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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Jess Root

Countdown to Larry Fitzgerald’s Hall of Fame selection begins!

The NFL announced on Thursday the newest Pro Football Hall of Fame class at the NFL Honors ceremony. The newest members of the Hall of Fame are Eric Allen, Jared Allen, Antonio Gates and Sterling Sharpe.

With the induction of the 2025 class, the countdown has officially begun for next year’s class, which has one very important name for Arizona Cardinals fans.

It will be the first year that Cardinals legendary receiver Larry Fitzgerald is eligible to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

He is arguably the headliner of an impressive group of players who enter their first year of eligibility next year.

He and Drew Brees are likely the two players most likely to make it in their first year of eligibility.

Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray certainly thinks so, as he made that clear on social media, replying to a list of the players becoming eligible next year, simply stating “first ballot,” referring to Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald played his entire 17-year career with the Cardinals. He holds virtually every franchise receiving record and trails only Jerry Rice all-time for career receptions and career receiving yards.

It will be a big year for Cardinals fans in that sense. He retired from the NFL without any announcement, so fans have not yet been able to publicly celebrate his career. A Hall of Fame nod would probably trigger some ceremony or recognition at a game and also probably the retiring of No. 11, so that no player ever wears it again (no one has since his retirement).

If next year’s NFL Honors ceremony is again the Thursday night before Super Bowl LV, then we can mark Feb. 5, 2026 as the day for Larry Legend’s Hall of Fame selection — in 363 days.

Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on SpotifyYouTube or Apple podcasts.

 

 

 

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