Adam Carolla Show
Fran Tarkenton Spills Shocking NFL Secrets: From Beating Peyton Manning’s Record to Firing His Own Coach!
01 Dec 2025
Chapter 1: What is discussed at the start of this section?
Well, in this episode, we'll do the news with Dawson and a Hall of Famer, 18 years in the NFL, starting as a quarterback, Sir Francis of Tarkington. Fran Tarkington is going to join me as well. And we'll do that right after this. Hey, it's Adam Carolla from the Adam Carolla Show. Football season is heating up. Thanksgiving weekend is coming up with the NBA and college basketball seasons.
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Adam's guest today, NFL Hall of Famer, Fran Tarkington. Plus the news with me, Mike Dawson, and now... Earlier today, he went to the mall, sat on Santa's lap, and asked for a new governor. Adam Carolla. All right. Dawson's here. We got news. I got stuff I want to get into a little bit with you, Dawson, before we get into the news. Good. One is, it's funny. You watch things for...
years and years and decades, and you don't think about it, then one day, it just pops in your head, and you're thinking about something you never really thought about before, even though it's a thing you've seen a million times. And I was watching a lot of football. Over the weekend and Thanksgiving and all that. And I think it was maybe the Detroit game. It was one of the games.
It didn't matter. But the other team, you know, the coach, the quarterback went in with a hard count. And one of his offensive linemen like lurched forward. Right. And it was a five-yard penalty. And the other team... is so over the moon about it and makes such a big deal out of it. But let's really examine it. First things first. It's five yards. It's the minimum amount they can give you.
It's minimum. It doesn't matter if it's the second quarter and your team's down 34 points. They still make a big deal out of it. And all of a sudden, instead of 300-pound dudes who can do 800 pounds on a hack slide, they become schoolgirls. They're like, yeah. They're like point real hard. He did it. He did it.
He did it.
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Chapter 2: How does Adam Carolla describe the current state of football celebrations?
Everything is. Yeah, I'm just saying, you know, there's a dude version where the guy's like, hey, I'm from Queens. Don't bother me. Everything's sort of affect. Everything's sort of pushing something out there. Who's here? But listen, you getting a Ram power wagon, jacking it up, getting mud flaps with Yosemite Sam and two pistols saying back off. That's you're making a statement. I miss those.
I miss those too. I miss those a lot. Shabby Sham had two smoking six shooters and said, back off. I miss those as well. But everything is a – whether it's conscious or not is a sort of message. When I see a 25 year old person whose feet are on the sofa, I see a kid who is never disciplined. Yes.
Like no one has ever walked in from the kitchen, had the kid with the feet on the sofa when the kid was nine and whacked him in the back of the head and get your fucking feet off the goddamn sofa. That shit's from Ikea. It costs 600 bucks and it's only four months old. Put your fucking feet on the ground. And then you raise your hand again and they go, yeah, okay, okay. That's it.
That's a person that's never been told anything. Because the first thing you would be told is get your fucking feet off the fucking sofa. Sure. And certainly don't try to pull that shit at other people's houses and certainly don't go on TV and pull that shit. But then thirdly, is it really comfortable to sit on your feet? Like I feel that's the whole thing about the dude.
I know it's the dude with the nut crunch. It's like, are you more – Brock – All right.
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Chapter 3: What are Fran Tarkenton's thoughts on NFL quarterback scrambling?
Justin Trudeau, are you more comfortable cutting the circulation off to your nutsack for a prolonged period of time? Is that more or is it just worth the exposure? Like what I'm saying is, yes, my nuts have fallen asleep. And yes, this is uncomfortable, but I am signaling who I am. Yeah, I think. And of course, by the way, I think it's. Is there such a thing?
Is somebody got out there, sat on their feet, put the feet on the sofa. I don't know if this was Conan or not Conan, but Colbert. Well, I don't know what show it was, but here's the whole point. Is there anyone who would sit that way and then say, listen, Stephen, I'm a Christian and I don't believe in abortion at any state. I don't care if it's a long term. I don't care.
I believe that once once there's a heartbeat, then you can't. You would never see that person sit that way. It's like a different mindset. You would never see the dude do the super deep leg cross and go, I want to blow up a Venezuelan drug boat either. It's like you know what they're going to say when you see the posture, right? Sitting on the feet...
Feet on the sofa means I've never been disciplined. I never had a mom and a dad go, hey, hey, get your shit together.
100%.
I think I've been told in my entire life to get my feet off the couch twice because I was disciplined. Right. In also 15 years, two times they had to tell me to get my feet off the couch. And the second time, there will not be a third. Also the – You're also signaling that you're not fat. Fat chicks can't pull this shit off. You're kind of shaming the big gals.
Well, you could argue you're signaling you're not fat by existing. But yeah, fat people can't do that. Absolutely. Fat chicks. I don't care how progressive they are. They can't pull off that. Also, like I said, I've met a lot of women and men. But I realized when I was looking at the chick at the airport lounge, she was putting her feet all over.
