Arizona
Common bond: The night Larry Fitzgerald's son met Cardinals rookie Marvin Harrison Jr.
GLENDALE, Ariz. — A couple of months ago, Devin Fitzgerald was about to leave Texas Roadhouse when he spotted a familiar face inside the Tempe restaurant. It was Marvin Harrison Jr.
The Arizona Cardinals had selected Harrison with the fourth pick of April’s NFL Draft, injecting immediate excitement into the Valley of the Sun. The Cardinals won only four games last season, but they showed promising signs under first-year coach Jonathan Gannon. A receiver such as Harrison was exactly what they needed.
Devin, 16, wanted to talk with Harrison, but Harrison looked like he was dining with his mother. Devin left the restaurant and waited. He thought of a couple of questions and typed them into his phone. He had much in common with Harrison.
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Like the former Ohio State star, Devin, 6-foot-2 and 185 pounds, also was a receiver. Devin had started getting college attention after a strong finish to his sophomore season at Brophy College Preparatory in Phoenix. He was listed as a three-star prospect by 247 Sports with scholarship offers from schools including Arizona, Washington State and Pittsburgh. Brophy coach Jason Jewell considered Devin among the program’s most improved players, growing in size and skill.
But Devin and Harrison were also linked in a more complicated way. Devin is following in the footsteps of his father, Larry Fitzgerald, who played 17 seasons with the Cardinals, finishing as one of the game’s great receivers, a future Hall of Famer. Harrison is doing the same, following Marvin Harrison Sr., who played 13 seasons for the Indianapolis Colts, earning Pro Football Hall of Fame induction in 2016.
After 15 minutes, Harrison walked out of the steakhouse. Devin approached and introduced himself, explaining that he was Larry Fitzgerald’s son.
“I was wondering if I could just talk to you for a second?” he said.
“Yeah, for sure,” Harrison said, according to Devin. “I haven’t met your dad yet, but I’m looking forward to it.”
Larry Fitzgerald on his son’s football potential & Arizona HS football 🌵 @LarryFitzgerald
(@FootballBrophy / @BrophyAthletics / @devinfitz118) pic.twitter.com/pn7RjNXzKS
— MaxPreps (@MaxPreps) July 20, 2024
The two sat on a bench outside the restaurant, located a mile from the Cardinals practice facility. Devin expected to spend maybe five minutes with the Cardinals rookie. Instead, they talked for 45.
Devin asked Harrison when Harrison started to feel like his own person, and not just Marvin Harrison’s son. Harrison agreed that both their fathers had made a great impact in football and that establishing an identity inside the game had been difficult. Harrison said it wasn’t until his final college season that he felt completely free from his father’s shadow.
Devin asked Harrison how he dealt with the pressure of being a Hall of Famer’s son. Harrison told him “you just kind of use it in your own way.” He said he used it as fuel, which pleased Devin because that is what he tried to do at Brophy Prep.
By the time the two finished, it was after 9 p.m., and the Texas Roadhouse parking lot was nearly empty. Devin could not believe how easy it had been to talk with Harrison and how generous he had been with his time. He admired Harrison. He wanted to follow a similar path.
He couldn’t wait to tell his dad.
Twenty years ago, Larry Fitzgerald was in Harrison Jr.’s shoes. The Cardinals selected Fitzgerald, a star receiver at Pittsburgh, with the third pick of the 2004 NFL Draft. Like Harrison, he had been a Heisman Trophy finalist, a receiver pegged for stardom.
In a recent phone conversation, Fitzgerald said he thinks Harrison is entering a better situation in Arizona than he did. Harrison had created a local buzz for much of the draft’s buildup. He was the popular choice. The playmaker everyone wanted. Fitzgerald said that wasn’t the case with him.
In 2004, the Cardinals were coming off a four-win season and a coaching change. Dave McGinnis was out and former Vikings coach Dennis Green was in. Green and Fitzgerald had history — Fitzgerald had worked as a ball boy under Green with the Vikings. But the Cardinals had several needs entering the draft, and receiver was not among them.
The previous year, Arizona had drafted Penn State receiver Bryant Johnson in the first round and Florida State receiver Anquan Boldin in the second. Boldin finished with a rookie-record 101 catches and won AP Offensive Rookie of the Year honors. He was a rising star.
Fitzgerald said he felt an unpleasant vibe during his early days with the Cardinals. Like, “Why in the hell do we need another receiver?”
