Washington QB Ryan Fitzpatrick on why he proposed to his wife at a Missouri McDonald’s
Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick signed with Washington last week and likely will make NFL history in September.
If Fitzpatrick starts a game, it will be for his ninth NFL team, which would be a record for a player at any position, ESPN said.
Fitzpatrick, who turns 39 this year, began his career with the Rams in 2005. He was with the Rams for three seasons when the franchise was in St. Louis, and it was in Missouri that he became engaged to his wife, Liza.
As Fitzpatrick recounted on “The Ross Tucker Podcast,” he popped the question in a McDonald’s. You don’t hear of a lot of proposals taking place at a fast-food restaurant, right?
“Well, it was a classy McDonald’s because it was a McDonald’s/gas station, and it was in Earth City, Missouri,” Fitzpatrick said. “The practice facility for the Rams was there, it was right across the street. It’s a very long story, but the quickest I can tell it is, I bought her a ring, we had a joint bank account, we went to the Gap to get a winter coat. She thought they double-charged her, she said ‘we’re gonna go home’ — this is before you can do everything on your phone — ‘when we get home I’m going to check the laptop, we’ve got to see if I got double-charged.’
“So I had to find a way from the Gap to my house to propose to her. I said, ‘Hey, do you want to go to this steakhouse?’ Do you want to go sit by the lake?’ She said, ‘No it’s November. It’s cold. Let’s go to McDonald’s.’ OK, so we sat at McDonald’s, I was looking her in the eyes. She’s doing the sweet-and-sour sauce everywhere, licking fingers. So the ring slid right on. It was wonderful.”
Being forced to propose at a fast-food restaurant may seem like a disaster, but Liza thought it was just right.
“Now, it’s a funny story for everybody else to hear, but if you know my wife, it’s perfect,” Fitzpatrick said. “There’s not a more perfect place to be engaged and I think that’s probably why we fit so well, because she thinks it was romantic, and I think I found the right one.”
Wait. It was romantic?
“Oh yeah. Think about it: if you got a 10-piece Chicken McNuggets in front of you with the extra large Coke and maybe a McFlurry afterward,” Fitzpatrick said, “there’s not a whole lot better you can do with a meal there.”
Here is Fitzpatrick on the big moment:
