Fran Takes On Favre

With the Vikings possibly on the brink of acquiring their first quarterback with Hall of Fame credentials since Fran Tarkenton, their last quarterback with Hall of Fame credentials (i.e., Fran Tarkenton) is sounding off. “I think it’s despicable,” Tarkenton told 790 The Zone in Atlanta (via the Minneapolis Star Tribune) regarding the possibility of Brett Favre playing for the Vikings. “What he put the Packers through last year was not good. Here’s an organization that was loyal to him for 17, 18 years, provided stability of organization, provided players. It just wasn’t about Brett Favre. In this day and time, we have glorified the Brett Favre’s of the world so much, they think it’s about them. He goes to New York and bombs. He’s 39 years old. How would you like Ray Nitschke in his last year [playing for] the Vikings, or I retire, and go play for the Packers? I kind of hope it happens, so he can fail.” (Fran, you really need to come out of your shell.) “He told the Packers [after 2008 that], ‘I’m retiring,’” Tarkenton said. “They’ve got to move on. They’ve got to go through their offseason plan, their workouts, they go with the other quarterback [Aaron Rodgers], who is a good player, and then [Favre] comes back and says, ‘I think I want to play.’ . . . You build your team in the offseason. Everybody knows that. It’s about team. It’s not about Brett Favre. So he goes and runs up to the Jets, doesn’t even dress in the locker room with the players. Has a separate facility. Playing quarterback is about the relationships you have with your coaches, with your players, with your trainers, with your managers. How can you do that if you show up on gameday and you haven’t put the time in? And now he’s trying to do it again in Minnesota. And if Minnesota bites, God bless them. . . . “He’s been a great player, there’s no question about it, but it’s all about him. It is supposed to be all about your team. If you’re going to be the quarterback of your team, you need to be there in the offseason workouts in March and April. Peyton Manning’s there. Tom Brady’s there.” There’s more -- and the starting quarterback of the other team for which Tarkenton played got hit with some shrapnel, too. “I think [Favre] has been a great flamboyant quarterback, but he has made more stupid plays than any great quarterback that I’ve ever seen,” Tarkenton said. “Look at his final game in a Packers uniform [the 2007 NFC title game]. He blew that game against the Giants. He’s playing against Eli Manning. I love Eli Manning, but he’s still not a great quarterback. He’s not Peyton yet, or Tom Brady. He’s just a guy. And [the Packers] are playing at home, and they’re in a tight situation, they went to overtime and [Favre] throws the interception that allows [the Giants] to come back and win the game.” We’ve got a ton of respect for Fran, but he’s got less authority on this matter than he’d have if one of his fingers sported a Super Bowl ring. Or if he hadn’t forced his way out of Minnesota in the late ‘60s because he couldn’t get along with coach Norm Van Brocklin. So while the Tarkenton of 2009 speaks with a lifetime’s worth of wisdom, we’ve got a feeling that the Fran who played pro football was a lot more like Favre than today’s Fran would ever admit. That said, we agree with Tarkenton. As we’ve previously said, Favre is the first elite athlete to tarnish his legacy not by anything he did on the field late in his career, but by lots of things he said and did away from the white lines at a time when he could still perform at a high level. [Editor’s note: I clarified that last sentence -- obviously, plenty of great players have tarnished their images based on things they did away from the field.] His best move would be to remain retired in 2009. And 2010. And 2011. And beyond.