January 8, 2025 • 44 mins
On the latest NFL Players: Second Acts podcast, Hall of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton joins Peanut and Roman. Fran talks about being the first scrambling quarterback, and setting long-standing NFL records. He discusses how he developed his business acumen that led him to create 25 business during and after the NFL. Fran also tells the story of how he became the first QB in NFL history to get ejected from a game.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I go up to the line, I said, hey, hey, Jack,
have a merry Christmas. Ask I ran off the field.
He was trying to kill me.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Welcome to the NFL Player Second Acts Podcast. I'm Peanut
Tillman and with me as always my god Roman Arf.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
What's up, baby man. Don't be hitting me like that.
Thank you, we're here in Atlanta. Thank you at iHeartRadio.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
Allowing us to use their studios. I'm not gonna say
anything else, Peanut, I want to heart him. Get to
this legendary guest that we have today, because he has
a ton of stories.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
His resume is like really long, so forgive me if
I have to read this one. He's a member of
the NFL Hall of Fame, So right there, we're blessed
with football Royalty. One of the greatest quarterbacks to ever
play the game. When he retired, he basically held every passing, rushing,
touchdown completion. He held every record that a quarterback could have.
(00:59):
He's known as probably the first scrambling quarterback in the NFL,
and he's an accomplished entrepreneur, businessman, and author. Ladies and gentlemen,
please welcome to the pod. Friand targetin the Friends are
glad to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
The free guys. We call you mister like you're yeah,
you don't need to call me mister. But you know
I've lived a great life. I'm eighty four point six
years old. I played here in Georgia for the Athens Trojan.
We won the state championship in football. I played basketball,
(01:39):
baseball and football four years of each. Went across the
street to Georgia Bulldogs, who had not won anything since
the forties.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I didn't know you went to Athens.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Hih oh. Yeah. I was an Athens ye Trojan and
we beat Valdosta for the state championship forty one twenty.
There it is, and they're back thinking that that's back
in nineteen fifty five.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Were anybody's going forty points back now?
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Because because you had a center, two guards, two tackles,
and you had two ends, and the two ends played
offense as the ends the catch passed it, but we
didn't throw them any passes, but they were the defensive ends.
And in the backfield you had the quarterback to fall
back and two half backs, so nobody was spread out.
It was archaic, but we played. There's a team here
(02:24):
in Georgia Valdosta, Georgia was the Massillon, Ohio of the South.
It was the powerhouse of the South. So we're playing
a championship game, and I had busted my shoulder earlier
in the season, so I couldn't throw anymore. And so
we're playing them, and we beat them forty one to twenty.
(02:48):
I ran the opening kickoff back and they called it
for a touchdown, and they called it back and I
tried one pass, but I couldn't throw it because my
shoulder was broken, and I did complete it. So we
ran the ball and scored forty one points. But what
happened that year? I played defense and offense, and in
(03:09):
practices we had tackling drills. Yeah, you guys probably had
tackling drill, but quarterbacks have tackling drills. And I separated
my should. I celebrated my shoulder and mid part of
my junior year. And before I did that, at fourteen
years old, I could throw the football seventy five yards.
After that, I can never throw it more than fifty
(03:30):
five yards. My last year in professional football, I played
eighteen years. My shoulder. They were shooting it up with
what they shoot.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Up the horses, probably some lot of cane or something.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Yeah, something like that beautas ology and try to And
I did that for the last four years of my career.
So my last year, eighteenth year, I am thirty nine
years old. I'm one month of being forty. I couldn't
throw football over forty yards and I led the league
(04:08):
in passing yards because I learned how to play. And
I don't care whether it's business, whether it's what you
guys are doing here with the podcast. You got to
learn how to make it work. You got to get
things done. But anyway, I you know, those years, I
go to Georgia, and Georgia had a terrible program. You
(04:31):
probably had times in your life when you have bad
systems that you were in the forties they were good.
In the fifties they were terrible, just awful. And they
had won an SEC championship since the mid forties, and
I'm coming in there. In the fifties fifty nine, we
won the SEC championship. There wasn't like we have now,
(04:51):
the playoffs and all that kind of stuff. But we
beat Bear Bryant and Alabama first game of the season
seventeen to three. But two weeks later and we played
the game Cocks of South Carolina and we were picked
twelfth in the twelfth team league before. So now we're undefeated,
coming number three three and they didn't have a lot
(05:11):
in a few players. They killed us. They beat us
about three touchdowns. How can that happen? But we didn't
lose another game and we won the SEC championship. Went
to the Orange Boulder play Missouri. We beat them and
there we go. You take nothing for granted. Yeah, and
if you win this game forty eight to nothing, you
(05:33):
better really prepare heart. So the next team is gonna
come after you. They they're a little bit scared of
you because you scored forty eight points. And you better
get your act in shape, and you better go out
and dot to dot to dot. It's a never stop.
You got to keep going and keep playing. And all
of that to me led to my life and business.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Yeah, that's exactly a question I want to know, because
you are eighty four years young, yep, and you're still
right there every day in all your businesses. And this
is because of this mentality. It's like what I did
yesterday has nothing to do with what I'm going to
have to do today.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Here's what I know I've never had an original thought myself.
