Tom Pelissero

USA TODAY Sports

MINNEAPOLIS — Entering a season which will likely determine where his career takes him from here, Arizona Cardinals star Larry Fitzgerald is following his usual summer routine.

The 30-year-old wide receiver is hosting a revolving cast featuring dozens of NFL players at his annual workouts on the University of Minnesota campus with trainer Bill Welle, putting in six weeks of intense conditioning and skill work before reporting to training camp later this month.

After Thursday's session, Fitzgerald spoke with USA TODAY Sports about aiming to return to the playoffs in 2014, his role in the Cardinals offense, trade rumors, the troubles of other young receivers, his future, his off-field endeavors and more.

Q: You've played 10 NFL seasons and turn 31 next month. What motivates you to keep putting in this kind of work before you show up for camp?

A: It's all I know. It's part of it for me. Growing up watching (Hall of Famer) Cris Carter do it — this is what we do to get ready for training camp. As I've gotten older, I try to invite guys that want to come out and get better. This is really a lively atmosphere. We push each other. We compete against each other. That's the kind of atmosphere you like to have.

Q: What kind of shape are you in?

A: I'm in real good shape. I feel like I'm right where I need to be in terms of my conditioning, route running and everything like that. It's good to have Ryan (Lindley, the Cardinals' backup quarterback) out here going over some plays that we're going to run during the season and getting that continuity.

Q: Bill Welle said you're a smarter athlete now than you were early in your career and that your emphasis this offseason has been on your gait — becoming more efficient in how you sprint out, not dropping your hips and whatnot.

A: Yeah, efficiency is so important. The older you get, obviously, there are certain things that you know that you don't need to do or know that you need to improve on, and I just focus on those aspects of my game now. I'm honest with myself and honest with Bill how I feel. If I feel good, I feel good. If I don't — if I'm tight — I don't just try to muscle through everything, because you've got to be a little bit smarter now. But just that education and learning a little bit more about myself and what I can do has helped me.

Q: How would you assess your 2013 season (82 catches for 954 yards and 10 touchdowns)?

A: It was OK. I got a lot of touchdowns — double-digit touchdowns, (which is) always where I try to get to, and I'm still trying for that every year, just making sure I'm catching every ball, being effective when my number's called.

Q: I've always thought of you as an outside receiver. Last season, you played almost half your snaps in the slot. Have you talked to coaches about lining up outside more often in 2014?

A: I do what I'm coached to do. That's part of being a team leader and captain. The job will change week in and week out, and it's not for you to question what your job is — it's to go out there and execute your assignments.

Q: Is that part of the focus on efficiency, though — the fact you don't have as much room to operate inside?

A: It's a different ballgame inside. It's just different from whatever I've done. But I've gotten a lot better at it, seeking the opinion of a lot of guys that have played in the slot and tried to learn as much as I can to be more effective in there.

Q: I know you're tight with Tom Brady. To what degree were you hearing about the New England Patriots' interest in you at the trade deadline last season?

A: Nothing at all. I mean, I heard stuff that was being said. But there was never a time where the team approached me. Nothing like that.

Q: It feels like there have been years of talk about when you'll leave Arizona. Now, you just restructured your contract and your cap number for 2015 is $23.6 million. Within that context, how do you view this season?

A: Like I view every year. I just cherish every moment I have on the field. It's what I love to do. I really enjoy it. It's fun to go out there and compete and be around the guys every day. I just cherish that. So, whatever happens after the season, happens after the season. But most of that stuff is out of my control anyway.

Q: At what point do you begin thinking about your legacy, your Hall of Fame chances and things like that?

A: I've always thought about my legacy — more so, though, my impact off the field and how I'm helping my community and solidifying and strengthening the lives of others around me. And also, I just want to be a dominant football player, too. So it encompasses everything.

Q: I look at a guy like Andre Reed, who goes into the Hall this year, and wonder if he's in that spot if the Buffalo Bills don't make four straight Super Bowls. You got to a Super Bowl that seems like forever ago (after 2008 season). When the team isn't winning, you get overlooked. I have to think being on a team with an upward trajectory — in Arizona or elsewhere — is huge for the rest of your career.

