There were plenty of things to watch at Saturday's Red-White practice, but in case you didn't see it, Larry Fitzgerald made a catch heading out of bounds and before he came back inbounds, he took a slight detour to tackle former Cardinal and current game analyst Ron Wolfley before running back on the field. It was captured by various in-stadium cameras so it was preserved for all eternity.
Those that are around are well aware that Fitz likes to tackle innocent bystanders. Having covered this team for Fitz's entire career, I've seen it many, many times. So I thought this might be an apropos time, in this day and age of power rankings, to throw in my own rankings of Fitz's top five tackles. Unfortunately, one on James Harrison does not exist. Without further adieu:
- Media members. Fitz isn't shy of taking down a reporter. I've been on the receiving end of those a couple of times, although in recent years he prefers to toss the ball at me while I'm taking photos, so that's a whole different balancing act.
- Tackling Steelers OC Todd Haley during the game in Pittsburgh last year, only the latest example of Fitz dogging Haley in all the years they've known each other, dating back to Haley's OC days in Arizona.
- Fitz's attempted tackle of OC Harold Goodwin, which instead turned into a Goodwin bear hug. Fitz didn't read his keys at the Greenbrier that day.
- Taking Wolf down (the fact we have multiple views of it on video just makes it better.)
Anytime Fitz takes down a kid with a big smile. I've seen it against the pee-wee football players that often play "games" at halftime of a Cardinals' game, and I've seen it with the children of Cards' people, like the sons of GM Steve Keim or VP of media relations Mark Dalton. Fitz is just a big kid in that regard.