I didn't like school. I didn't like arithmetic and reading
and all that stuff. I like to play sports, and
so everything I've done in business or in sports has
been because I knew I didn't have all the answers,
(06:32):
or even some of the answers. So when I played football,
I went to the ex Georgia Bulldog players that had retired,
tell me how you did it. When I got to
pro football, I went to see the great quarterbacks of
the forties and fifties. Johnny or Nightis was the king
(06:53):
of Kings of the late fifties, and said, I go
and visit with him in the all season. I'd go
to maybe five six Hall of Fame quarterbacks every off season.
I didn't take notes, but I asked questions for a day.
How'd you do it?
Speaker 3 (07:08):
What did you do?
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Why'd you do that? How'd you do this? What am
I going to face? And so forth. So because the
only way that I could learn, I'm six foot tall,
one hundred and eighty five pounds. I've got to understand
the position and what I can do. And from these guys,
they gave me the answers. So I was a scrambler.
(07:30):
I was the first scrambler. And there was a guy
named Geno Marquetti. Go look him up. Geno Marquetti was
the greatest past rusher in the history of football today
included big Italian guy played for the Baltimore Colts and
he was a badass guy and never talk much. But
(07:51):
we couldn't block him. And I'm coming into the league
as a rookie. We're playing the Baltimore colt and I
was on expansion team. Expansion team have never won a
game in the first year. The year before us, the
Dallas Cowboys. They're around still, aren't they. I think they
and the Dallas Cowboys came and they didn't win a game,
so nobody expected us to win a game. We got
(08:13):
no roster. But we're playing. We're playing the Baltimore coach
and John United says, Jesus, he's the guy. Geno Marquetti
is the guy. And they had a lot of other
guys and we beat them. We beat the l A Rams,
we beat Chicago Bears. We won three games. I'm going
(08:37):
to take you to the first game we ever played.
We won. All right, we'll give you another name for
your listeners. They won't even know it. Chicago Bears. Their
owner was George Hallis. Their general manager was George Hallis
junior George Allis. He's got all these jobs. There was
(09:00):
George Hallis, and George Hallis started the National Football League.
Now we go to the forties and another fifties.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
He got the team all for himself. Did he stack
the team off for himself?
Speaker 1 (09:13):
What do you think?
Speaker 3 (09:14):
I would say yes. I vote yes, because he's the guy.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
I mean, it's his leg He won the championships, he
got the best players. I mean, when we're when we're
practicing during the week, he's filming our practice from up there.
He didn't think anybody see it, but he was doing that.
And so so anyway, now them, we were going to
play them the first game of the season. So we
(09:40):
go and so we played five exhibition games, lost all
five of them. We played them in an exhibition game,
they beat his forty to seven, and they played the Scribbins.
So now I've got to my coach on this new
team is a guy named Norm Van Brocklin. He was
a Hall of Fame quarterback. He the year before had
(10:01):
won the championship at Philadelphia with the Eagles, and so
he's the he's the guy. And he was a brilliant,
brilliant mind, not a very good guy, but a really
good mind, really understood football, really had great coaches, and
he was a great player. So now we're gonna we've
lost five exhibition games, and back then we played exhibition games,
(10:25):
and now we're going to start and play the season
and again expansion team and never won a game. And
we're playing the Chicago Bears. The monsters are the Midway
they called him monsters. We still so we're going to
play them. So Van Brocklin comes to me on Monday,
says before the game, said, hey, kid, you're going to
(10:48):
be the guy. Are you up to it? I said, hell, yeah,
I'm up to it. So I said, but I want
to come to your house Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday night.
Because back then quarter called their place wasn't called from
the up there. I called the place, and I said,
I want you to go look at films with me.
(11:11):
With the Bears, they blitzed about sixty percent of the time.
I want you to tell me my formation of what
place I should call. Teach me, help me, because I
don't care if I could do this, and then I
got to have here, and he did. I guarantee preparation
(11:31):
never never fails, and I was prepared. I was ready
to go. Now I come to the stadium, stadium seated
thirty thousand people, and we're going to play the Bears.
So all the visiting presses around. He comes in the trill.
He said, Hey, I'm gonna have to start this guy.
George Shaw's the quarterback. We gave her number one draft
(11:53):
George to get him have a vectim quarterback, and I
got to give him a chance. I said, you got
to be me. You're well, I've done all this work,
all this preparation, and you're gonna let him play. I
stormed out of there. I just got so so we
go living. We'll be nice here for living. And so
(12:15):
I the game starts and we go through the first quarter.
They're beating us six to nothing. We haven't made a
first sound. It was just awful. So here he comes
to me, Hey, kid, you want to go see what
you can do. I said, yeah, all right, go and
(12:37):
I went in. At the end of the first quarter.
I threw for four touchdowns and I ran for another.
