Fran, a friend and colleague. Gary
Founder, Tarkenton Companies and Tarkenton Private Capital | Investor | Advisor | Innovator
In my fourth exhibition game after being drafted by the Vikings, we played the Chicago Bears and they won 30-7. I played about half the game, and they overwhelmed me. I couldn’t do anything. Pocket passing was not working. I knew I needed to change my game in order to be successful. Conveniently enough, our first regular season game that year was against those same Chicago Bears. I didn’t start the game, but I entered the game early on in relief of George Shaw and tried out my new playing style. I scrambled. I ran from one side of the field to the other buying time to find an open man—and threw 4 touchdown passes and ran for another, as we pulled off one of the biggest upsets imaginable, a 37-13 victory over the iconic Chicago Bears in our franchise’s first game ever. After that, I became known as the scrambler. It wasn’t how I learned to play going through high school and college, but it was born out of necessity. I adapted to my situation. Rather than look for excuses, look for creative and innovative ways to be able to get your job done.