Garth Brooks, Larry Fitzgerald Team Up To Help Minnesota Kids

MINNEAPOLIS — Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald and country music legend Garth Brooks are both highly successful, talented and well-respected individuals in their respective fields. However, you don't normally hear their two names spoken in the same sentence.

But the two decided to team up after meeting in Minnesota at an event hosted by the Starkey Hearing Foundation several years ago.

Now, Brooks and Fitzgerald are working with Microsoft Store to provide dozens of low-income schools in the Minneapolis and Phoenix areas with new technology and devices to help them learn.

"I'm privileged and honored to be able to call [Brooks] a friend," Fitzgerald, 36, told Patch. "He's been a great mentor and example to me."

"This man's reach is global," he added. "There's not many places he hasn't touched."

"It's pretty cool to get to team with a guy that you feel like whatever you say kind of represents him as well," Brooks, 57, said of Fitzgerald. "And whatever he says represents you."

"There's not many like Fitz," he added.

Both Fitzgerald and Brooks said they're fortunate to get to do what they love professionally, and they're grateful to be in a position to give back to their communities.

"Larry and I were two of the guys who got lucky," Brooks said.

The two superstars are extremely busy. Patch spoke with Fitzgerald just two days after his Arizona Cardinals were in a nail-bitter with the Detroit Lions. The game, in which Fitzgerald caught eight passes for 113 yards and scored one touchdown, went into overtime and ultimately led to a tie. Brooks is in the middle of his Stadium Tour.

Despite their demanding schedules, they say it's important for them to still do things for others.

"Other than be a father and a husband, the most proud and most successful thing I've ever got to be a part of is things like this," Brooks said of his partnership with Fitzgerald. "This is what makes you sleep at night with a smile on your face. A lot more than music."

Fitzgerald, a Minnesota native who fell in love with football as a toddler playing at Martin Luther King Jr. Park, is passionate about helping kids in his hometown of Minneapolis, as well as his adopted community in Phoenix.

Together, he and Brooks are hoping to put kids from disadvantaged backgrounds on an equal footing. Earlier this month, the two surprised students at Academia Del Pueblo in Phoenix with new gadgets, including Surface Go devices, keyboards and Microsoft Office access. Fitzgerald visited in person, while Brooks spoke to the kids over livestream.

The two are planning to give devices to Minneapolis-area schools at a later date. They both believe digital literacy can unlock kids' potential and inspire them to dream big. Brooks said the key to helping people succeed in life is "education, education, education."