We beat him thirty seven to thirteen. That's the start
of my career. And it just you know, quarterbacks, everybody,
you know. You see so many disappointments of quarterbacks and
(12:58):
they say, ah, this guy's got the big arm, and
he's six foot fard, he can run and hurdles and
so forth. Johniu Ninus couldn't run. Johniu Ninis didn't have
a big arm. But Johnny honest, in my era, he
was the guy. He set all the records. But somebody
(13:20):
came along and beat his records, Bran Tarkan, and he
was my hero.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
But when I finished, I had the most touchdown passes,
the most completion started, I had them all. My records
stood for nineteen years. You ever heard of Peyton Manning
once or twice? And he's a great player, a good
friend of mine. I love the family. You know how
many how long his records diod? Not long three years? Yeah,
(13:52):
not long now, and so the game has Yeahrew passed
them up and then Drew got passed by. But so
that's that's my start. Yeah, But now here I I've
never had original thought. As I told you, I learned
from other people, but I didn't stop learning. Yeah, So
I played in Pro Bowls. Here are my coaches, God
(14:16):
named Vince Lombardi, Don Shula. This is different years, Tom Landry.
These were the giants of our time.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
So during the week I would spend every minute I
could with him. Tell me how you do this, this, this, this,
and this, this, this this. So I'll give you just
one and I won't go through all three. But Lombardy,
Lombardy was a great coach. Yeller screamer or were they
(14:49):
yellows and screamers in your era?
Speaker 3 (14:51):
Yes, I sometimes I feel that's the only way people respond.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah, well he was a yellow screamer and and so
on my playbook we had back then, I don't even
know how many to have now, we had about you know,
we had about forty running plays and maybe twenty passing
plays in our playbook. So for the All Star Game,
he had six runs and six passes. So I finished
(15:17):
practice and so I've got him to stay with me
every after practice, every day, I said, coach lo Marty,
I do this, and you did this. This is you
do that because it's an All Star game. He said, no, Son,
this is our team. Six passes, six runs. Execution, Son
is execution. We can execute that with any defense they
(15:40):
put up, pass or run and could we could? I said,
you're a kidding me, that's it. So I did that
with Shoot and Tom Lantry. All of them were different,
but they're all great. I wanted to learn from them,
you know, And so that's how I have done it
(16:02):
in all of my life. Let me tell you my business, guys,
that did I learn from here? Ever heard of Sam Walton?
Of course you've heard of the company Walmart. Yeah, yeah,
Sam Walton. I'd retired in seventy eight and he was
just starting Walmart. He was a quarterback in high school.
He was in Bentonville, Arkansas. Nothing going on in Bittonville, Arkansas.
(16:25):
It is now, Yeah, I know it is now because
of him, because of him. So anyway, he'd been a
store manager J C.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Penny.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
He went to J. C. Penny, Ceres, Robug Montgomery wore
these are the names you probably never heard of Kmart.
They're all gone.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
I got an idea of Walmart and they threw him out.
So he started no technology. He was the biggest employer
in the world. He was the richer. He had more
revenue than any company in the world. He did that
in twenty years. Was no technology, was no a stand nothing.
(17:03):
He did it. And those of us who grew up
with no money, we learned faster because we don't have
all the answers. We're not a member of the country
about member of the country club. You know. I wasn't
in the rich Man's Witch Boys club in high school.
I was over here. I lived on the other side
of the tracks. I was in the clubs. That was
(17:27):
really good for me because I all that made me
a better personal, better man. I learned better because I've
never thought I had all the answers. And the reason
I thought I was because adults I today learned at
a faster clip than I've ever looked in my life.
And so that was for me in sports. So Sam
(17:51):
Sam Walton. There here in Atlanta, we lost a guy
named Bernie Marcus. Bernie Marcus was the founder of Home
Depot and he grew up in poverty, migrant child in
New Jersey. He was a member of a black gang
in New Jersey. And the reason he was because they
(18:11):
were beating his ass and he said, I want to
join you. That's his background. I got him on video
to tell him the story. So he was out in
la working for some company that was similar to Home Depot.
Arthur Blank, now the owner of the thing was a
financial guy working for Bernie out there. They fired them both.
(18:34):
They fired them both. Everybody thinks all these billionaires just
became big in it. Fired them both, and he comes
to Atlanta. He has no money. Arthur Blank had no money,
but they were going to do this store that will
become home Depot. They get a financier out of New
York who's still living. He raised the money and they
(18:54):
started it. And my goodness, it's everywhere.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
It is.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
It's everywhere. It's a multi billion dollar business. And he
did it and he and he stopped working twenty years ago.
But he was a philanthropist. He gave money to everything
because he had billions of dollars. But he died at
age ninety five.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
We'll be right back after a quick break.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
Friend, I got a question for you. You said you learn
more now to better clip than you ever have before.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Why is that because I'm hungrier for success at eighty four,
at eighty four point six, I want to change the world.
You know, when I came in football, I scrambled, you know,
they they laughed at me because I'm running and nobody
else is, and so it's it's I don't know any better.
(19:49):
I was a runner and pastor in high school. I
was a runner and pastor in college, and I wasn't
drafted until the third round because they didn't think I
had the skills to do do that. And so it
was it was, it was all of that, but I
had this thing up here that I wanted to be
smarter and better than anybody that ever played that position.
