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Ouchie-Z-Clown

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I remember some of those discussions. And I remember being one of the people who criticized Fitz during his second and third seasons for not getting the most of his game because he Wasn’t fighting for extra yards and blocking. Took a torrent of crap for it too.

2007 things changed and Fitz credited both Warner and Haley with teaching him that he could get by and be very good based on his natural talent, but he’d never be great until he put his entire being into the game. That started to change during the first season with Wiz and then cemented forever in 2008.
He gave Haley a LOT of credit for getting in his face, as I recall.
 

MaoTosiFanClub

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I am going way back on that one. Pre 2008. There are some parallels with how Larry was talked about, and argued over, his first 3 or 4 seasons and how Murray is talked about now.

Maybe someone can link some the old Fitz threads from back in his early years. I will try, but there are people way better at these searches than me.
There were also rumblings about Fitz’s leadership back then too. Anquan was always the guy taking the young guys out to dinner and showing them the NFL ropes. Larry was the quiet loner. Kurt was actually the biggest influence on Larry opening up.

Some sort of mature leadership needed somewhere in the higher ranks of the organization. Can’t be our over the hill DT or safety.
 

MaoTosiFanClub

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If Kyler ( or any player) performs like Fitz did no one would worry about them being leaders.
I agree, however it’s a bit of revisionist history on start of Larry’s career. One could easily argue Kyler accomplished more in his first 3 seasons than Larry did. Those first few teams he was on sucked ass despite more talent than anything we’ve had last few years. The right coach at the right time unlocked Kurt (benched twice for McCown and Leinart in previous seasons) and rest was history. Fitz could’ve ended up the good stats/bad team guy.
 
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ajcardfan

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I agree, however it’s a bit of revisionist history on start of Larry’s career. One could easily argue Kyler accomplished more in his first 3 seasons than Larry did. Those first few teams he was on sucked ass despite more talent than anything we’ve had last few years. The right coach at the right time unlocked Kurt (benched twice for McCown and Leinart in previous seasons) and rest was history. Fitz could’ve ended up the good stats/bad team guy.
That was definitely the way it was headed. Then the 2008 and 2009 seasons and playoffs changed that forever. He was a Cardinals legend already.
 

82CardsGrad

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Teammates usually don’t pick captains they don’t consider leaders. In 2012 the Cards voted Dockett & Fitzgerald captains. Here’s what Fitzgerald said about the position.
Thx for finding and posting that article Harry. It provides the perfect confirmation of the point I’ve made to @Ouchie-Z-Clown… Fitz was widely respected throughout the league and on the Cards, for his leadership ability. His actions and words were always perfectly aligned, building optimized levels of trust. And by far, the most successful leaders in any segment of society, stand on a rock-solid foundation of maximized trust…
 

Ouchie-Z-Clown

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Teammates usually don’t pick captains they don’t consider leaders. In 2012 the Cards voted Dockett & Fitzgerald captains. Here’s what Fitzgerald said about the position.
I appreciate you posting that. Still seems to be nothing about his leadership qualities other than leading by example, even by fitz’s own words. But if the people around the team considered him a leader and not just their best player, I’ll acknowledge that they’d have more insight than I.
 

Ouchie-Z-Clown

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Thx for finding and posting that article Harry. It provides the perfect confirmation of the point I’ve made to @Ouchie-Z-Clown… Fitz was widely respected throughout the league and on the Cards, for his leadership ability. His actions and words were always perfectly aligned, building optimized levels of trust. And by far, the most successful leaders in any segment of society, stand on a rock-solid foundation of maximized trust…
Then we were having two different discussions because I was talking solely about “leading by example” not being true leadership. If you had evidence of Fitz doing more than that you failed to bring it up.
 
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