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Pros teach teens money matters
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Larry Fitzgerald and running back Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings battled to a 7-7 tie on Monday in front of a couple dozen Arizona high school students.
Read Mike Tulumello's blog, Bird Watching
The Cardinals receiver and Peterson, the NFL's offensive rookie of the year, were playing a game of "financial football," an NFL-themed money management video game at Phoenix Convention Center.
The game will be distributed to every high school in the state, according to officials from Visa, which is helping to sponsor the program.
The pair, often getting suggestions for answers from the students, took a stab at about a dozen financial questions and missed only one each.
Fitzgerald told the students his first job was working as a ball boy for the Vikings as a teenager.
"You get that first money and you just want to go spend it," Fitzgerald said.
But his dad warned him to put his money away, so, "Every time I ever got money, I made sure I saved it."
Fitzgerald said he still applies this principle to his life today.
That should come in handy if he can work out a new contract with the Cardinals.
Fitzgerald reached incentives this past season that would earn him about $16.5 million in the upcoming season.
The club wants to work out a long-term deal that would lower this amount in the short term.
Talks are ongoing, but Fitzgerald says he hasn't heard anything.
His name has come up in Internet trade rumors and Fitzgerald hopes that's all they are.
"I want to be a Cardinal. I enjoy it here. I love my teammates. I love working for the Bidwills."
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