(20:13):
So we go back to Geno Marquetti, my all time
hero and the greatest defense Aloma ever. So we we
beat them in third game of the season, and so
they were interviewing Gino after the game, and Gino is
very quiet, and Gino, he said, what do you think
of this targeting the kid? In all that script they're
killing he wrote, the last two years they have killed
(20:39):
And so they didn't kill me, and we beat them,
and so now he's retired and I've gone to play
one year. I played five years in New York and
so I I got Player of the Year, and a
guy named Dick Shapp, who was a legend. The newspaper
(21:01):
got in and they were going to give me the
award Player of the year in New York thing, who
would you like to introduce you? I said, I want
Geno Marquetti to introduce because he was the one that
said I'd never met a kid, and he became great
friends of mine, and mostly because I didn't want him
to kill me on the on the football field. But
(21:23):
it's just that I still have that.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Where do you think that mentality came from? Though?
Speaker 2 (21:29):
At some point in time when you were a high school, junior, high,
elementary school? Like, where did that mindset come from?
Speaker 1 (21:37):
I don't know, but I can tell you how it started.
The first thing I ever remember in life is a
ball in my hand. So I was in Washington, DC,
member of Merrick's Boys Club across the street from where
my father preached, six blocks from the Capitol. And I
went over there and I played baseball, I played football,
and I played basketball, and I played and I liked
(22:03):
it so much I had. I hated school in my
high school college. I made good grades, but I didn't
have any interest in any of it. But I had
interest in those three sports, and I had interest in
also UH business. On Saturdays, UH at six o two
(22:28):
Maryland Avenue where I lived, there's a safeway store down
maybe two blocks away, and I take a little wagon
down there, and the little ladies, they didn't drive their
cars there. They went there, got their groceries and put
them in my little buckets, and I to go two
blocks take them home. And they gave me a dime.
Maybe I don't know. I don't think they gave me
(22:49):
twenty five cents. But all of a sudden I had
my own money, and I went back and would buy
bubblecump cards and I'd put them in, you know, and
put all the great players in. Would have been formations
and stuff. So my brain was always working now, not
only in sports, but in business. And so when I
(23:10):
was fifteen years old, I lived in Athens, Georgia. We
had moved and I told my father, I said, you'll
never have to buy anything from me again, because I
worked in the off season. I worked in the all
seasons of high school and college. I learned business. I've
worked in chicken factory, so farming, the whole deal, and
(23:30):
it never stopped. I got to Georgia, I became an
insurance agent my freshman year, and I had no idea what.
I could hardly spell insurance, and I so insurance for
Franklin Life Insurance Coveny and my guy who was supposed
to be my mentor for Franklin Life Insurance Company was
Walker Word. And I said, mister Word, I got my
(23:51):
insurance license. I'm playing football and I'm playing baseball, and
I'm going to classes. I said, but I'm going to
be the best person to sell insurance state of Georgia.
What do I do? He says, Well, Son, you would
go to your warm market. What do you mean warm market?
Your friends and family, go sell them insurance. So I did,
(24:15):
and I became the number one insurance sales for Franklin
Life Insurance Company, playing football in the all season, playing
baseball in the all season, And so I started. The
only way you can learn sports is to start early.
Did you guys start early? Yes, sir, Yeah, we did.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
H I love that you were talking about you're calling
football the off season. You're like, you know, I'm selling
insurance in football's. I played football in the off season,
and you're the number one salesman in the state of Georgia.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
For Franklin Life Insurance Company. And so then, but it
was a learning thing, and I was making a little money.
I like to make money. I like to throw touchdown passes.
I like to be doing good things.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
That was something everyone had to do at that time, though, right, No,
but they didn't, Oh, they didn I was the only guy.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
I made twelve five hundred dollars a year, and I'd
go out and make speeches for twenty five dollars a speech.
I got all seasoned jobs for a Wilson truck system
sitting up in North Dakota. I stayed up in the
cold weather. I knock on the doors of shipping clerks
to get them to ship their goods on Wilson trucks
from the Dakotas to Minnesota to Chicago and back. They
(25:24):
paid me six six hundred dollars a month I think
sixty dollars a month and made no money. But there's money,
and I learned to do all that. Then when I
was twenty five years old, I started my own companies.
I've started twenty five companies and I've still got five
companies that we're working today, and we're in all the
(25:45):
new stuff. But I also understood from sports, no matter
how good I thought I might have been, you've got
to have great teammates. You've got to be in a
great organization. You gotta have great coaches, great front office,
and if you don't have that, you're not gonna win much.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Would you say that is the biggest key to what
has allowed you to sustain your success in business? I mean,
like you said, you've been doing it for fifty plus years. Yes,
when you played, you through eighteen years you had you
made a salary of one point two million dollars if that.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Yeah, I was the highest paid player in football in
my eighteenth yer and I was making one hundred and
eighty thousand dollars in eighteen years. I made one point
two million in football. That's it. That's it.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
And your net worth is much harder. Pardon, your net
worth is much harder. That now, we don't need to
discuss that.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
But Ivan golf stream Jet.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
Yes, that says enough enough.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
It's paid for it. Yeah, I can say anything else.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Mike was dropped. Mike was dropped. Yeah, and we'll be
right back.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
So I keep going and I stumble and I get
back up and someone hits me in the face, and
I said, you know, you're right. You know I'm messed up?
Is everything A touchdown pass? Know? Is everything you know?
