The HoneyDew with Ryan Sickler - 366: Fran Tarkenton | The HoneyDew with Ryan Sickler #366 | Full Episode

Episode Date: December 29, 2025

My HoneyDew this week is NFL Hall of Fame legend Fran Tarkenton! Check out Fran’s newest business venture PipIQ, a private generative AI workspace specifically designed for small and mid-sized businesses. Fran joins me this week to Highlight the Lowlights of his time playing in the NFL! From getting drafted to the Minnesota Vikings in 1961, to playing against names like Gino Marchetti, Leo Nomellini, and Big Daddy Lipscomb. Fran shares how he learned from older players before him, his influence on mobile quarterbacks, and how he built his own businesses on the side during it all. Check out my new standup special “Live and Alive” streaming on my YouTube now! https://youtu.be/PMGWVyM2NJo?si=SrhXjgzR1pe6CyYE SUBSCRIBE TO MY YOUTUBE and watch full episodes of The Dew every toozdee! https://youtube.com/@rsickler SUBSCRIBE TO MY PATREON - The HoneyDew with Y’all, where I Highlight the Lowlights with Y’all! Get audio and video of The HoneyDew a day early, ad-free at no additional cost! It’s only $5/month! AND we just added a second tier. For a total of $8/month, you get everything from the first tier, PLUS The Wayback a day early, ad-free AND censor free AND extra bonus content you won't see anywhere else! http://patreon.com/RyanSickler What’s your story?? Submit at [e-mail] Ringtones Are Available Now! https://www.apple.com/itunes/ http://ryansickler.com/ https://thehoneydewpodcast.com/ SUBSCRIBE TO THE CRABFEAST PODCAST https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-crabfeast-with-ryan-sickler-and-jay-larson/id1452403187

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If you sent it before, send it again, bump it to the top. All right, guys. That's the biz. You know what we do here. we highlight the low lights. I always say that these are the stories behind the storytellers. And I am very excited to have this guest with us here today. Ladies and gentlemen, Hall of Famer, Fran Tarkenton, welcome to the honeymoon, Fran Tarkenton. Fran, thank you so much for being here. I said before we recorded, I'd feel weird calling you,

Fran. I grew up properly and I'd like to call you, Mr. Tarkington, but I'm going to call you friend for this. Call me, Fran. That's it. Before you, I let you promote here. want to say this. I was told you're 85. Is that correct? The 86 February the 3rd. Man, let me tell you something. I know you hear it all the time. Good for you, man. You're not, I mean, 85's nothing to sneeze at, but a man that grew up playing in the NFL when the job was to kill the quarterback. You can't touch the quarterback now. Kill the quarterback. You have the difference is, you know, it, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, live every day like it's my last day. I like playing football. I love playing football. But while I

played football, that wasn't enough. I built businesses. I love building businesses. Had good partners. I'm 85, be 86 February the 3rd. We're still doing it. And it's fun to be in the game, whatever the game is. I see. I can see your love for life. I see it. I said I can see your love for life. I can feel the passion. Good for you. Let's promote real quick first. Go ahead, please. Tell us what anything and everything you'd like to promote, Fran. Well, we're not going to spend much time there, Ryan. I've been in business all my life.

I had a paper out when I was seven years old in Washington, D.C. But here I'll share with your viewers. The best thing here to do is whether you're a business services provider wanting to partner with us or a business interested in the service, and the service is PIPIQ, which is unbelievable. If you want to learn more about PIPP IQ, talk to my people, schedule a demo or simply get started. And that's PIPIQ.com.

I think you will really like it. The world is changing rapidly, whether it's sports, whether it's business or whatever it might be, and come to that website, see what we're doing. We would love to have you as a partner with us, whoever you are out there. We want to do some really neat things.

That's it. This is available to anyone out there. Anyone out there. And it's PIPIQ.com, friend, PIPIQ.com? PIPIQ.com. PIP IQ.com. And, you know, here's the deal. And football, nobody wins football by themselves.

You've got to have great players. You've got to have great coaches. You've got to have great owners. And in all my life of football, I had those. In all my life of business, I've had people like Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart and other great business people. They've been my mentors. They've taught me business.

And what they've taught me, don't sell anybody anything. Tell them what you do. Take their questions. And if it makes sense to your audience out there, give us a ring. Give us a call. We partner with people who want to partner with us. We partner with people who want to do something great. That's great.

Also, I want to say, you know, I'm 52. So I'm, I'm, my father, you know, you are the Johnny Unitis class, you guys, you're my dad's quarterbacks coming up. So, you know, my father made sure I knew my football history. But I believe I first discovered you as a kid. Was it, um, people are amazing. What was it? What was the show you were on?

That's incredible. That's incredible. That's incredible. That's incredible. That's incredible. That's right. Did she not marry Joe Thysman at some point? They were married.