“It was the first time I walked into a scenario where I kind of felt the resentment of teammates,’” Fitzgerald said.
Missing the first day of training camp because of an unresolved contract situation didn’t help. Fitzgerald wondered if teammates looked at him as a prima donna. In addition, some teased him about his relationship with Green, telling him, “Oh, you’re lucky your uncle drafted you,’” which Fitzgerald wasn’t sure how to take. He felt stressed and overwhelmed.
His response was to sharpen his resolve.
“I just kind of went into ‘prove it’ mode,” said Fitzgerald, an approach that started well but then stalled because of a sprained ankle suffered in Arizona’s first preseason game. “(Like), ‘I’m going to show them that I’m worthy of being drafted in this position in everything that I do. I’m going to learn, I’m going to study, I’m going to build relationships, I’m going to do everything in my power to control the narrative.’ But I definitely felt it early on.”
(Note: Nate Poole, a former Cardinals receiver who helped mentor Fitzgerald, said he couldn’t recall any locker-room resentment, but he understands. “Knowing Larry, I totally get it,” Poole said. “He didn’t want to let the team down because he’s a team player. He didn’t want to let Coach Green down because they had known each other for years. He didn’t want to let the state of Arizona down. … I get that. And I can only talk about my room — who knows what the defense was saying — but in the receiver room, it wasn’t that way.”)
Fitzgerald doesn’t expect Harrison to face similar hurdles. He had first heard of Harrison during the receiver’s high school days at St. Joseph’s Prep in Philadelphia. Friends from the area had told him: “Hey, Marvin’s son, he’s electric, man. You got to check him out.” Then, like most everyone else, Fitzgerald followed Harrison at Ohio State, where he became the nation’s top receiver.
Fitzgerald knows Harrison is talented and selfless. He knows quarterback Kyler Murray will not be afraid to “put it in there and give him a shot.” And he knows that one night in May, Harrison went out of his way to be nice to his son.
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“If he would have talked with him for five minutes, that would’ve been a blessing,” Fitzgerald said from Minnesota. “But he sat down on a bench and answered every question that he had, gave him advice. … I look forward to meeting him in person and thanking him for that one day.”
Marvin Harrison Jr. is off to a strong start to training camp. Gannon’s expectations for the rookie have been simple: “Get open, catch the ball, score points.” Veteran lineman Kelvin Beachum said Harrison has been professional, efficient and as “quiet as a church mouse.” He likes silent assassins.
Marvin Harrison Jr coming at you. pic.twitter.com/xGC3CejP6I
— Doug Haller (@DougHaller) July 25, 2024
After Friday’s practice, Harrison, 21, signed autographs and left the field at State Farm Stadium. As he walked to the locker room, he was told how much Larry Fitzgerald had appreciated him talking to his son that evening. Harrison smiled. “That’s awesome,” he said.
To Harrison, this was no big deal. As he talked at Texas Roadhouse, his mom waited in the car. Then it was just two football players and a common bond. Larry Fitzgerald finished with 1,432 career catches, second-best in NFL history. Marvin Harrison Sr. finished with 1,102, good for fifth. Those are intimidating numbers.
“I know what it feels like to be him, to be in his shoes, to be the son of someone so great,” Harrison said. “You want to do the same thing and play football, but you also want to pave your own path, so I can understand the struggle that he may be going through. There’s not many like us really in the world. You see like LeBron James’ son in basketball and all the scrutiny that he gets. I just understand how hard it can be.”
Harrison said he had three jerseys growing up — his father’s, Hines Ward’s and Larry Fitzgerald’s. Fitzgerald is the reason he wore No. 11 as a high school freshman. Since the draft, everyone has asked if he has met the Cardinals’ legend. Harrison said he hopes to soon. Like Fitzgerald’s son learned from him, he wants to learn from Fitzgerald.
“Hopefully, he can give me some wisdom,” Harrison said.
Devin Fitzgerald stretches during spring practice at Brophy Prep Sports Complex in April. (Michael Chow / USA Today)
Since leaving Texas Roadhouse, Devin and Harrison have stayed in touch. Harrison said he wants to check out one of Devin’s games this fall. Anything he can do, any advice he can give, he’s willing to do to help the young Fitzgerald. Because he’s been there.