And I make mistakes like anybody else. But I admit
the mistakes. I own them. We're kind of taught. If
(27:25):
you fumble, you messed up. Or if you missed your assignment,
you messed up. If you drop the past, you messed up.
In business, I don't find much of anybody says I
was wrong. When I'm wrong, I'm wrong because what that
does makes me deal with it right and fix it
and make it right. Puts the mission of business help people?
(27:48):
What's the mission of business? We want to have products
and services that gets you more money. The only reason
we have Apple watches and so forth because they work.
And so Apple's done all right. They've built products and
services that do something for you, that work for you.
(28:09):
And there's so many people about you know, ah, I
love this product. Well, what's the product doing nothing? And
they want tot through some way to maneuver and stri
to make you buy it. They don't care whether you
use it or not, just so you pay them, and
just so I make money. My mission is to help
(28:29):
people in business off business, and by product of that,
we make a little money. And if you don't make
a little money, you better find something that really helps
that customer. But now we can do it easier with AI,
and the AI is just starting, and so I bought
into a company. Is two guys at the company. Guys
(28:52):
have a background in AI, really good guys. And they
came to me and that we can't make it work.
I said, I may not be a to make it
work either, but let's partner up. We're fifty to fifty
partners and we make it.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Didn't work.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
I can hardly spay it spell AI, but but this
guy can. Yeah, and he knew how to do it.
I knew how to make it work, and so we
but we keep going. What else am I going to do?
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Right? I don't know.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
I made it.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
I feel that eighty eighty four point, but it.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Might even be points. February thres, my birthday.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
I've got a non football question, okay, or excuse me,
a non business question for you. You are one of
two quarterbacks to have ever been ejected from a football game.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Who's the old one? Because I know I'm one. Who's
the other one?
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Trit Dilford really for Tampa Bay.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
So Trent Dilford got kicked out of the game too, Yes.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Sir, we washed yours.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
I'm sure you're remembering right of course, yeah, so oh
it was a it was a boot.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
It was a scramble and you ran. You moved to
your left, I.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
Moved the left and from the like a six or
seven years I scored. Yes, sir, you said, there's a
little defensive back. Nice guy. I can't remember his name now,
just a terrific guy. And so as I'm going into
the Ron Bolt Ron Bolts great from the from the
New England paper. Yeah, new Eland, Patris, and I'm going
in and so he clipped me, probably not on the
(30:25):
back of my shoe. The shoe and I went over.
So I got pissed and I scored the touchdown and
I looked back around at him and he's there, and
I'm here to go, broom right here, knock him down. Now,
I wouldn't have done that if I didn't have my
center and few remembers you're looking to come. My center
(30:49):
was Mick Tingohoff, who's in the Hall of Fame. He
was my roommate and best friend and he could have
been a professional boxer, and so I knew he was
around me somewhere. So he came in there pounding on me,
and he's one throwing them off of me. So I
so I had a reason that I could be a
little more daring because I knew kingle Off was going
(31:11):
to always cover my my ass and take over, and
so I meant a lot of bars and I you know,
i'd be rude to somebody because I knew Mick would
if they came to me. I didn't have to fight
a Mick with But I didn't know. That's an interesting
I'm glad you told me that, because I thought I
was the only quarterback to ever get kicked out of
(31:32):
the game. That's a great record. I'm proud of that,
you know what.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
I'm glad. I'm glad you own it.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
Oh, I own it.
Speaker 4 (31:40):
It was hilarious because you know when it was described
just like you know, oh, well this guy pushed him
late and like friends just kind of lost it.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Then we saw the play and you're even.
Speaker 4 (31:50):
Like, I mean he hit my angle and that because
we looked at the ball.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
Up at it.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
When I looked at it, I was like, here, really, yes,
they were a little defense.
Speaker 4 (32:03):
But I was like, I don't know if he turned
around and fired Swiggs that you you go at him
and then your boys coming and getting them right off.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
It was I was great.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
But I say, you know, I a lot of the
guys that I agitated were great. I'm playing against me
and Joe Green. Yeah, he was a he was a freak.
He was just a freak of My time in Pittsburgh
was nothing before he got there. And so we're playing.
I'm with the Giants who were playing him, and and
he's going after me. He's a rookie. And I said, hey, Joe,
(32:36):
you're not quick enough. I'm a step ahead of you. Yeah.
I baited him, and I baited, and I baited him,
and so anyway, and so he's chasing me again and
I go out of bounds. I didn't get hit. I
was a scrambler and all that stuff. I didn't get hit.
A watch I get down, jump over out a bounce.
(32:57):
So now I'm in the Yankee stadium in football, and
so I got he's chasing me, and he's just the
wanting to get a hold of me, and I just
step out of bounce. He didn't stop.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
He hit me.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
My shoulder pads, my helmet flew off, but he somehow
I had my wits and he's there on the ground
and said, hey, mean, Joe, he will kick your ass
out of this game, and they did so. But I
had that was I had fun playing football. Yeah, I
mean football, and I like the juice to the defense.
(33:33):
Jack Youngblood, who's still living. Jack young Blood doesn't speak
to me anymore because we're playing them in a playoff game.