Like you got two quarterbacks connected on that damn show. Well, she dated Joe Thysman. Okay, David. And they dated for about a year. Mm-hmm. But they did not get married. But I love Joe Thaisman. I mean, he, a terrific player, great personality.

That was a good show. That was a fun show. I had, yeah, Tiger Woods was on my knee at that show, and he was four or five years old. And we did a whole segment with him. He had his dad on the show with us, and he was hitting golf balls there, and he could just slam the ball, four or five years old. It was a great fun deal. I'm not an actor.

I'm not, I didn't then do a lot of television, but the experiences of meeting the people. And nothing was bigger than him. He was, he was terrific. He's just a kid. Yeah, that's, well,

also, I still feel like that show was so far ahead of its time that today, it was. Instagram, all these damn apps we have that they are our highlights. It is the that. You would think that a show like that, should come back. I mean, it would be viral everything anybody did, these dude perfects and all

that out there. But enough. Let's talk about you. Where are you originally from? Tell me where you're born and raised. I was born in Richmond, Virginia. All right. My father was a preacher man. At five years old, I moved to Washington, D.C., and I loved Washington, D.C. The sports teams weren't so good. The redskins were there. They didn't win. I love the red skin. I love the Washington senators. that, but I love Washington, D.C. I lived there for five years. I had a paper out when I was seven years old. That's when I started my business thing. It was great. And from seven years old to 85 years old, I work. I build businesses. I do services. And I learned all that, started in

Washington, D.C. Then I, at age 10, my dad wanted to get a doctor's a degree in education. He's a preacher. So he came down to the University of Georgia down in Athens when I was 10 years old. And I grew up, played high school football there, little league baseball there, loved Athens still do. Then I got drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in 1961. I got drafted in the third round. I was the sixth quarterback picked. That pissed me off. Who went ahead of you?

Pardon? Who went ahead of you? You know, I don't remember all the names. I think Billy Kilmer are some of those guys. And Norman Sneed, who's a quarterback, and none of them had great careers, but they were nice guys and good guys. But I'm a competitor, right? Hell yeah.

And you pissed me off that I was a third-round pick. And so I came into training camp in 1961. And I went into training camp in Babiichi, Minnesota. The only month that doesn't snow in Babigi is July. And we're a new franchise team. It was 1961. What's that mean new franchise team? It was the first year we were a team and how we got our players.

The other teams in the league had 40 players each. They could freeze 37. We got to pick one or two of the bottom three. That's how we got our players. No new franchise team ever won a game their first year. The Dallas Cowboys were a new franchise team with Tom Landry's coach in 1960. They had Dodd Meredith as a quarterback, and they didn't win a game. We won three games that first year, but I got to tell you the story.

This is a great huge. It's a great story. We got six quarterbacks in training camp in Bimichie, Minnesota, Van Brockland, Norm Van Brockland, was a Hall of Fame quarterback for the Los Angeles Rams, won a championship at Philadelphia. Brilliant mind. So they drafted me.

We played five exhibition games, and that's what we normally did back then. I played in those. We lost five exhibition games. Didn't come close. So I come the last week prior to the first game. Van Brockland comes to me and says, hey, kid,

I'm going to start you in this game, not George Shaw, who was the veteran that they had traded for out of New York. I'm going to start you. I said, you ready going to start me? I said, yeah. But can I come to your house all week, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday? I want to watch film of the team we're going to play. It was the Chicago Bears.

Now, the Chicago Bears won a lot of games because their owner was George Alice. Their coach was George House. The guy who started the National Football League was George Hallis. And he cheated and he got all the players. So he's our first team we're going to play. That's how he got Gail Sayer. Was it all these guys? That's how he did it.

We're 35 point underdog. Thirty-five. So I'll get all the films. Yeah. And so then we're going to play. And I've been with him all week. And I come to the stadium. And he tells me,

Hey, kid, I got to play the veteran George Shaw. We gave up a number one choice for him. I got to play him. I said some really nasty words. I was 21 years old. I was pissed. And I let him have it. And so we start the game.

I don't start. At the end of the first quarter, we made a first down. And they were behind, I think, six to nothing. He comes to me. Hey, kid, can you do any better than that guy? I said, try me. And went out, and I completed 17 and 21 passes for 237 yards. I threw four touchdown passes and one and ran for one.

That's a record still holds in the leg. Wow. And we beat them 3713. But here's the kicker for your audience. Keep in mind, my father is a Pentecostal holder preacher. My mother was a Pentecostal holders preacher. I'm not supposed to be able to play football on Sundays. It's against our religion.

And so I didn't think I'd see my mother and father at my first game at all. Well, first game, we win, we're celebrating in the locker room. I come out of the locker room and there's my mom. And I said, Mom, my God, I didn't know you were going to be here. I said, do you know, realize how many truly great quarterbacks there are in the world today? she says, yes, son, but you're not one of them.

She brought me right down to the world, right? But it was such a great thing. She brought a greyhound bus from Athens, Georgia, to Minneapolis to see that first game. Wow. No new franchise team has ever won a game in their first year.

