What Tarkenton Actually Said This Time
by DCPurple on Nov 15, 2009 12:52 PM CST
19 comments
Fran Tarkenton. The first QB of the Minnesota Vikings, the first drafted QB of the Vikings, the longest tenured QB of the Vikings, the man who captained the Vikings to 3 Super Bowls, the man who was a 9-time Pro Bowler, 6-time All-Pro, won numerous NFL awards and accolaides, retired owning almost every NFL passing record, is the reason that you will NEVER again see the #10 worn by anyone else in Purple, and, oh yes, by the way, is also enshrined in the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, was asked to do an interview last week.
True, Tark is 'yesterdays news', an old-timer, and these days, Favre is the favored flavor... but some of us remember who Francis Asbury Tarkenton is and what he achieved with the Minnesota Vikings, and think that he might know what he's talking about when it comes to football, the NFL, and perhaps even playing the position of QB. If there is such a thing as an 'expert' in the field of 'NFL Quarterbacks', Tarkenton is definitely qualified as one.
Before all the complaining spin was put on it, the interview looked something like this on ESPN;
Fran Tarkenton admits he hasn't seen much of Jay Cutler, but he saw enough Thursday night to render an opinion on the embattled Chicago Bears quarterback.
"I really question whether he can play," Tarkenton, the Hall of Fame quarterback and former Minnesota Viking, said Friday on "The Waddle and Silvy Show" on ESPN 1000 in Chicago. "Quarterbacks need to make their team better. If it's a bad team, they can even make a bad team better. Somebody may say well, even Peyton Manning couldn't help the Bears. Yes, he could. Tom Brady could, too. They might not win the championship or get to the playoffs, but they would make that team better. Those wide receivers who are struggling would be better because they would make them better."
Cutler threw five interceptions, including one in the end zone in the final seconds of the Bears' 10-6 loss Thursday to the San Francisco 49ers.
Tarkenton, who led the Vikings to three Super Bowls in the 1970s, disputed the notion that Cutler's mechanics needed work. It's a lot simpler than that, he said.
"Great quarterbacks, good quarterbacks, make plays," Tarkenton said on "The Waddle and Silvy Show." "Mechanics is overwrought. Whether they're strong-armed, weak-armed, throw sidearm, throw overhead, they're fast, they're quick, I don't care. I just want someone to make plays. Peyton Manning doesn't look beautiful back there.
"Jay Cutler had every opportunity to make plays for his team last night and every opportunity he didn't. That's how I judge a quarterback: Either you make plays or you don't. I don't even want to talk about mechanics."What advice would Tarkenton give Cutler?
"If Jay Cutler is not comfortable with the offense or the way they are calling the plays, he ought to go in there and tell that coach [expletive]," Tarkenton said during radio interview. "Dan Fouts came into the league and for the first couple of years he was struggling. He said, 'What do you do?' I said, 'Dan, if you're not willing to go tell your head coach or your coordinator to kiss off, then you can't play quarterback in this league.'
"I don't think that will solve the problems of the Chicago Bears. The Chicago Bears need to start over. But for Jay Cutler to be a quarterback and make plays, he's got to take charge."
I'll toss a poll up on the response to what Tark actually said, but my own person 2 cents is that he was dead on target. A good QB will improve even a bad team. Anyone who disagrees with this is probably the coach of the Washington Redskins a crappy NFL team looking for excuses for why his team lousy.
He's also saying that it doesn't matter what the QB's style is, or how strong his arm is; a GOOD NFL QB will make plays, will find a way to make things happen for his team. Hrmn, sounds like leadership, and taking responsibility, to me. I can see why that upsets some folks. Worse, it takes away every excuse that's been made for every half-arsed QB prospect to find his way into the ranks of the NFL. Tark went on to name a pair of QBs in the NFL that he has regard and admiration for; Brady and Peyton Manning.
As for his advice for Cutler, that's pretty basic stuff. He's telling him to man up, take charge and do things the way he knows how to do them best. If the coach doesn't like it, what's he going to do? Bench him? Cutler should be glad that an HoF QB like Tark actually thinks that Cutler has the potential to be good enough to run a football team, that's more credit than I give Cutler.