I think a championship came up in Minneapolis and we
got the game won, and we're going in where I'm
gonna kneel and so forth. And so I kneeled the
first time and he's over here and he just he's
trying to get it me and hit me at da
(33:55):
da da, And luckily my lineman kept him off on me.
And the talk is going down, and so now I
can run off the field and I go up to
the line, I said, hey, hey, Jack, have a merry Christmas.
Ask I ran off the field because he was trying
to kill me. And oh, he give me the big
mouth all during the game.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
Right.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
I enjoyed that. Yeah, you see, And Joe and I
became great friends. Geno Marquetti, great friend. Jack Youngblood never
has spoken.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
That's funny. So I want to talk about Mount Rushmore
real quick. So Mount Rushmore it has four people and
if you could put four people on your mount rushmore
of influence, people of who helped.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
You get to where you are today. Who would those
four people be?
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Cobra and Kelly who you've never heard of because he
was He was the athletic director of the Athens Georgia
Wayiam c a OK and he coached me football, basketball, baseball.
He took us one trips we'd go play other teams,
and he was a giant of a man. And I
(35:08):
met him at age ten and he really was my foundation.
I'm gonna jump way on board. I've had a lot
of bad coaches. Probably my high school coach was a
total asshole, and my college coach was a total asshole.
(35:31):
My first pro coach, Van Brocklin, who was a great player,
was a total asshole. And so I had all these
should have been great role models, you know, awful. And
so anyway, my last six years of playing, I'm playing
(35:52):
for a guy named Harry Peter Grant. But Grant, yeah,
was my hero. Without him, I came back to Minnesota
to play my last six or seven years. We went
to three Super Bowls during that time, won six straight
division championships. He never raised his voice in anybody. He
(36:13):
wasn't an ex and those guy, but he was a chance.
He didn't graduate from college. He wasn't his thing, but
he he died a year ago. I thought he's going
to live for effort. And I talked to him probably
twice a month. He was a hunter, fisherman. Unbelievable life,
but he was. He saved my life in many ways,
(36:37):
and so he was really really important to me. And
then I'd say Sam Walton took me under his arms.
I bet I opened forty stores with him. I did
a lot of work with him. And he was a
soft spoken guy, genius guy, wanted to bring guy and
(37:02):
he did something that nobody else has ever done in
the timeframe, right, and so and so he would he
would be that guy. And the fourth guy's my father. Yeah,
the fourth guy's my father who grew up. His father
was a policeman. His father was killed in Norfolk, Virginia,
(37:24):
in line of duty. He lost his mother when he
was sixteen years old. He took care of his younger
sister and he made it and he became an educator, preacher,
and he was a smart business guy. And I'll give
you one. We're playing game against the Cowboys and it's
(37:45):
the Roger Staubach Hail Mary pass and we have the
game one. There's thirty seconds left. He's on his own
forty yard line, about his last deal. He throws it
up in the air. It was the first hail Mary
past ever was. It bounces off the ends, the foot
goes up there, catches it in the end zone and
(38:07):
they win, and we had it won. So I came
out after the game and I'm looking, we're going to
win a bago with some of my teammates and wives.
We're watching the second half game and Jack Buck, the
father of the Buck who's now doing football, he was
the announcer. So he announces the death of my father.
(38:31):
My father was sixty two years old and he was
preaching for a friend of his in Savannah, Georgia, and
somewhere doing the second half of the game, watching the game.
He has a massive heart attack and he dies. That's
tough deal. Yeah, that's tough deal.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
And so but you know what they all they all
either destroy you or they build your character. Yeah, very true.
They build my character. And I'm whatever. You know, success
I've had is not because of me. It is because
of these people and many more people who I've learned from.
(39:16):
Uh And and I look back and I want to say,
I'm surprised that all these things have happened from not
only from sports and football, but business business. I think
I've done even more than I did in sports. I
know I am, yeah, uh and I'm very proud of that.
But that's because of the other people too. You know,
I had the right partners, the right the right right people,
(39:38):
the right them. And so now you know, I'm the
old guy around there.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
You know.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
Now at my age, I'm dealing with deaths of my friends.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
And one of my great friends died two days ago,
and he was a basketball player South Carolina Big he
was eighty seven years o oh. And I talked to
him two weeks ago and he was doing fine. People
asked me what he die of. I he died of
old age, you know, but but I had this. I
(40:12):
celebrate his life the last two days with who me
with me? You know, I talked. So I've been talking
to him for the last two days like that, and uh,
And he will never be dead in my life. He's
alive and well in my life. And that's the way
I live my life. That's beautiful and uh, and I
(40:33):
appreciate you guys coming around and and and chatting with me.
Uh and I I got to tell you this year
both obviously great successes. And you you're smart as hell
and you're good looking guys. And I played. I didn't
play with any black players in college. I played in
(40:56):
the Orange Bowl against Missouri players. On my first team
in Minnesota, we had four. On my last day in Minnesota,
we had about seventy. And I it was the greatest
to be able to come and play in the NFL.
And I would say all of my teammates are kind
(41:19):
of my favorites. But you know the name Jim Marshall. Yeah,
of course I went the wrong way exactly. I was
in that game. We're in San Francisco and we're gonna
beat him, and Jim had picked up a fumble and
he starts going the other way and I'm on the
sideline running with him. Jim, you're going to run play Jim.