The Cowboys with Tom Landry and Bob Lilly and Don Meredith, their first year, as great as Landry was. They didn't want to game their first year. That's incredible. Let me ask you a question, Fran. I want to jump back for a second. Back then, what is, you're in college, what is the draft process like back then? Like, how do you know the teams are interested in you back then? And how do you know where you're going to end up going, all that sort of thing?

We didn't know until they called us. It was that. And this was 19, it was a winner of 1961. And the teams were all there. And so I was drafted by the Vikings in the third round. And now the AFLs come in. And they drafted me at New England. Here's how smart I was.

The Vikings offered me $12,000 to play and a $3,500 bonus. The New England Pages were in the AFL. They offered me twice that. And I'm so smart that I took the liking deal because I didn't know whether the AFL is going to make it or not. So I could have gone to Patriots, but it did work out, but it did work out because I was in the NFL and I got to play in three of the first 11 Super Bowls.

Three of the, that's incredible. So, but, but you, you're literally just sitting home. Do you know at all like they're going to call? Do you have a sense that they're going to call? Or is everyone just like, hey, we're sitting around. If that thing rings, good, good for us. Well, what I was, I was in the blue gray game in Alabama. I guess they still had the blue gray game.

And they got a call from the Redskins. I left in Washington. I was a Redskins fan. and their owner said that they were going to draft me at first round and the first round. They drafted a guy from Wake Forest good player, and they Norman Sneed. And so I didn't, I'm watching this in Montgomery, Alabama,

where we're playing this game later on in the week. And I don't know what's going to happen. And I'm not drafted in the first round, not drafted from the second round. And finally in the third round, they drafted me. And I got on an airplane in February to go to Minnesota. And I got there and had about 12 feet of snow. All the lakes were frozen.

People were fishing in the lakes, drilling holes in the thing. It's crazy. And I went up there. And then I moved up there for two years. And I finally said, I'm going to play. I love playing there. But I just couldn't live there anymore. so I moved back to Atlanta after my second season and stayed here.

So I got so many questions for you. Here's one, especially as a businessman who started as a paper route guy. Back then, you guys, as you said, you're getting $13,000. You're all working in the offseason. I used to hear stories about, you know, these NFL players like in my era or my dad's era, like when Gino Marquetti opened the restaurant, Gino's and these guys are working at car dealerships and things. Are you also at that time sort of building business in the offseason?

What do you do? Oh, yeah. I remind me to tell you Gino Marquetti's story. I'm right at that. My first off season, there was a trucking company in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and their trucks took stuff from Sioux Falls to Minneapolis, Chicago, and back. and they came down during that first season and they hired me to be a salesman for them

and I worked at knocked on the doors of shipping clerks all over the Dakotas in Minnesota and colder than cold but they paid me $600 a month and so I did that for a couple of years I worked for a printer for about the same money and I did speeches

I spoke in there for church in Minnesota. Okay. $25 a speech. Nick Saban, my great friend, who's retired now, he did 25 speeches last year, $200,000 of speech. A pop?

Uh-huh. And so he's like him being retired from coaching football, right? He's doing just fine. And so I was glad to get the money. But again, I worked. And it's like anything else. If you don't start it early in life, I started football early in life. Tiger Woods started golf at four years old.

I started business at five years old. And even before the paper route in Washington, D.C., on Saturdays, the women would take a little wagon and go to the Safeway stores. I had my wagon at the Safeway stores. I put their packages in my wagon, take it for two weeks, and they'd give me maybe a dime, a quarter, and I took that money, and I spent it on football cards. And I, because I loved all sports.

But it taught me I was involved in sports at an early age, which is important for it to be, and also in early age, I started earning money. Let me ask you this. What was your welcome to the NFL moment? When were you like, okay, these guys up here are all at this level? You know, what was that for you back in those days? Because you guys were getting clothes lined.

I believe wasn't your first face mask, the small bar? Yeah. I had, we played the Baltimore Colts in an exhibition game, and I had one bar. Yep. And Gino Marquetti, who was a great, great defensive lineman, as good as ever been, really soft and spoken. And he cracked me right across. And so I came in at halftime, and I said, I'll take a double bar. And I did that.

Gino was my hero. So, yeah, Gino was soft-smoken. Baltimore had John Unitas. They were winning championships. But Gino Marquetti was the toughest, greatest defensive lineman I'd ever known. And he was from San Francisco. And so anyway, we played them that first season. Here, we're playing a championship team, a great quarterback.

And we've got just a bunch of young kids playing. and so we're playing them and we beat them. And during that game, I remember, I went back to pass tonight, left tackle. There's about 250 pounds. They weren't as big back then. And he's blocking Gino. And I go back to the past,

and my offensive lineman, Gino had torn his jersey off and threw him on the ground and tackled me. And so he, He was that tough. So after the game, we win. And the people said to him, said, well, what do you think of this targeting kid?

