Ask Tarkenton for a Super Bowl favorite this season and he picks the Vikings. “I think right now they’re the favorite in the clubhouse,” he said. “I think they’ve got the best team in all of football. It doesn’t mean that they’re going to win. You got to have a lot of things happen for you. But I think they have a good chance of doing that. It would be fine with me if they do.”
Tarkenton remains a Vikings fan even though he seldom returns to Minneapolis and makes his home in Atlanta. Does he root for the Vikings more than any other team? “Sure,” he answered. “The rest of them (other teams) I watch for pleasure. I pull for the Vikings. Always have.”
Tarkenton prides himself on being an entrepreneur who has started and run many companies. His new book is about more than football story telling, although there’s plenty of that.
Tarkenton wasn’t interested in just writing about football, choosing to offer practical advice in the book that can help people in their lives regardless of careers. He shares life lessons including experiences with former Vikings coach Bud Grant whom Tarkenton describes in the book as his “teacher, mentor and coach.”
Grant’s strengths include his willingness to look at reality, then make decisions on the way things are, not how some people might wish them to be. Tarkenton said seldom does a day go by that he doesn’t tell Bud Grant stories, describing Grant as a person “who has more common sense than anyone I know.”
A classic in the book was the day Tarkenton went to Grant, the great outdoorsman and dog lover, with a lengthy explanation about how Tarkenton had tried without success to housebreak his German shepherd. After about 15 minutes Tarkenton was finally finished and asked what to do. Grant simply replied, “Shoot him. You will do the breed a great service.”
While there’s more life lessons advice in the book like the importance of evaluating people and situations, and being prepared, there are also some revelations about the quarterback who could lead, scramble and entertain with the greatest players of all time. Tarkenton has had Attention Deficit Disorder all his life and while in high school injured his right shoulder. For the remainder of his football career he could never throw the ball more than 55 yards.
Tarkenton confirms in the book one of the storied tales about his career. He did indeed draw up plays in the dirt while in the huddle. He did so in college playing for Georgia and also with the Vikings.
His Georgia playing debut came when the starting quarterback was slow to get off the bench, and Tarkenton put himself in the game. The coach let him play and Tarkenton drove the Bulldogs to a touchdown in Austin against Texas. Trailing 7-6, Tarkenton showed additional nerve by calling for a two point conversion that was successful. The story didn’t have a happy ending, though. The coach put Tarkenton back on the bench and Georgia lost.
Everyday Is Game Day is co-written by local author Jim Bruton, a former prison warden, and Gophers football player who had tryouts with the Vikings and Cowboys.