(41:43):
He looks over at me and he gets in the
end zone. Me to them, all, well, let me tell
you what Jim. Jim Marshall came to us in sixty one,
one week before the season started. He had played a
couple of years in Cleveland and one in Canada. Thing
he had had some sickness or something. He was six
(42:06):
foot three or four, maybe two thirty five. He played
that first game with us three days. He never missed
a game, He never missed a practice. He is the
Minnesota Vikings. He's the heart and soul of our team.
I played him in chess in training camp every year.
(42:28):
I never beat him. He's the sweetest, toughest, smartest, greatest
human being I've ever known. And I'm working on He's
out in the Hall of Fame and I have been working.
I'm going to get him in that Hall of Fame somehow.
But he he just he was phenomenal. He was phenomenal.
(42:52):
And you know, I think in this crazy world, we
have the greatness now for you guys who came after me,
to be able to go in and have diverse people
playing side by side. There's nothing all the business I had,
nothing like being around the guys. There's nothing like being
(43:16):
in the trenches. You either win or lose. You do
it in sixty minutes. And those guys that we deal with,
if you guys, you never forget them.
Speaker 3 (43:24):
True.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
That's the people that live forever in your life, and
I'm so grateful that I had that chance to do that.
Speaker 3 (43:33):
We appreciate you, mister Frank. Thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (43:35):
Man, I really, really truly am thankful for that. And
you spend this time with us. Man, We're going to
get ourself out of here. You ready, So wherever you
listen to all your view your podcast at Viewers listeners,
wherever you pick them up at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, thank
you as always give us a five star rating of review,
give it, leave a couple of comments, make sure you
(43:56):
get that follow button, subscribe wherever it is, and also
watch us on YouTube the NFL NFL YouTube channel.
Speaker 3 (44:02):
You tell a friend, and tell a friend and teller friends.
Get us out here.
Speaker 2 (44:06):
Hey, I'm peanut. We were blessed with Hall of Fame.
Mister friend. Hey, that's my guy.
Speaker 3 (44:11):
Wrong. We appreciate y'all watching the show.
Speaker 2 (44:13):
This is the NFL Player's second Acts podcast and we
out
I go up to the line, I said, hey, hey, Jack,
have a merry Christmas. Ask I ran off the field.
He was trying to kill me.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Welcome to the NFL Player Second Acts Podcast. I'm Peanut
Tillman and with me as always my god Roman Arf.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
What's up, baby man. Don't be hitting me like that.
Thank you, we're here in Atlanta. Thank you at iHeartRadio.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
Allowing us to use their studios. I'm not gonna say
anything else, Peanut, I want to heart him. Get to
this legendary guest that we have today, because he has
a ton of stories.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
His resume is like really long, so forgive me if
I have to read this one. He's a member of
the NFL Hall of Fame, So right there, we're blessed
with football Royalty. One of the greatest quarterbacks to ever
play the game. When he retired, he basically held every passing, rushing,
touchdown completion. He held every record that a quarterback could have.
(00:59):
He's known as probably the first scrambling quarterback in the NFL,
and he's an accomplished entrepreneur, businessman, and author. Ladies and gentlemen,
please welcome to the pod. Friand targetin the Friends are
glad to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
The free guys. We call you mister like you're yeah,
you don't need to call me mister. But you know
I've lived a great life. I'm eighty four point six
years old. I played here in Georgia for the Athens Trojan.
We won the state championship in football. I played basketball,
(01:39):
baseball and football four years of each. Went across the
street to Georgia Bulldogs, who had not won anything since
the forties.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I didn't know you went to Athens.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Hih oh. Yeah. I was an Athens ye Trojan and
we beat Valdosta for the state championship forty one twenty.
There it is, and they're back thinking that that's back
in nineteen fifty five.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Were anybody's going forty points back now?
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Because because you had a center, two guards, two tackles,
and you had two ends, and the two ends played
offense as the ends the catch passed it, but we
didn't throw them any passes, but they were the defensive ends.
And in the backfield you had the quarterback to fall
back and two half backs, so nobody was spread out.
It was archaic, but we played. There's a team here
(02:24):
in Georgia Valdosta, Georgia was the Massillon, Ohio of the South.
It was the powerhouse of the South. So we're playing
a championship game, and I had busted my shoulder earlier
in the season, so I couldn't throw anymore. And so
we're playing them, and we beat them forty one to twenty.
(02:48):
I ran the opening kickoff back and they called it
for a touchdown, and they called it back and I
tried one pass, but I couldn't throw it because my
shoulder was broken, and I did complete it. So we
ran the ball and scored forty one points. But what
happened that year? I played defense and offense, and in
(03:09):
practices we had tackling drills. Yeah, you guys probably had
tackling drill, but quarterbacks have tackling drills. And I separated
my should. I celebrated my shoulder and mid part of
my junior year. And before I did that, at fourteen
years old, I could throw the football seventy five yards.
After that, I can never throw it more than fifty
(03:30):
five yards. My last year in professional football, I played
eighteen years. My shoulder. They were shooting it up with
what they shoot.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Up the horses, probably some lot of cane or something.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Yeah, something like that beautas ology and try to And
I did that for the last four years of my career.