He goes, but he's a scrambler. There are no scramblers. And the whole, he said, what's going to happen? He'll kill him. He won't last more than two yards, two years. He'll, they'll run him out of the league. And then we played him and we, and we, and we beat him. Now, six years later, I'm now in New York City.

and I'm an offensive player of the year. And a guy named Dick Schap who wrote for a sports magazine up there was a good friend of mine. He wanted to give me I was the player of the year. And he wanted to, he made to come to New York and pick up my trophies player of the year.

And by the way, who would you like to introduce you? I said, Gino Marquetti. Yes, sir. And he did. And up until he died a few years ago, I never missed talking to Gino at least two or three times a year. And so I learned from the old guys. The old guys were really great. Deacon Jones.

I have him written. I have him written right here. Deacon Jones was unbelievable. But on my team, we had a group called the Purple People. Yes, you did. Jim Marshall, Alan Page, Carl Eller, Bob Lertzman. they were great. But it just shows you that

the only way you can win in football is the same way in business. You got to have great owners, great coaches, you got to have great players. And they got to get along together. And they got to love each other. And they got to have each other's back.

And if anything I learned in all my life was sports, high school sports, college sports, NFL, it's all about my teammates. It's not about me. If anybody thinks it's about themselves, they get kicked out.

They get kicked out. It's truly a team game. And if you don't have the players, you cannot win. Quarterbacks get a lot of, you know, you've got to have a great quarterback. I hear it all the time in this January, right? You got to have more than a great quarterback. You've got to have great partners.

You've got to have great linemen. You've got to have great running back. You've got to have great coaches. got to have great owners. They're not a lot of great owners. I agree on that. The owners are guys who made billions and billions of dollars and they got into pro football and they make billions and billions of more dollars, but they don't have to do anything. So it's been a great ride being able to be in the business world, being able to be in the NFL world. I'm still a football player. I love it. I watch it every day.

every Saturday and Sunday. I'm a Georgia Bulldog. I'm a Minnesota Viking. I'm not so much a New York giant, but I played there for six years, and I like the town a lot. But it's a great game. It's taught me all my life.

Everything I've learned about life and about business as been as a football player. I learned humility there. If you don't have humility in that locker room, you're dead. What's the, give me the hardest hit you've ever taken? Wow.

There's a guy. This is a great story. It's a true story. There's a defensive tackle with the San Francisco 49ers named Leo the lion, Nomalini. He sounds like a mobster. He was a baddest, baddest guy that was in football. He didn't talk much. He played for the 49ers.

And so we're playing an exhibition game with the 49ers. and I've got a guy on my team who's in the Hall of Fame and Hugh McElhenney and he had played for the Niners and he didn't we got him in the expansion draft they didn't want him anymore

so he was a handsome guy Italian guy great great running back and he had played his best years with them and so we're in the locker room to play an exhibition game and it's just nothing there but I see that our players

are taking some stuff and their eyes are getting big. They called bitties. They were taking bennies back then. And the linemen and the linebackers were the ones taking the bennies. I say to Mac Gawendy, they call him the chief.

I said, chief, put our guys taking there. Oh, boy. They're taking that stuff they take. They just, it doesn't do anything for them, but it makes the, they pop out on their face, and they get crazy.

They really get crazy. crazy, and they think it makes them better players. I said, but how about Leo Namelini? Does he take those bennies? Oh, yeah. Not just my guys here in the locker room? No, he'll take those bennies and do yourself a favor. He'll be right to your right, right over your guard.

Don't look at him. It'll scare you to death. Don't look. So, of course, I go in the game. I'm ringing in my ears and back. Go ahead and you stand me. And I look over there and I go, holy cow, to myself. He had one eye and he had a thing upon his forehead, a glass eye.

And I looked at it and I had to. I went nuts. I said, I wish I'd have never done that. That was the error back then, right? Nobody made any money. We all had beers together. We all went to do. And we all, you know,

We hung up with each other. But those characters all those years, the Marquettys, the Leo Nommelini's, they were priceless. Deacon Jones, Merlin Olson, Bob Lilley, Two Tall Jones, Johnny U. I played an All-Star game. I'm the backup quarterback to Johnny U. And Don Chula was our coach, and I'm 27 years old. I'm ticking to death. I'm playing as my hero.

and so we get to the end of the week of practicing and Don Shulow was a coach, he said, you know, I'm going to have to play John and start John Unitas. I said, sure, you've got to start John United. He's Jesus. He's the best there is. He said, but I'm going to let you play the second quarter

and the fourth quarter, and he'll play the first and third. And that's the way it went. And we won the game, and I threw for three touchdowns, passes and Johnny, you didn't play throw for any. I couldn't believe it. But it was such a thrill to play with my hero. Yeah. Who was the greatest quarterback of that generation by far, I thought.

