Sunday: 9:03 a.m.  It’s time for all things Favre.  There’s a picture of Brett Favre on Star Tribune.com.  Gosh, his hair is really gray, even for a guy nearing 40.  His agent, Bus Cook, (what a great Southern name) could be talking endorsement deal with Just for Men right now.

9:05 p.m.  Thought I might receive a last minute call a few days ago from a friend who has a private jet.  He runs free transportation to Vikings and Gophers games.  I’ve always wanted to see Cleveland in September.

9:45 a.m.  KFAN’s Dan Barreiro is pontificating about how talented the Vikings are and the test coach Brad Childress faces to have this team realize its potential.  In his fourth season, looking for a first playoff win, Childress is on the spot—at least on talk radio.

10:26 a.m. I assume Childress has decided who will be the No. 2 quarterback today.  The easy choice here is Tarvaris Jackson.

12:14 p.m. Favre’s first regular season play as a Viking is a handoff to Adrian Peterson.  Moments later he completes his first pass and not long after is sacked for the first time in Purple.  Life has its ups and downs.

12:32 p.m. Favre and wide receiver Sidney Rice are out of sync on a potential touchdown pass.  The easy explanation is Favre hasn’t been practicing with the team long enough.  Vikings settle for a field goal and a 3-3 first quarter tie.

1:20 p.m.  TV color man Brian Billick asks, “Will the Vikings let Favre be Favre?”   Billick never answers his own question but on this day Favre doesn’t force a lot of passes and the Vikings offense stays conservative.

2:12 p.m. Favre shows his child-like passion for football after throwing a six-yard touchdown pass to rookie Percy Harvin.  Favre piles on top of Harvin after throwing the pass that puts the Vikings ahead 24-13 in the third quarter.  It’s evident the Vikings have a special trio developing in Favre, Harvin and Peterson.

2:45 p.m.  With typical determination and speed, Peterson runs 64 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter to put the game away as the Vikings take a 34-13 lead over a mediocre (charitable description?) Browns team.

2:46 p.m. Peterson is a swell runner but I can’t rate him ahead (yet) of all-time great Jim Brown who played nine seasons for the Browns in Cleveland before starting a forgettable acting career.   Brown, with a cane at his side, watches this game from the sidelines.

Cleveland, drafting at No. 3 in the 2007 draft, was one of the teams that let Peterson slip all the way to No. 7 where the Vikings said, “thank you.”  If I am a Cleveland fan, I am ticked off even though the Browns did choose Joe Thomas, a Pro Bowl offensive guard.

3:16 p.m.  Childress is asked on his KFAN radio post-game show to describe Peterson who ran for three touchdowns and 180 yards.  “He’s relentless.  That’s the thing that comes to mind,” Childress said.

5:11 p.m.  Sports Headliners emerges from a two-hour post-game analysis with this: the Vikings didn’t dazzle today but their talent prevailed with the promise of more difficult days and also better performances ahead.  Next week they play at Detroit against the NFL’s train wreck franchise, the Lions.  Who could blame Favre if he’s thinking this schedule is a pleasant way to begin life as a Viking.

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Fran Tarkenton still cheers for the Vikings and has no jealousy of Brett Favre despite his strong criticism earlier this year of the team’s new quarterback.  Tarkenton, the franchise’s greatest quarterback, spoke to Sports Headliners about his new book, Everyday Is Game Day, and other subjects including Favre during a telephone interview.

Tarkenton received national attention earlier when he criticized Favre for his indecisiveness about playing for the Packers last year and his more recent hesitation in signing with the Vikings. The hall of fame quarterback turned businessman insists it was unfair of Favre to not inform both organizations about his commitments to them.  Tarkenton was quoted by espn.com as saying:

“We have responsibilities. We’re just not athletes that are in it all for ourself.  Football, is it not a team game?  Isn’t it all about team?… And here comes Brett Favre riding in on his white horse, doesn’t go to training camp, doesn’t come to off-season workouts and he’s gonna come on his white horse and bond with all these players.”  https://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4409512

Tarkenton quarterbacked the Vikings in three Super Bowl losses while the prospect looms of Favre helping the franchise win its first Super Bowl.  Tarkenton ranks with the NFL’s greatest quarterbacks ever but Favre holds most of the league’s major passing records.

Tarkenton was asked during the Sports Headliners interview how he would respond to someone who suggested his criticisms were based on jealousy.  “I have no jealousy of anybody about anything,” he said.  “I gave my opinion.”

Why did Tarkenton speak out so directly?  “I spoke out because I had a conviction,” he said.  “People didn’t have to agree with it or not agree with it.  I wish nobody harm.  I think the Vikings are going to have a terrific season, with or without Brett Favre.  And it looks like it’s going to be with Brett Favre.  They’ve got a tremendous football team. They’re the best rushing team in football and the best against the rush in football.”

Tarkenton said he doesn’t know Favre and regards him as a “great quarterback.”  He also said if the Vikings have a special season the success will be predicated on a lot more than quarterback play and that quarterbacks receive too much “ballyhoo.”  He talked about playing for six seasons with the Vikings, then five with the Giants without much team success.  Then he returned to the Vikings and joined a roster with great players like defensive linemen Jim Marshall, Alan Page and Carl Eller.  The Vikings, with Tarkenton quarterbacking, won six division titles and went to three Super Bowls in seven years.

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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.

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