"Larry Fitzgerald asks coaches and teammates. He asks opponents, relatives, friends, acquaintances and anyone else he thinks knows something about football.

What are you seeing when you watch me?

It's a question motivated by desire, not vanity.

Sure, Fitzgerald wants his eye-black applied just so, the braids flowing out of the back of the helmet to look just right, the Cardinals uniform to fit perfectly. But a mirror can tell him if those things are in order.

What he wants to know from you, if you know football, is how he can improve.

"I'm always learning," he says. "That's one thing that never stops for me. I'm always learning and trying to get a competitive advantage any time I can."

Receivers coach John McNulty took the Cardinals job Feb. 18, 2009. That day, he received a call from a number he didn't recognize, one in the 612 area code.

That's Minneapolis. McNulty didn't recognize the number.

"I let it ring a couple of times," McNulty says. "Finally, I picked it up and it was Larry. He basically wanted to say, 'Let me know whatever you see, whatever you want to work on.' ""