And to be able to spend a week with him and play with him, I love the old players. I learned from all of them. Me too. You guys are all of them. You're so many. There were so many kids. We had Art Donovan. I'm sure you knew Art Donovan.

Oh, gosh. Oh, my God. Dart Donovan. I was lucky enough. He spoke, so I'm from Baltimore originally and grew up in Maryland and he spoke at our varsity club. We went to his country club and he spoke. And I mean, unfiltered. We're high school kids and he, you know, you know how he was.

He had no filter. No, I used to love seeing him on Letterman. David Letterman loved him. Just a great story. A character in a great way. Yeah. Yes. And a great football player, massive guy, great player.

The Baltimore Colts of that late. 50s, they were great. They had the great lines and they had Johnny U and Lenny Moore, Don Joyce. They had Big Daddy Lipscomb. Yes, they did. You remember Big Daddy Lipscomb? I read all the books, yes. He was about 6-8, maybe 270.

And so he's playing for the Colts, and I'm having to play against this guy. My guard is 510, 220. He got to go a good. Ever six, eight. I'm running all over the field trying to. So finally, Big Daddy, Big Daddy, he got me one time. He said, hey, little man, why four you run so much? I said to get away from you.

Yeah, hell yeah. But he was a classic. I think I might be wrong. I'm wrong a lot, Fran, but I feel like I read something where he died in a mysterious way. Something happened to him, maybe a murder or something like that. I don't know. Yeah, I don't want to speak on that. He ended up in Pittsburgh.

He did. And he went to Pittsburgh and played with Bobby Lane in Pittsburgh, who was a great quarterback. And I played against him there. And I don't remember that. I just remember he was just a massive, massive man. When the guards back then were 225 pounds. The tackles were maybe 240, 250 at the most. And he was a guy that was, as I said, maybe.

280, 6, 6, 7. Now, now, offensive linemen, if you don't weigh over 300 pounds, can't play. Yeah. In college or pro, and 300, most of them weigh 3, 23, 30, 340. Can I ask you this question? Because you're really the guy, and maybe you'll correct me if I'm wrong, very early on with scrambling and using your feet running. as a quarterback. Did that come out of necessity through college and stuff just because, or were, or did you see the rule where like, hey, no one's really doing it. Like, obviously it was a running

league for a while. I know Johnny United States is credited off. And you as well with making, beginning the aerial attack, so to speak. But well, why were you a running quarterback? That's a way from big daddy lipscoms of the league. That's a really good question. I played high school football in Athens High, right where the University of Georgia is. We want a state championship there. And I set all kind of records. I went to the University of Georgia, and I played there. And they weren't a good team when I got there, but we won the FCC championship.

We didn't have playoffs after that. And really, I didn't call myself a mobile quarterback. I didn't think about it. But as I was getting called a mobile quarterback, a scrambler, I'd look back to my high school career. I ran. I played in high school like I played in pro football, but I didn't recognize it. I played in college football like I did in pro football. I was a scrambler, but there was no scramblers.

And all the guys, oh, he'll never make it. He won't play all the other quarterbacks. Johnny U. was a pocket quarterback. Dead Luckman was a pocket quarterback. all those guys were. And they ridicule, they chastised me. And I'd get in words with them.

But nobody thought I could make it because they thought it was only a, you had to be a pocket quarterback. And so therefore, you know, I was me. That's the way I played that way all my life. Later on, Roger Stobach came into the league. He could run. He was, he could, now, these young quarterbacks, every one of them can run.

Lamar is, this is the thing too. Oh, Lamar. You, though, you come from an era where it was kill the QB. You take off. These guys can do what, today, if he slides, you can't even touch him. You know what I mean? Like, so you're, it makes sense to me why back then people would say, well, Fran ain't going to last long.

We're going to kill that guy if he's running. Where today, even when we're, we drafted Lamar, I loved it, but I was very worried this guy is going to get, you know, crushed out there. But he's been very smart and very, I feel like he does it the best when it comes to. I'll take off when I need to. And they put a yoke on him that he, he couldn't throw. He can really throw. He can throw to shit out at Ball, Frankton. He is arguably the fastest quarterback rookie. I mean, he's got great athletic ability. And, and, but now, what's happening, and they protect the quarterback.

But in my era, I played four years of high school, four years of college, 18 years of pro football. I missed five games. I broke an ankle against the Detroit Lions, and we clinched our division championship, and I couldn't play in that. And other than that, that's the only five games. missed in my life. You look now at the pro quarterbacks. Minnesota got a draft of the guy out of Michigan. Really good play. He didn't play at all last year. He got hurt. This year, he played two games, got hurt. I think this year, I haven't measured it out, I think there are probably 50 starting, 50% of the starting quarterbacks in pro football have missed at least one game. Yeah. And more.

