A WEEK INTO the Minnesota Vikings' 1999 training camp, the person in charge of checking media parking passes was fired. He had broken curfew, and then-coach Dennis Green wasn't having it.
Neither was the young man's father. After all, Larry Fitzgerald Sr.'s relationship with Green was one of the reasons Larry Jr. got the gig.
A week later, Green rehired Fitzgerald, but instead of parking lot attendant, Fitzgerald became the ball boy for the wide receivers. That episode played a significant role in the trajectory of Fitzgerald's career, which culminates Saturday when he's enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
"That's when," said Larry's brother, Marcus, "the true story of Larry Fitzgerald actually happened as far as the wide receiver, the phenom, the person we see today.
"Had to wake him up, because my dad was pissed. My dad was like, 'What are you doing?'...my mom and my dad. You saw him take [the job] way more serious, and he was way more dedicated. I really think that shook him up enough to know that you don't have too many chances in life to keep screwing up."
Fitzgerald wasn't a ball boy to just any receivers. The Vikings were led by a pair of future Hall of Fame receivers in Randy Moss and Cris Carter, who brought Minnesota to the brink of Super Bowl XXXIII after a 15-1 season. Over the next three seasons, Fitzgerald received a Ph.D.-level education in being a wide receiver and a professional football player. Without those relationships, without those hours of watching Carter and Moss, among others, Fitzgerald might never have been measured for a gold jacket.
Larry Fitzgerald will be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday, the culmination of a journey that began as a Vikings ball boy. ESPN Illustration "No, I don't think so," Fitzgerald told ESPN when asked if he would be going into the Hall without those three years as a ball boy. "And I say that because I think me being around those guys and seeing players coming and going, guys blowing their money, getting hurt, just the underbelly of the league, I don't know if I would've been as focused on the big picture, stayed away from the distractions, not drink, not use drugs. All of the decisions you have to make as a young person that determine the trajectory.
"I don't know if I would've had the insight or foresight to avoid those types of things."
But he didn't avoid every temptation.
CARTER REMEMBERS A TIME when Fitzgerald took his "tricked-out Denali" to a car wash and it came back a little light.