Fitzpatrick leaves Fins to mourn mother’s death
This isn’t about football. It’s not about a quarterback competition or injury rehabilitation. Those feel mundane now. They’re real in the X’s and O’s of a sport, but not important in the grand scheme of life.
This touches football only in that a player lost his mother on Saturday.
She passed away apparently after being ill for some time. He either found out early Saturday and still tried to participate in his team’s scrimmage, or he found out when he was already suited up in his pads and uniform.
Either way, Ryan Fitzpatrick, father to seven children of his own, was the picture of a visibly distraught son when he left the Hard Rock Stadium field before a Dolphins scrimmage.
Fitzpatrick wiped tears from under his helmet as coach Brian Flores escorted him to the locker room, arm around his waist, consoling as they walked.
“His mom passed away,” Flores told reporters after the scrimmage. “Fitz has tried to work through this. He always wanted to practice. He tried to go out there today … and I’ve had multiple conversations with him having dealt with this also.
“And it’s a tough situation and our hearts go out to him as a team, as an organization. This is a competitive guy — tried to go out there, but some things are more important than football. So he left to be with his family.”
Flores, the empathetic 39year-old friend to the 37-year-old
quarterback, then allowed himself to put on his coach hat for a minute to clarify Fitzpatrick isn’t retiring, isn’t opting out of the season, and there is no quarterback controversy going forward.
Ryan Fitzpatrick remains the Dolphins’ starting quarterback.
It’s just that life, bigger than football, imposed its higher authority on Saturday.
“I went through this a year ago,” Flores said.
“Our moms were about the same age. We’re about the same age. We’re both —
I’m a former athlete, he’s an athlete, but we’re both competitive guys and leaders.
“And you know, you want to be strong, but there are moments where you can’t. You’re not able to be and so I understand that, and it’s — I just try to support him. This team is supporting him. Essentially, that was my message to him.”
Fitzpatrick is expected to take some time away from the team even as preparations for the Sept. 13 regular-season opener against New England continue.
The Dolphins aren’t certain when Fitzpatrick will return. Flores went so far as to say “it’s hard to say” if Fitzpatrick will be back in time for the season’s start.
And that’s interesting because missing that doesn’t sound like Fitz.
I should tell you now, I don’t Fitzpatrick. It took several hours and I had to ask several people before someone who knew shared his mom name was Lori.
But despite a lack of familiarity, there are some things clear to me about that blessed woman’s son:
Fitzpatrick has had good times and difficult moments throughout his career — all out in the sunshine of many Sundays in front of crowds and cameras. And what has happened on those days in public have helped define Fitzpatrick as a private person.
He won the Ed Block Courage Award in 2016, as decided in a vote of his New York Jets teammates.
So he is a man with courage.
He’s thrown six touchdown passes and years later threw six interceptions, both in a single game. And still he marched on.
So this is a man with great resiliency.
He fractured a leg in 2014. He fractured a thumb in 2015. So he’s dealt with broken bones. This will be harder.
This is about a broken heart.
But I believe Fitzpatrick will handle this with equal amounts of courage and resiliency. And grace.
He showed that grace hours after the scrimmage when he took time away from his grieving to release a statement thanking, well, everyone.
“On behalf of my family, I want to thank everyone who has reached out with well wishes. It truly means a lot to us,” Fitzpatrick wrote.
That’s class and calm amid a storm of pain.
“It’s a brutal situation,” quarterback Josh Rosen said. “And I just tried to support him any way I could these last couple days, weeks and months.
“But, I mean, Ryan’s mom raised a hell of a kid — really strong, awesome, independent kind dude. And I’ve been fortunate enough to be around him these last couple months, almost a year now, probably. And yeah, it’s a tough situation, but it kind of puts everything into perspective and reminds you that we all are still human and human things happen.”
Fitzpatrick has spent the past few weeks helping to tutor Rosen and rookie Tua Tagovailoa. He’s competing with them. But he’s helping them.
Now he needs them. And they promise to be there for him.
“I kind of told Fitz that I’m here for him,” Tagovailoa said. “But it was something more so emotional for me, too, because I kind of thought of my own mom, and just the thought of not having a family member, losing a family member, I mean, it’s hard.
“I reached out to him, telling him that he’s in my prayers, and he’s been on my mind, and my heart. And that if they need anything, that they can reach out to me and I’m here.”
This isn’t about football. America’s biggest game shrinks in the face of death. And love
“Any time somebody’s dealing with a loss — specifically a mother — a mother and a son’s bond is something like no other,” receiver Isaiah Ford said. “I couldn’t imagine if it was me, and I just want him to know that whatever we can do as an extended family to support him and help him mourn his loss, that we’ll be here for him, you know, and …
And something else … “Just,” Ford said, “that I love him like a brother.”