And, and they protect them now. And they really slide a lot as we see. And if you touch the quarterback now, I mean, you're throwing out of the game. Yeah, you're getting fine. Back in our days, it just wasn't that. Imagine that too. You get a penalty because they say it's a late hit, which is, you know, an objective call. And then it's like, all right, well, you're not going to kick that out of the game,

but the NFL is going to come behind later and give you a $20,000 fine. You're like, good, God. Another question I want to ask you, once you realize, that scrambling is a weapon for you. Do you guys game plan with it or do you just use it when the passing breaks down? Like, what was the idea and strategy for you? Interesting story.

I played my first six years with Minnesota. My coach was a guy named Norman Van Brockland, who was a pocket quarterback, a Hall of Fame quarterback, won a championship at Philadelphia. And he thought that was the way to play. I argued with him about that. That's why I really got out of Minnesota.

I said, I'm not going to play for you anymore because this is my style. And that's the way I play. That's my talent. And that's why I went and got traded to the Giants because I wouldn't play for him anymore because he wanted me to be a pocket quarterback. And so I went to the Giants.

And we had a little coach named Allie Sherman. He was a third-strain quarterback at Philadelphia. he coached up in Canada, sweetest, nicest guy in the world. And I was going to New York, and they were in a slump. The year before I got there, they'd won one game.

They lost 12 and tied one. And the quarterback was Earl Marl. Yeah. Who was the quarterback that won at Miami when they won the Super Bowl. Yeah. And he's a really good quarterback, and they gave up three number ones

and two number twos to go to a team that was 12 and 1. And so it was, but there, little Allie Sherman, I want you to run. I want you to be a scrambler. We'd have times in practice, every practice where I would practice coming back, running to the right, taking the floor, we'd go to the left, and we taught our receivers that when I go this way, they go that way. If I go that way, they go that way.

and it really worked. And I was still probably the only guy running the football and buying time passing. But here's the deal. United us, my great friend and my hero. When I was, I think when I was at New York was, in fact I know it was, I broke his records for touchdown passes and yards game passing. And so after the, I set the record,

I was up in Buffalo playing up there. and they were writing, what is this? We never thought of you as a passer. You broke John Uninitus's record, and those records held for 18 years by Fred Peyton Mandy's records held for three years. Yeah. And so I showed that you can run and pass at the same time.

I love Patrick. What's his love, Patrick Holmes? Yeah. Yeah, he's great. He is a mobile quarterback. It's almost impossible today to play quarterback, not being a mobile quarterback. And even some of your older guys that are playing, they have mobility. They can run when they have to run.

They can buy time running. And it's the way the quarterback position is going to be played whether you like it or not. I think Aaron Rogers is probably the last guy you're going to see that was of the era of pocket passer. Yeah. And he was. and a great, unbelievable talent, but he in his prime would run. He would run to get the window

set to throw, and he still does. He's a remarkable player, and he wasn't just a pocket quarterback. I'm thinking now, who was just a pocket quarterback anymore? I can't tell you. Nope. Maybe there's one I'm missing,

but I can't tell you. But in my era, we were laughed at, we were, you know, it wasn't the way to go and da-da-da-da-da-die. and so, but it's just what I did. I did it all my life. You have any regrets? Yes.

I have regrets. I got the chance that I came back to Minnesota because New York, I was 31 years old, and I went to Mr. Mara, the owner of the team and his father owned the team before him, his kids owned it now, and I played there for five years in New York. and I really love playing in New York.

But I really, we just didn't have the talent there and the organization to win. And so I asked him if he would, I said, you know, I'm 31 years old. I want a chance to be able to get in the playoffs and play for a Super Bowl. You need more than me here. You need to rebuild this whole organization.

He said, Do you mean you don't want to play for the New York football giants? I said, oh, I love playing for the New York football giants. I really loved it. But we didn't have all the stuff. So you could get something for me. So he traded me back to Minnesota. And he got three number one, I think he got three number one choices in two players.

Damn. Yeah, and I went back there, and I met a man that made my career mean something. I met a little guy who was a great coach in Canada and he was a great coach in Minnesota before I knew him. His name was Bud Grant. And Bud Grant was different from all the other coaches. He never called plays from the sideline. He did it his way.

He was as great a coach as it was. but all the great coaches that I played for. I played for him, I played for Lombardi and All-Star Games and Tom Landry and those people. Big Saban, who arguably is the greatest college coach of all time, is a great friend of mine. And I asked Saban a month or two ago, I said, what makes you different from the people

I just mentioned Landry and all those great coaches? And he said, well, I really never thought about it. I said, I've thought about it. All of you coaches, I played for all of you in All-Star games or whatever it was. I said, you're authentic. You are yourself. You're not trying to be somebody else. Bud wasn't trying to be Tom Landry or Lombardi or vice versa.

And Saman said, you know, you got something there. I said, yeah, I know I do. Bud Grant was not an ex and nose guy. He had the best instincts of anybody I know. but he let his offensive coordinator go he let his defense coordinator coach and he let me be me and so

we're playing the game against the ramp for the championship and this is Bud Graham and he let me call the place and he let me put in the pass offense and so we're playing the Rams right around the day after two days after Christmas

and we have a in the fourth quarter, we're winning by three points, and I had third and five. And I came over, I said, he never called to play, but they'd call timeout, so I knew he'd say something.

