make [the QB] right. And that was my mentality," Fitzgerald said. "I saw Cris do it in practice every day. Balls would be high, they'd be low. One hand, toe taps, you name it and he was doing it. And I said, 'I'm not going to be a guy with excuses. I'm not going to be a guy who finds reasons why things didn't go well. I'm going to find it. I'm going to find it in the dirt.' That's how I tried to approach it, and I saw that from him."

Carter noted the influence the Vikings organization had on his career, and the opportunities that have followed for him to give back by mentoring. He appreciates every opportunity, even if not all will result in a legacy like Fitzgerald's.

"I've been fortunate enough that God has put me around a lot of young men, and I never expect anything back," Carter said. "And along the way, I tell them, my payback is doing this for someone else. So if you look at Larry's legacy, it's not only on the field, it's what he's done off the field. It's how he's handled his brand. It's how he's handled his teammates, his relationships.

"When you look at how he went about it, he earned this. Yeah, he started off with the Vikings and everything," Carter said. "Every step that he took was intentional, and he maximized that moment. Life is about moments."

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