“He’s a very humble kid,” Harrison said. “He just wanted to take all the information that he could get from me and just learn. He has a great heart, and I can’t wait to see what he does in the future.”
(Top photo of Marvin Harrison Jr. and Devin Fitzgerald: Joe Rondone and Michael Chow / USA Today)
A NASA mission to rescue its Swift Observatory from the brink has relied on Arizona, with Flagstaff’s Katalyst Aerospace supplying the spacecraft due to reach orbit and boost the telescope’s orbit.
Arizona plays a central role in a daring NASA mission: It will soon attempt to stave off the death of one of its space telescopes in danger of falling back to Earth.
The Swift Observatory has been scanning the cosmos for more than two decades while orbiting Earth. But in recent years, NASA has noticed that the crucial satellite has been unexpectedly getting lower and lower – putting it in danger of burning up in Earth’s atmosphere.
Now, the U.S. space agency is on the cusp of mounting a rescue mission later in June – the likes of which has never before been attempted – that stunningly came together in less than a year.
The daring venture has recently reached the final stages, with the spacecraft that will fly in orbit – manufactured by an Arizona aerospace company – being mated with the rocket and the aircraft that will deploy it to orbit. If all goes to plan, the mission will soon send the spacecraft on a trajectory to intercept NASA’s telescope and reverse its decaying orbit by boosting it to a higher altitude, extending the observatory’s life.
Here’s what to know about the mission, and Arizona’s integral role in ensuring everything came together to save the observatory in time.
What is the Swift Observatory?
Launched in 2004, NASA’s Swift Observatory has spent more than two decades orbiting Earth while studying a variety of cosmic phenomena. The satellite’s primary objective, though, is to observe gamma-ray bursts – events triggered by the catastrophic deaths of massive stars and considered to be the most powerful types of explosions in the universe.
The satellite is equipped with three multiwavelength telescopes that are able to collect data in visible, ultraviolet, X-ray and gamma-ray light.
Swift space telescope falls faster to Earth than expected
NASA to mount rescue mission for vital space telescope named Swift
NASA and commercial partners will launch a spacecraft in June to boost Swift Observatory’s orbit, staving off its destruction and extending its life.
The Swift Observatory is in a region of space known as low-Earth orbit nearer to the atmosphere, which is also where the International Space Station resides.
All spacecraft in that region can expect to fall to lower altitudes if they don’t have propulsion systems to counteract atmospheric drag and maintain their orbits. But the Swift Observatory has fallen faster than NASA has anticipated because of increased solar storms since fall 2024.
NASA plans mission to rescue Swift
NASA could allow the Swift Observatory to fall back to Earth, where it would harmlessly burn up as it careened into the atmosphere.
Instead, the space agency is planning a mission to rescue the telescope and extend its mission for several more years.
A successful mission would mark the first time that a commercial robotic spacecraft captured a government satellite that – unlike other spacecraft like the Hubble Space Telescope – was never meant to be serviced in space. The unprecedented venture, NASA leaders say, would also test a new capability that could be used on other missions while negating the need to spend even more money to replace the observatory.
To accomplish the risky feat, NASA will need a spacecraft designed to capture and raise the orbit of the Swift Observatory, and a rocket to launch it into space, according to the agency. In the meantime, mission teams on the ground are keeping Swift at least 185 miles above Earth, where the boost mission has the best chance of success, NASA said.
Arizona aerospace company races to develop rescue spacecraft
The spacecraft that will attempt to rescue the Swift Observatory was developed by Katalyst Space, an aerospace company based in Flagstaff, Arizona, which was awarded the $30 million contract in September 2025.
With less than a year to help NASA mount a rescue mission, Katalyst developed the LINK robotic servicing spacecraft intended to latch onto a space telescope that was never meant to be captured.
Because Swift has no docking ports or grappling fixtures to grab onto, Katalyst built LINK with a custom robotic capture mechanism that will attach to a feature on the satellite’s main structure. The process is meant to mitigate the chance of any sensitive instruments being damaged, Katalyst said in a press release.
Why such a quick turnaround? Because Swift is falling – and falling fast.
According to Katalyst, the satellite has a 50% chance of making an uncontrolled reentry by mid-2026 without intervention, with those odds increasing to 90% by the end of 2026.
Northrop Grumman to launch LINK spacecraft
LINK will hitch a ride to space with a rocket manufactured by Northrop Grumman, a Virginia-based aerospace and defense company. At about 55 feet tall, Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus XL is classified as a small-lift rocket regarded as the world’s first privately developed orbital launch vehicle.
