Bruce Arians attempted to court Larry Fitzgerald out of retirement last season for Tampa.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were unable to successfully defend their Super Bowl title in 2021, as they fell to the eventual Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams in the divisional round. Injuries played a major role as well as Antonio Brown being cut after his sideline tirade against the Jets in the regular season.
Those issues forced former head coach Bruce Arians to try and bring in a WR legend. During a Wednesday appearance on 98.7 Arizona Sports, Arians was asked if he ever tried to recruit legendary wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald to Tampa Bay. Arians admitted he did reach out to Fitz when Chris Godwin tore his ACL.
However, the 38-year-old said he wasn’t in football shape.
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“I called Fitz and he said, ‘Coach, I couldn’t run two plays right now, but thanks,'” Arians said.
Arians coached Fitzgerald and the Arizona Cardinals for five seasons. During that time, Fitzgerald set career highs in receptions with 109 passes caught in 2015 and 2017, and 107 passes caught in 2016.
Fitzgerald is currently second on the all-time receiving list in both yards and receptions behind Jerry Rice with 17,492 career receiving yards on 1,432 receptions.
Despite sitting out the 2021 season, he has not officially announced his retirement.