It's like no one's ever walked up there and went, hey, bitch, get your fucking feet off the fucking sofa. Like it's never happened. So she is someone who's cruised. By the way. You also, when you grow up in that environment, can have semi-retarded ideas that you feel good about sharing with a large audience. Of course. Her level of self-confidence is through the roof. Right. All right.
Let's get into some news with you, shall we? All right.
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Chapter 4: What records did Fran Tarkenton break on December 16, 1973?
Well, there you are. What Unitas records did you beat that day? I think it was the most yards passing. In a season. He had the most yards passing. He had touchdown passes. I broke them both. In a season. In a season. Yeah, in a season. And, you know, John Unitas was my hero. Quiet guy, played on great teams in Baltimore. Great, great player.
And so to break his record, and I was just maybe 31, 32, and I broke his record. was a great thrill for me.
Chapter 5: How did Fran Tarkenton feel about breaking Johnny Unitas' records?
My gosh, that's unheard of. We played in the snow in Buffalo, and it was so bad that one of my passes I'm throwing, somebody in the stands hits me on my back of my hand with a snowball. they had to throw it 50 yards. I couldn't throw a snowball 50 yards. I wanted to go up in the stands and get this guy to come down to give me some lessons and throw the football.
Well, I mean, it was pre-Dome Stadium back then. Yeah, yeah. Nobody, I don't know, the Superdome maybe. I don't know. Nobody had a dome. And everything was outside then. Everything was outside. Yeah. Yeah, your cheerleaders were high school cheerleaders.
Yeah.
You know, people were sitting on wooden benches out there.
Chapter 6: What was it like playing in the elements without dome stadiums?
I mean, it was a different. And playing in Minnesota, that was playing in the elements, man. And going from Georgia to Minnesota, that. It had to be something. Well, in Minnesota, we played where the baseball team played. Right. And so we practiced where the baseball team played. And so we had to deal with the infield, which was all dirt. Yeah. And so it was a whole different, different thing.
And so we played over the infield, just put the yard markers in there. But it was great. I didn't know. I was playing pro football. playing for the Vikings, doing good things, going to Super Bowls. We didn't quite win one, but we went there. Three Super Bowls. Three Super Bowls. Yeah, I played in three of the first 11 Super Bowls. Which is amazing.
Was there any form of relief when Buffalo lost four Super Bowls? Because there's a lot of talk.
Yeah, your quarterback, I love him.
Kelly. Yeah. And he's a great, great guy. So I'm with him and Peyton Manning up in the Hall of Fame at some time. I said, you know, my favorite quarterback is you. Jim Kelly.
He said, what do you mean?
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Chapter 7: How has the NFL changed in terms of player protection and rules?
I said, because I lost three Super Bowls and you lost four. Jim Kelly. Well, I mean, look, obviously to play and And you do, it's kind of interesting now as you look at things. Have you been around for a while? You know, rock and roll, Hall of Fame, Academy Award winners, Super Bowl champions.
There's been so many Super Bowls now and so many awards given out and so many people in the Hall of Fame. You know, it starts to get a little diluted. But, man, for the first 25 years, the Super Bowl was the Super Bowl. And to play in three of the first 11 is pretty incredible. Well, and we didn't know how to play in those games.
Every quarterback I've talked to over the years, after you win your championship game, there was two weeks, and it still is, two weeks before the Super Bowl. We didn't practice that week off. We went home, showed up on the Sunday before the Super Bowl, and went down. And when you got to the Super Bowl, you couldn't get your offense in because all stuff is going on.
I've asked other quarterbacks that played in Super Bowls that won. I said, what did y'all do that off week in that two-week span? He said, we scrimmaged. We had real scrimmaging, blocking and tackling. Well, we didn't. In other words, we really weren't prepared. The teams that beat us, we beat them before and after. We were not prepared to play in those games.
And we didn't even come close to winning those games. But we didn't know better. We didn't – we should have gone and practiced that week before and put our offense in and our defense in and have scrimmages, but we didn't. You know, as a guy, I played a fair amount of football and a few other sports.
And I can tell you, football is a sport where if you beat the team – and it happened to me at a lower level – we beat a team and then we played that team in the championship game. And I was like, we already beat these guys in the season. Like I thought we could beat them because it's such a physical game.
You know, it's not like baseball where anybody can get hot, win, hit a home run or two or whatever. It's like, yeah, we beat these guys and they, they whooped us in the championship. So lesson learned. But the point is, is that feeling of going into the Superbowl, when you already beat the team during the season, had to make you feel like we're going to win this game? Well, yes and no.
Every game, you look at today's game or our game, we all had great players. Our linemen were great. They were big and they were strong and they were fast. Same thing you have today. And so it's not much – everybody's got a chance. And you look at this year, Kansas City, they won two or three Super Bowls. Up until last week, they were five and five.
I think they're five and six now or something like that. How could that happen? Same coach, same quarterback, great players. There's that much difference between the teams that win and the teams that lose. Not much to go on. So you've got to be at your top level every game, intellectually and also physically. It's more than just a physical game. It's an intellectual game.
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