A: No question. Whenever you're on a winning team, the national media focuses (on you). Obviously, the media is who votes you in (to the Hall of Fame). The more playoff games and Super Bowls and things of that nature that you're in obviously is going to build your portfolio and raise your visibility. That's always the goal and at the forefront of my thoughts, just trying to make sure that we're doing everything we can to win our division and that will put us in the playoffs and give us a home game, and we take it from there.

Q: What needs to fall into place for the Cardinals to win the NFC West this season?

A: We just need to focus on our week-to-week goals and tasks and execute. Everybody talks about how good our division is, and I feel we have the best division in football. But I just like our nucleus of guys and what we stand for, the way we compete, the way we work. I wouldn't want to play with another group of guys because I know how we're built.

Q: How long do you want to play? You strike me as a guy with a lot of other interests.

A: I can do everything right now, though. When it's time to focus in and play ball during the season, 100% of my focus is on that. When it's the offseason and I've got time to be away and I can do those other interests — they don't conflict. I'm good at compartmentalizing. I can put everything in its appropriate box at the time and open it up when I need to at a later time. My main focus is ball. I know what butters my toast. I know what my job is and what is expected of me, and that's what's first and foremost.

Q: What was your favorite non-football thing you did this offseason?

A: I really enjoy my philanthropic work, traveling around the world and helping people in need. That's a lot of fun for me. It's really rewarding. You're helping people, but it's helping you, too. It puts life in perspective when you come back and you say, 'Man, it's raining again in Minnesota.' I think when I was in Rwanda (with the Starkey Hearing Foundation) and seeing malnutritioned kids, kids not eating, not having healthy, clean drinking water, things that we take for granted — it puts everything in perspective for you.

Q: Do they have any idea who you are in Rwanda?

A: No. And they didn't even ask. I was just helping them getting (hearing aids) and that's what it's about anyway.

Q: Do you see yourself playing at 35? 38? 40?

A: I kind of just assess every year — how I feel physically, how I feel mentally. I still have a passion for this game (as I've had) over my whole life. So, I'm going to continue to be competing, and as long as they want me around, I'll play. That's where I'm at now.

Q: Every young man who comes in the league has to go through a growth process. You've seen other talented young receivers — Justin Blackmon, Josh Gordon — fall into major personal problems. Your teammate, linebacker Daryl Washington, is suspended this season. Now that you're one of the older guys, what advice do you try to give young players to keep their lives in order?

A: Everybody's situation is unique. I was very fortunate to have some great mentors. A father that was always in my life set the example every day at home. Everybody asks me, 'What was your role model?' My role model slept 20 feet from me every night. I could always go talk to him and ask him questions no matter what it was about. I had Cris Carter and Kevin Garnett and Kirby Puckett and guys that I could actually look up to that were my role models, and I could touch them and ask them questions and call them on the phone. My perspective at a very young age was completely different. It's really tough for me to comment on those guys' situations, because I don't know what they're going through. I'm close with Justin Blackmon. I'm very close with Daryl Washington. I'm very close with Josh Gordon, talk to him all the time. I always just pray for them and just hope that things will turn out well for them. They're not bad guys. We all make mistakes in life.

Q: Addiction is a tough thing, too. What can the league or union or anybody else do to help these guys that isn't being done already?

A: Each team is completely different. Some teams, they pour resources into ways to help guys. You look at the Dallas Cowboys and what (owner) Jerry Jones does for his guys and mentorships and just the things that he does to help his players off the field. It's a wide range of what teams are willing to do. I know the Arizona Cardinals have done a good job of helping the guys that have had problems over the years. They've committed to making good men become good football players. It all depends on the organization.

Q: How do you want to be remembered in the big picture of things?

A: Just a guy that cared about his fellow man, lived every day like tomorrow wasn't guaranteed. If they say that about me, I'm good.

Q: How do you want your 2014 season to be remembered?

A: Just want to get to the playoffs. However we can do it, however we can make it, I just want to get there.

Q: It has to be a pit in your stomach that you haven't been there since the 2009 season.

A: Yeah, it really is. To be so close, to have some really strong teams a couple years ago. And we were a really good football team (in 2013). We were good enough to be in the tournament last year, but we just didn't play well enough early in the season to make sure we took care of our business. But this year is a brand new year. We're looking forward to a competition and competing at the highest level.

Q: Standing here now, do you think you're in the playoffs?

A: No, no, no, no. You can't be so naïve as to think something like that. You've got to earn that opportunity.

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