Maybe Tark's just a dinosaur that comes from an era when it was expected that NFL QBs had both testicles intact and the best of them were actually leaders on the field, rather than game managers, and it's this sort of outmoded thinking that gives politically correct sensitive folks nightmares when they sleep.
So what's to argue with on Tark's statements?
This FanPost was created by a registered user of The Daily Norseman, and does not necessarily reflect the views of the staff of the site. However, since this is a community, that view is no less important.
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Good thing Tarkenton is perfect....???????????
Please do not misunderstand me….I do appreciate all he did for the Vikings in his day….
But I am not sure at the end of the day he can/should call out someone/anyone for being too this or too that regarding the QB position….
After all, he DID NOT get it done…yes he was w the Vikings during three SB appearances….and lost all three….
What got the Viking teams of those days to the SB? Was it Tarkenton alone?
Hell no….there were a whole host of other players…i.e. Purple People Eaters….
Sorry, most of his comments just sound like rantings of a irrelevant has been who does not have the grace to politely back out/decline to comment…..
Maybe some of his comments were on target, but they are poisoned by his hidden agenda, which is evidenced in all the statements he has recently made….
Basically I think Favre is going to take his own place in the Vikings legacy, he does not need to replace Tark…his is there forever…why ruin that with pettiness?
I lived/grew up near a HOFer named Bronko Nagurski, and he was invisible for the most part regarding press as far as I know (was a kid then of course) after his hey day….
No plethora of attention grabbing antics such as seling books or selling stuff on the TV or giving interviews that are mostly negative and degrading in some ways….You get my drift…
Anyway, Vikings get a W tonight and are one step closer to graceland, Valhalla!
SKOL!
I would rather be IN the Arena than watching from the stands...That is my life!
* Read Teddy Roosevelt's "Man in the Arena" if you need further explanation...
by vikingfanfrom afar on Nov 15, 2009 4:02 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
Tark was the original "Too This...Too That" QB
I would also argue that playing the position so many decades ago does not make one an expert of qb play. One might argue that the helter skelter trademarked Tarkenton style would be the opposite of expert. Did he make plays? Oh, by any definition! I agree with him that that is what counts ‘at the end of the day.’
He hasn’t been around football in any contructive manner since he left the game. His hasn’t imparted any particular knowledge through any of his opining. What exactly is it he has talked about? Nothing that matters.
by LoveHate on Nov 15, 2009 4:12 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs
Well that's completely different
The other poster edited down a lot more and made it seem that Tarkenton’s comments were directed at Favre. This clears it up quite a bit. Thanks for posting this. Fran is still the man.
"Is it normal to wake up in the morning in a sweat because you can't wait to beat another human's guts out?" -Joe Kapp
by less cowbell, more 'neau on Nov 15, 2009 4:53 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
If you reread the article, what he said in there is the same thing as here. Yahoo just re-added all the crap from back in May, hence why I said take the article with a grain of salt since it was from Yahoo. I copied the article as it was written, I sure as hell didn’t edit a thing to make it look like Favre was getting criticized again.
"If you're gonna shoot, shoot, don't talk."
"That is the craziest sonofabitch I ever saw, how many more like him do you think are up there?"
"We have clearance Clearance. Roger Rodger, what's our vector Victor?"
by VikesFaninNM on Nov 15, 2009 6:02 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs
Take Joe Kapp as an example
I don’t know of anyone who ever described Kapp as a picture-perfect QB, his passes were sometimes known to wobble end over end! For Kapp, a spiral was an anomally rather than the norm, lolol! But no one can say that he wasn’t a real leader, or a playmaker.
Ah, ah,
We come from the land of the ice and snow,
From the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.
The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands,
To fight the horde, singing and crying: Valhalla, I am coming!
SKOL!
by DCPurple on Nov 15, 2009 5:14 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
Ack. That was supposed to be a reply to less cowbell, my bad
Ah, ah,
We come from the land of the ice and snow,
From the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.
The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands,
To fight the horde, singing and crying: Valhalla, I am coming!
SKOL!
by DCPurple on Nov 15, 2009 5:14 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs
That is true
Not pretty….but got us to the 1st SB….