I wanted to hear what he said. I said, what do you think, bud? He said, well, I think we played for another three quarters that they couldn't score on our defense. The purple people eaters were stipulate. That's all he had. I came out third and four. I ran the ball. We didn't make it.

But we won the game because they couldn't score on our defense. He had more common sense than any person I've ever been around in business or in football. He was different from everybody there was. He was not an ex and those guy. But he was, he turned my life around by giving me the opportunity to win. and that's my six years there we we won we were in three of the three we went to three uh super bowls in those six years that i was there and it was because he let us play but he was smart about it he wasn't just going to go play he was smart about it he was one cool guy that's

great here's a question i want to ask you uh again i'm a little bit of a student of the game so when Unitas gets hurt, Earl Morrill gets hurt, they bring in Alan Amici. Back in the day, he's the first guy to have the arm band because he's the running back and he doesn't know the damn play. So did you ever adapt to that coming up? Or were you, was it always up here in your head? Well, I put in the offense. But I mean, did you, did you ever use the arm thing like none of that? No. I mean, I know that was a necessity then, but it's now and a tool that these guys use. Yeah, well, they don't call the place.

Right, at all. They look at this and they got somebody in their ear. I forget about the ear. And telling them what to call. And yours is all here. Yeah, yeah. And the first guy to kind of do that. One thing is Paul Brown, who coached at Cleveland.

Yeah, your audience may not know Paul Brown. Look him up. He was the most successful coach in football in the 40s and 50s. The Cleveland Browns came to the NFL in about 49. And he was a genius coach. When I came to pro football, I went down, he was now in Cincinnati. I went down and spent three days with him. Tell me how to play quarterback.

I went to Sid like, teach me how to play quarterback. But back to Paul Brown. Paul Brown was the first guy to call the place. He won in the NFL. He won in the NFL. the NFL. He was a brilliant coach. But he'd have his guard. He'd have three starting guards. And he always had one guard. He'd give him the play. He'd run on the field and give it to the quarterback. And he was brilliant. And I learned to play football from watching the Unitedesses,

but I went and met with the coaches. I wouldn't spend three days to him in his home in Cleveland because I wanted to find out from him, how should the quarterback? play. With Landry and Don Shula and Lombardy, I played an All-Star game, so I'd stay after practice and say, tell me how a quarterback should play. And with Lombardy, he didn't have many plays. I said, Coach Lombardi, we have about 60 plays in our office in Minnesota, and I put them in. I said, but here at the All-Star game, we only got six runs and six passes. Why is that? He said, we could take the six passes that he had in pro football and they could blitz.

They could have five men in the line, eight men of the line. We can do it with any defense they have. We know how to make it work. I came back to Minnesota and we put in six plays. I took them down from 50 to six. and that's what we did. I learned from all of them. I have never had my own thought in football or in business.

I've always gone out to not only to work and play, but I got with the great coaches and got them to teach me. Sam Walton, I've got him on my show. He became one of my best friends. I got out of because I did a lot of work with Sam Walton. He's the greatest businessman the world's ever seen. and I went out to the great business people that I knew running businesses.

I did that while I was playing football. Tell me how you do it. So I've never had an original thought. Everything I've learned is from somebody else, but I've learned a lot. So let me ask you this then, Fran. Obviously, I think that's the best way to be, you know, the people to know everything, know nothing,

and you're out there wanting to learn everything from anyone, any little tip trick, loophole, all of it, like teach me, please. Are you a resource for anyone today? Do you mentor any of the players? Are you still involved in that way? Or is it more business for you? That's an interesting thing.

The present coach of the Vikings came to see me about a year ago. He played football for a couple of years in NFL, one year with Brady. He's a brilliant coach. he's the only coach or player in my lifetime this company me to sit down and say how did you do it? The only one.

Bullshit. Isn't that interesting? It's the only one. Only one? The only one. You're a Hall of Fame quarterback. And last year and last year he got coach of the year

at 39 years old. He's a brilliant coach. But I've, you know, I've learned from other people. And I like that. They have so much more knowledge than I have.

And I would ask them questions, ask them questions. And thankfully, they would sit down with me business people or quarterbacks or coaches and tell me how they did it. Sid Luckman played at Chicago Bears in the heyday of the Bears. Because his owner started the National Football League. He was a slick guy, handsome guy, moved down to Florida, well-dressed and so forth, and he was one of my mentors. And way into my life as a football player, he may have been my favorite mentor, and he really helped me. But all of them, I was all of them.

