No, Larry Fitzgerald's urges have not changed. (More on that in a moment.) But as he continues to talk a little but each week as part of his Sirius XM Mad Dog radio show with Jim Gray called "Let's Go!," we get a little more sense each week of where Fitz is mentally with the NFL. And he has not sounded like he's coming back.
But he won't quite take that next step of saying it's over either.
That's a point I've made before, that personally I think there is a part of Fitz that just is going to have a hard time drawing the absolute retirement line. Yes, in part it's to avoid the pomp and circumstance he'd rather avoid. But I think part of it is the finality it would bring.
Gray asked him Monday night how hard it is to give up something he has loved so much.
"I don't think it's really kind of set into me mentally like that yet," Fitz said.
That's a question -- and an answer -- around a retirement. And Fitz did a nice job pivoting on the rest of the answer to make it (surprise!) less about him.
"I still enjoy the game," Fitzgerald added. "I enjoy talking about the game, I enjoy watching my son compete in the game. I feel like mentally I'm still there and enjoying every part of it. Maybe later on this year or years from now I'll be able to look at it in that manner, but I just don't look at it that way right now."
Fitzgerald will be watching games this season -- "After 30-plus years of watching it and playing it, you don't just wake up one day and not enjoy watching it," he said -- and yes the Cardinals are at the top of the list.
"I'm excited for a lot of my friends who are playing around the league," Fitzgerald said. "Christian Kirk and Chase Edmonds and Kelvin Beachum, and (hope) all my boys play well and have an outstanding season."
As for the NFL season starting without him for the first time since 2003, again, Fitz does not sound like a guy who is coming back to play -- even as he continues to leave the door cracked ever so slightly.
"I miss the interaction with my teammates but I'm in a good place," Fitzgerald said. "Spending time with the family, playing a little golf, doing a little travel, a chance to spend some time with people you never really get a chance to spend time with at this time of year.
"The desire to play at this time is the same as it's been. I'm very comfortable with that. But you never know what tomorrow holds. Right now I'm very content. I'm very content."