I would rather be IN the Arena than watching from the stands...That is my life!
* Read Teddy Roosevelt's "Man in the Arena" if you need further explanation...
by vikingfanfrom afar on Nov 15, 2009 6:21 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs
+1
kapp may have been the worst qb from a technical standpoint to ever start for the vikings but he was a leader.
by iseepurplepeople on Nov 16, 2009 4:55 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs
Hmmmm
Yeah, good idea to kick Cutler while he’s down afte a really bad game, and say he maybe he “can’t” play the game. Why worry about eating some crow later when we play the guy twice this season yet? If there is anything that can be said about Cutler based on his career to date, it is that he can follow up a bad game with a great one.
TiggerSr
by TiggerSr on Nov 15, 2009 7:43 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
tark was never much of a quarterback himself
He benefited from the great purple people eater defense.And a great coach in Bud Grant.He is right that good quarterbacks make play’s,but i’m afraid chicago is a place good quarterbacks go to die. Cutler will never be great as long as Lovie Smith is their coach.
by simone219 on Nov 15, 2009 9:40 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
Tark is right
When he got to the NFL, everybody said he was too small, and he shouldn’t run around in the backfield. He should just throw the ball. They said his arm was too weak. The defense got mad and wanted to pound him into mush because Tarkenton was just this little guy running around making plays making them look bad.
All Tarkenton ever did was make plays. He made plays all the time. He played for about 18 years, outlasting many of the defenders that wanted to take him down, and owned all the records when he retired. He proved everybody wrong.
Tarkenton paved the way for the mobile quarterbacks of today.
I think what Tarkenton was saying is that you just go make plays if you are a good quarterback. Mechanics might be there or not. You are judged by results. The thing with Cutler is that even when he throws with poor mechanics, he can throw the ball with a lot off velocity and accuracy. Thus, especially for Cutler, mechanics are not the main issue. It’s just that he doesn’t always make plays.
by medicineball on Nov 15, 2009 10:41 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
Tarkenton is 100% right
When he got to the NFL, everybody said he was too small, and he shouldn’t run around in the backfield. He should just throw the ball. They said his arm was too weak. The defense got mad and wanted to pound him into mush because Tarkenton was just this little guy running around making plays making them look bad.
All Tarkenton ever did was make plays. He made plays all the time. He played for about 18 years, outlasting many of the defenders that wanted to take him down, and owned all the records when he retired. He proved everybody wrong.
Tarkenton paved the way for the mobile quarterbacks of today.
I think what Tarkenton was saying is that you just go make plays if you are a good quarterback. Mechanics might be there or not. You are judged by results. The thing with Cutler is that even when he throws with poor mechanics, he can throw the ball with a lot off velocity and accuracy. Thus, especially for Cutler, mechanics are not the main issue. It’s just that he doesn’t always make plays.
by medicineball on Nov 15, 2009 10:41 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
Tark the "messenger"
Lets stop analyzing the messenger and check out the message. All he is ssaying is that to be a great, good QB you need to make plays, bottom line, make plays that truelly all that matters.
We know this to be true, look at Big Ben, Doug Flutie, Dan Fouts to name a few and oh yeah Bret Favre. Looking at how these QBs throw passes it would be a lesson on bad mechanics and discepline. Off your back foot, across your body, hopping to the side while throwing, none of this should lead to anything positive but it has and will continue to do so, because good and great ones make plays work anyway they can.
JDB had good mechanics but that didn’t keep him on the roster, did it?
by midnightwonder on Nov 16, 2009 8:16 AM CST reply actions 0 recs
The Tark
I personally no longer give a rats ass what the tark thinks. After his trashing the Vikes and Favre at the beginning of the season, albeit, to promote his new book .
He lost my respect then and will not regain it until he comes out and mans up on his “mistake”.
by nwtrucker on Nov 16, 2009 11:15 AM CST reply actions 0 recs
Favre has good mechanics this year
Favre is having his best season ever, statistically. He has mostly thrown with good mechanics this year.
Good mechanics help a lot, but, as Tarkenton said, that’s not everything.
by medicineball on Nov 16, 2009 11:58 AM CST reply actions 0 recs
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