Larry Fitzgerald has decided on a path to chase a championship similar to that of Tom Brady - and opposite to that of LeBron James.
The Sporting News reported Tuesday that the Arizona Cardinals star wide receiver restructured his contract with the Cardinals to save the team millions of dollars in cap space for the 2014 season.
The Sporting News posted a tweet from Fitzgerald, who apparently was motivated fellow NFC West member Seattle's 43-8 domination over the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII to push his own team closer to Super Bowl XIL.
From @LarryFitzgerald: "Back in AZ from #SB48 & the 1st order of business this AM was signing a restructured contract to help the @AZCardinals get better for 2014!"
The restructured contract was not made public, but several media members took to Twitter what had taken place.
From NFL Network's Albert Breer: "Larry Fitzgerald converted $11.75M of his $12.75M base for 2014 into a bonus. So the Cardinals save $9.4 million on their 2014 salary cap."
From NFL Network's Ian Rappaport: "I said Larry Fitzgerald's restructuring created about $8M in cap space. It's actually more than that, nearly $10M. Good news for this year(.)"
And from Fox Sports 1 NFL Insider Mike Garafolo: "As others have noted, just a simple base-to-bonus conversion for Larry Fitzgerald. He doesn't lose a dime and in fact gets his $ faster."
According to the Sporting News, Fitzgerald was going to make $12.75 million and count $18 million on the Cardinals' salary cap. Speculation began to spread that the Arizona may have been listening to trade offers.
New England was a possible suitor mentioned, with Brady needing a downfield threat to open up the Patriots' passing game. A Fitzgerald move there arguably would have brought him closer to a Super Bowl ring, with the Patriots serving as perennial Super Bowl contenders. The Cardinals did go 10-6 in 2013 but still missed the playoffs in the powerful NFC West Division that includes the Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers.
A Fitzgerald move would have been similar to King James leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers to join forces with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to manufacture a championship that way. Instead, Fitzgerald followed Brady's example of restructuring his contract so that his own team could land other free agents.
"I want to see this team do well," Fitzgerald told 98.7 Sports last week. "I love this group of guys. Patrick (Peterson's) deal is coming up and he needs to be compensated as the best corner in the game, which I feel he is. We've got to take care of Karlos Dansby, Frostee Rucker, there are a lot of guys that deserve to be compensated for their play. And I understand that."
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