Giving Sir Francis a Little Respect
By Tom Grout
March 7, 2008
I’m not sure what Fran Tarkenton ever did in his career that people have forgotten, but he seems to be someone who never played.
Before this years Super Bowl, media writers and radio and TV hosts talked a lot about Tom Brady and where he fit in on any All Time Quarterback list. A lot of names were thrown around such as Joe Montana, Johnny Unitas, John Elway, and Dan Marino. Others were named by some but the one name that never was brought up was Sir Francis.
Now, I may be a little bias here, being he played for the Vikings, but geez I thought he was a pretty darn good quarterback. He threw for 47,003 yards and completed 342 touchdown passes, that’s a lot. In fact most of his records stood for a long time. They didn’t get broken until Dan Marino came along. The records Marino was chasing didn’t belong to Terry Bradshaw, didn’t belong to Montana, and didn’t belong to Johnny Unitas for crying out loud. They belonged to one Fran Tarkenton.
Tarkenton set these records before any of the rule changes that made the game into more of a passing game than it was. Marino and now Brett Favre broke those records by not only with the aid of all the rule changes but by more games played as the schedule expanded.
Tarkenton used to drive his first NFL coach Norm VanBrocklyn crazy with his scrambling around. Norm was the old drop back in the pocket type passer but Fran did a lot of running around before he passed the ball. With an expansion team it was mostly out of necessity but later in his career he made the scramble part of his game plan. I have enjoyed the old defensive lineman Alex Karras tell stories about running all over trying to catch him. Many times he came by the same tackler three times before he would pass. All of that scrambling around amounted to 3674 yard rushing in his career and 32 touchdowns. Compare that to Dan Marino who ran for only 87 yards in his rushing career.
Fran played in the day when the quarterback called his own plays. In fact Fran was known to draw up new plays in the dirt in the huddle just like he would if he was playing in his back yard. To me a quarterback who calls his own plays is truly a leader on the field. I doubt there are very many quarterbacks today that could call their own plays.
I suppose Francis doesn’t get the respect he deserves because he never won the Super Bowl. But he got the Vikings there 3 times and that should account for something but it never seems to with the media. The only one who seems to get by with that and still be mentioned is Marino.
I bring this all up about Tarkenton because after Brett Favre retired the media again was ranking the quarterbacks and again Fran was not mentioned. Yet, on this one show, Roger Staubach was mentioned. Again I may be biased but I don’t think Staubach was that good, very overrated, and in fact I don’t think he could carry Fran’s jock strap. Yet he is mentioned as one of the all time greats.
I understand Fran may not have been all that well liked as he had a little ego problem I suppose, but nothing like a lot of the athletes have today. I don’t know, maybe his teammates didn’t like him either but I bet each one of them would say he was a great leader on the field.
Anyway, for whatever the reason poor Fran has just not gotten the respect he deserves
Hooray!!
Great article, and about time someone acknowledges Sir Francis for the hall of fame career that he had!
Francis was the Vikings first #1 draft pick and a very heady one at that.
Van Brocklin was the idiot that never had an original thought, and was constantly perturbed at his young new qb for his artful dodging (for his life, of course)of mammoth defensive linemen!
When VB gave up on him, and had him shipped to the Giants, it was almost as bad a situation there as it was with the Vikes.
Mr. Grant saw the promise in Tarkenton and after seasons with Bobby Lee, Gary Cuazzo and the immortal Joe Kapp, Bud made the right move.
Tarkenton never did get the acclaim that the super bowl winners got even though his statistical numbers as of his retirement were legendary!
More passes with more completions for more yards and more touchdowns than any player ever in the history of the National Football League.
Staubach? Not even his jock! Billy Kilmer? No way! Sonny Jurgenson? Huh-uh!
So why is it that Tarkenton has been so over-looked?
I think maybe you're right Tom. Perhaps he was a little too cocky and self absorbed... Whatever!
Facts are that Francis Asbury Tarkenton was the first qb to unveil the so called "west coast offense."
There was no WCO at that time, only because Burnsie didn't call it that! When Foreman and Marinaro became the first backfield tandem in NFL history to record 100 receptions, Bill Walsh took note!!
So much of the 1970's Vikings teams talents and precedents are overlooked.
Sir Francis is just another one!
I too noticed that none of the commentary about all time greats included Fran.. yes indeed the ," west coast offense " should really be known as... the Minnesota offense. Even Bill Walsh has admitted that...well said both of you guys.
Killebrew and baseball went together for me and Tarkenton and football was the same way. They were my favorite athletes growing up. Tarkenton was a great qb and the only reason he doesn't get mentioned is that the media and it's story lines have no depth at all. The discussions on Tom's blog have greater insight than what can be gotten from the "experts". I have been cynical about the media on here before and the subject you bring up about Tarkenton is just another example. He was an innovator that played his way and not the way that was the established way. He was not some robo-QB. He was a great player.
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