I was some of Paul Brown, some of at Lombardi, a lot of Bud Grant, and goes on and on and on. And that's how I learned. But business again is the same way. I learned from the chairman of the board of IBM, who was a partner with me way back, Sam Walton. Don Keogh, the president of the Coca-Cola company. And it goes on and on and on. I haven't had an original thought myself. I really haven't.

It's come from other people, what I read, what I asked, and what they told me. But I went out and I got the people, the partner with the people that really had great talent and great hearts and were honest and wanted to help people. The mission of business is what? To do something to help somebody sell more product, have more product, have more assets. That's the mission. That's what I do. And I built a lot of companies. We still own a lot of companies,

and my hands are all over the place, and all I do is say the same thing to them that these guys say to me, and these guys are really smart, a lot smarter than I. Technology-wise, they can go way beyond, but we use that technology like we have today to do things that I never thought we could ever do. This is the greatest time in business that I've ever seen. You just got to open your brain up and say,

I'm going to get involved with AI. I'm going to find out how this can help me be more efficient. And that's what's happening. And we're just at the beginning of it. Just at the beginning of it. It's going to go on and grow like crazy. We're doing better things business-wise in America than anybody's ever done in the rest of the world

or with our country right now. Just hang on. Let me ask you this. I want to respect your time and get you out of here shortly. But, okay, post-football career you end up. but like I say, I see you on, that's incredible. My dad's like, oh, you got to know who this guy is. Was that an intentional move into entertainment or how did that come about?

I didn't have any money. I didn't make any money playing football. My last, I was the highest paid player in 1978 in football. They paid me $180,000. Wow. So I went out, did Monday night football because they paid me $25,000 a game or do Monday night football. Then that's incredible came along.

And this director said, gosh, I really want you to be on this new show. That's incredible. We filmed 25 shows a year. I made $25,000 a show. Now, I did that to put up. That money went back into my businesses. Since I was seven, I've always been a business. But I keep going and changing.

Because if we stay the same, if I stay the same in my business, my office of game planning, I could have never done what I did. We had to have better plays and better, and business is no different. I am challenging our people, challenging myself, we've got to be better. We got to have better partners. We got to have better ideas. Our mission is very simple, not to make money. That's a byproduct of our mission, but to go out and learn and help people do better.

If I can help people do better, I'm going to have a lot of customers, and I've got a lot of customers, and they do extremely well. Not because of me is because of what I've learned and reached out to get smarter. Because I'm not smart enough by myself. I failed kindergarten. That's the truth. Listen, the men like you, excuse me, the people like you and me who know we're not smart enough without. other people are the smart ones. It's all these no-in-alls the dumbest people out there.

Okay. Last question before I'd ask you advice you give to your 16-year-old self. Statistically, I don't care if it's high school, college, NFL, give me your best game ever. What's the one where you're like, man, what's your Al Bundy, poke-high game? I loved every game. I loved the ones we won more than that.

but I go back to the greatest moment happened my first game I ever played. And the reason it did, nobody had ever played a won a game their first year. Tom Landry did when he came in 60. And being prepared to start, not starting, and then go out in the second quarter and be able to execute. and I couldn't win it by myself. I had to execute. I had to get the ball in the hands of my running backs, my receivers.

I had to rely on my defense to get sacks. Quarterbacks are important, but we got to have all the help in the world. We've got to have great, great teammates. And if you don't understand that, you don't play. And a lot of quarterbacks have great talent. Don't make it. All of them can run. All of them can throw.

They're physical, but you only got four or five out of 32 teams. Only four or five quarterbacks can really play. So mainly I think they don't go out and find out how they can get better. And you've got to get better in your tip in here. That's right. And you've got to go out and get that information from quarterbacks and coaches that have proven themselves. So everything I know is from somebody else. I have never had an original thought, and I'm okay with that.

I love that. Fran, I'm going to let you get out of here. Real quick, advice you would give to 16-year-old Fran Tarkington. That's a good question. And be yourself. You can learn from other people, but you are a unique person that God has given you life. Be yourself, be kind, be generous,

you know all this anger we see today in this country anger never wins and all we got to do is go to the left or the right it's it's this and that it's anger anger anger I don't have anger I walk away from anger and if you're angry I don't want to be around you and that's that's the best lesson I've learned in my now 65 years in 85 years I'm 805 years 85 years as soon to be 86 years. Thank you so much. Please promote everything you'd like one more time, Fran. Go ahead. Well, we're talking about PIP IQ.

It's an AI. We've built it here. We've now taken it out to some people to go work, and it's working well. You need to go look at it. And if you'll just go, you can schedule a demo and get started with PIPIQ. Take a look at it and see if it's for you.

If it's not for you, you, don't do it. If it doesn't make sense for you, don't do it. But we can help you. We got people here who can help you understand the power of this AI thing that's going on and help your business, and you'll be glad you did. Fran, thank you so much. My pleasure. Thanks. I love being with you. Hey, I can't tell you how great this was. Thank you so much. Thank you. All of you out there watching, listening, thank you so much. We'll talk you all next week.