The best Minnesota-born football player to never wear a Gophers or Vikings uniform, Fitzgerald says he wouldn't be a future Hall of Fame receiver without Minneapolis. He returns on Sunday when the Vikings play host to the Arizona Cardinals at U.S. Bank Stadium, which could become the 27th NFL stadium in which he has caught a touchdown pass.
Two decades after he roamed the Metrodome sidelines as a Vikings ball boy, Fitzgerald without hesitation recalled some of the franchise's longest-tenured employees who mentored him during his first job — equipment manager Dennis Ryan and his assistant Aaron Neumann, facilities director Chad Lundeen and youth football development manager Jeff Robinson.