NFL Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton Talks Football & Entrepreneurial Endeavors

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Unknown 0:00
Hello and welcome. This is The Michelle Hussein Show. I'm Michelle Hussein. I speak with people like Elon Musk. I think I've done enough. And Shonda Rhimes. That's so cute. This will be a place where every weekend you can count on one essential conversation to help make sense of the world. So please join me, listen and subscribe to The Michelle Hussein Show from Bloomberg Weekend, wherever you get your podcasts.
Paul Sweeney 0:27
You certainly ask interesting questions.
Unknown 0:32
Bloomberg Audio Studios Podcasts, radio, news.
Tom Keene 0:37
Out of Georgia and the religion of his father, Fran Tarkenton changed football. He said, no, I'm not going to stay in the pocket. This is a highlight of Bloomberg surveillance. This goes back to Reggie Jackson and talking about his father and Willie Mays. In studio now, Fran Tarkenton. Paul, holding well at 79 years old. Solid.
Paul Sweeney 1:00
I mean, solid. Fran, thanks so much for joining us here. I am happy to be here. Thank you. Born in Richmond, Virginia. I love that. I'm a big fan of Richmond.
Fran Tarkenton 1:07
um talk to us about the state of football today boy there's just it changes so much from when you were playing how do you view it it's amazing how it's changed but it's 32 teams in the league and there's not much difference between them the quarterback position which i happen to play everybody we got to have a good quarterback half the quarterbacks or more this year have missed games they don't stay healthy they don't stay well And everything is, you know, and you look at Kansas City, they're struggling and they're in the Super Bowl the last couple of years. And Philadelphia is struggling. Cornerbacks run back and forth. it's not much difference between the 32nd team and the first team. Right. And injuries have come up to be a part of it now.
Fran Tarkenton 1:56
And it's just a free-for-all right now. Well, when you played, I think, 12 games? We played, when I first came, 12 games. Then we got to 14 games. And now it's 17 going to 18.
Paul Sweeney 2:06
I mean, I don't know how you're going to keep the players healthy. Well, they don't. They don't, okay.
Fran Tarkenton 2:10
They don't. And so that brings everything back. And the quarterbacks are getting hurt at a higher rate. Roger Staubach played every game. I played every game. Y.A. Tittle played every game. John Unitas played every game. We never missed games. I missed five games in 18 years.
Tom Keene 2:27
A question I wanted to ask, and this is for all the parents out there looking at football and saying, do I really want my kid to do this? When you played, players were tackled. Now they're hit. Could you play today, little guy that you were?
Fran Tarkenton 2:42
Could you play? Oh, yeah. I could play today. I could play today better than I did the other day. Because when I came into football, from high school to college to pro, I scrambled. But I didn't know I scrambled. You scrambled as a Georgia Bulldog. As a Georgia Bulldog. In my high school in Athens, Georgia, we won the state championship. I scrambled. And I didn't know what that meant. I just ran because I had that ability. But I came into pro football.

What insights does Fran Tarkenton share about the current state of football?

Fran Tarkenton 3:09
Nobody ran. Nobody scrambled. So I was this crazed, different person that would never make it. And it really was... I would beat the Baltimore Colts my rookie year. They had a guy named Gino Marchetti, the best defensive end that's ever been. We later became great friends. And after the game, we beat them. And they were a great team. And they said to him, hey, Gino, how about this target they got? And he said he won't last five years. They'll run him out. Six years later, I had Gino Marchetti introduce me as player of the year for one of the magazines here in New York. So I didn't know it was different. It's just how I played.
Paul Sweeney 3:54
Fran, if you were a quarterback today in the NFL, they'd be paying you $40 million a year for 10 years. Generational wealth. I think at least that. Talk to us about your early days and what they paid you guys. And how did that compare with your friends that were— Graduated from Georgia.
Fran Tarkenton 4:11
1961, I was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings. I made $12,500. 18 years later, I played in three of the first 11 Super Bowls. I broke every record there was.

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