In mid-June, LINK was securely encapsulated in a payload fairing inside the Pegasus XL rocket at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, according to Katalyst.
The Pegasus XL was also attached around the same time to the belly of Northrop Grumman’s Stargazer aircraft tasked with deploying the rocket, NASA said in a press release. The Stargazer aircraft then took off June 18 from Wallops bound for the Marshall Islands, where the mission is due to commence.
When, where is launch?
The Pegasus XL rocket is due to launch later in June from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, located in the South Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and the Philippines, according to NASA.
Rather than get the rocket off the ground vertically on a launch pad, Northrop Grumman deploys an air-launch strategy to send the Pegasus to space. The approach will require the company’s Stargazer L-1011 aircraft to take off and climb to approximately 40,000 feet over the ocean, where Pegasus will be released.
After several seconds in free-fall, the Pegasus XL will then ignite the first of its three-stage rocket motors, delivering LINK into orbit in about 10 minutes, according to Northrop Grumman.
Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@usatodayco.com
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Arizona is launching a statewide task force aimed at cracking down on cargo theft.
CargoNet estimates $725 million was lost in cargo thefts nationwide in 2025. Arizona is among the states where cargo theft happens most often.
Cargo thefts rise in Arizona
State Sen. Kevin Payne was the sponsor of Senate Bill 1452, which created the Cargo Theft Task Force and was signed into law by Gov. Katie Hobbs on Monday.
“There’s a lot of cargo theft going on,” Payne said.
The bill creates a statewide cargo theft task force made up of six investigators, legal staff, and any law enforcement designated by the Attorney General’s office. The task force will investigate cargo theft and track new criminal trends.
“I don’t think that people thought it was as serious as it actually is,” Payne said.
Scott Cornell, chief risk officer for SPG Cargo and Logistics and chair of the Transported Asset Protection Association, said he has investigated cargo theft for three decades and that cases have become harder to solve lately
“These large, sophisticated international crime rings have taken over cargo theft in the United States, and they pull the strings from a dozen or two dozen different countries,” Cornell said.
Cornell said addressing cargo theft directly through a specialized task force at the state level could have more impact.
“I think when you address it directly, like Arizona is with a cargo theft task force, you’re bound to have much more impact than a state that doesn’t have that specialization,” he said.
In Arizona, expensive shoes, watches and electronics are among the items stolen from semitrucks and trains in the last couple of years.
“We pay for it,” Cornell said. “The cost is absolutely going to be passed on to the consumer. There’s no question about it.”
Payne said the goal of the task force is to reduce cargo theft in Arizona.
“I sure would like to eliminate a lot of it,” Payne said. “You know, cut it down a lot. Make it to where it’s not profitable for them to do this so they’ll stop.”
The Arizona Attorney General’s Office is in charge of establishing the task force. In a statement, the AG’s office says Attorney General Kris Mayes looks forward to continuing the ongoing work to combat retail theft and cargo theft through this task force, and it will coordinate efforts with law enforcement statewide.
The task force’s first report is due to the governor, Senate president and House speaker by July 1, 2027.
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Arizona
Arizona man convicted for role in bringing cocaine to Cincinnati, other US locations for over 5 years
CINCINNATI — An Arizona man has been found guilty of supplying dozens of kilograms of cocaine to multiple U.S. locations, including Cincinnati, bi-weekly for more than five years.
Tucson resident Cesar Cervantes, 52, was convicted of participating in drug trafficking and money laundering conspiracies in a jury trial after the government seized more than 160 kilograms of cocaine, three kilograms of fentanyl and $1.4 million in cash from him.
According to court documents, Cervantes would use a network to deliver drugs that originated in Mexico to multiple locations across the country, including designated couriers in Cincinnati, between at least July 2018 and August 2023. Officials said he would supply between 25 and 50 kilograms biweekly to his coconspirators.
Cervantes would then use money launderers to funnel money back to Mexico. In one instance, court documents said he had coconspirators deliver around $300,000 to two separate money launderers — one based in China and another in Colombia.
The jury found Cervantes guilty on all counts for his role in the conspiracies following a trial before U.S. District Judge Matthew W. McFarland in the Southern District of Ohio. He faces at least 10 years and up to life in prison.
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