So my last year, eighteenth year, I am thirty nine
years old. I'm one month of being forty. I couldn't
throw football over forty yards and I led the league
(04:08):
in passing yards because I learned how to play. And
I don't care whether it's business, whether it's what you
guys are doing here with the podcast. You got to
learn how to make it work. You got to get
things done. But anyway, I you know, those years, I
go to Georgia, and Georgia had a terrible program. You
(04:31):
probably had times in your life when you have bad
systems that you were in the forties they were good.
In the fifties they were terrible, just awful. And they
had won an SEC championship since the mid forties, and
I'm coming in there. In the fifties fifty nine, we
won the SEC championship. There wasn't like we have now,
(04:51):
the playoffs and all that kind of stuff. But we
beat Bear Bryant and Alabama first game of the season
seventeen to three. But two weeks later and we played
the game Cocks of South Carolina and we were picked
twelfth in the twelfth team league before. So now we're undefeated,
coming number three three and they didn't have a lot
(05:11):
in a few players. They killed us. They beat us
about three touchdowns. How can that happen? But we didn't
lose another game and we won the SEC championship. Went
to the Orange Boulder play Missouri. We beat them and
there we go. You take nothing for granted. Yeah, and
if you win this game forty eight to nothing, you
(05:33):
better really prepare heart. So the next team is gonna
come after you. They they're a little bit scared of
you because you scored forty eight points. And you better
get your act in shape, and you better go out
and dot to dot to dot. It's a never stop.
You got to keep going and keep playing. And all
of that to me led to my life and business.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Yeah, that's exactly a question I want to know, because
you are eighty four years young, yep, and you're still
right there every day in all your businesses. And this
is because of this mentality. It's like what I did
yesterday has nothing to do with what I'm going to
have to do today.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Here's what I know I've never had an original thought myself.
I didn't like school. I didn't like arithmetic and reading
and all that stuff. I like to play sports, and
so everything I've done in business or in sports has
been because I knew I didn't have all the answers,
(06:32):
or even some of the answers. So when I played football,
I went to the ex Georgia Bulldog players that had retired,
tell me how you did it. When I got to
pro football, I went to see the great quarterbacks of
the forties and fifties. Johnny or Nightis was the king
(06:53):
of Kings of the late fifties, and said, I go
and visit with him in the all season. I'd go
to maybe five six Hall of Fame quarterbacks every off season.
I didn't take notes, but I asked questions for a day.
How'd you do it?
Speaker 3 (07:08):
What did you do?
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Why'd you do that? How'd you do this? What am
I going to face? And so forth. So because the
only way that I could learn, I'm six foot tall,
one hundred and eighty five pounds. I've got to understand
the position and what I can do. And from these guys,
they gave me the answers. So I was a scrambler.
(07:30):
I was the first scrambler. And there was a guy
named Geno Marquetti. Go look him up. Geno Marquetti was
the greatest past rusher in the history of football today
included big Italian guy played for the Baltimore Colts and
he was a badass guy and never talk much. But
(07:51):
we couldn't block him. And I'm coming into the league
as a rookie. We're playing the Baltimore colt and I
was on expansion team. Expansion team have never won a
game in the first year. The year before us, the
Dallas Cowboys. They're around still, aren't they. I think they
and the Dallas Cowboys came and they didn't win a game,
so nobody expected us to win a game. We got
(08:13):
no roster. But we're playing. We're playing the Baltimore coach
and John United says, Jesus, he's the guy. Geno Marquetti
is the guy. And they had a lot of other
guys and we beat them. We beat the l A Rams,
we beat Chicago Bears. We won three games. I'm going
(08:37):
to take you to the first game we ever played.
We won. All right, we'll give you another name for
your listeners. They won't even know it. Chicago Bears. Their
owner was George Hallis. Their general manager was George Hallis
junior George Allis. He's got all these jobs. There was
(09:00):
George Hallis, and George Hallis started the National Football League.
Now we go to the forties and another fifties.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
He got the team all for himself. Did he stack
the team off for himself?
Speaker 1 (09:13):
What do you think?
Speaker 3 (09:14):
I would say yes. I vote yes, because he's the guy.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
I mean, it's his leg He won the championships, he
got the best players. I mean, when we're when we're
practicing during the week, he's filming our practice from up there.
He didn't think anybody see it, but he was doing that.
And so so anyway, now them, we were going to
play them the first game of the season. So we
(09:40):
go and so we played five exhibition games, lost all
five of them. We played them in an exhibition game,
they beat his forty to seven, and they played the Scribbins.
So now I've got to my coach on this new
team is a guy named Norm Van Brocklin. He was
a Hall of Fame quarterback. He the year before had
(10:01):
won the championship at Philadelphia with the Eagles, and so
he's the he's the guy. And he was a brilliant,
brilliant mind, not a very good guy, but a really
good mind, really understood football, really had great coaches, and
he was a great player. So now we're gonna we've
lost five exhibition games, and back then we played exhibition games,
(10:25):
and now we're going to start and play the season
and again expansion team and never won a game. And
we're playing the Chicago Bears. The monsters are the Midway
they called him monsters. We still so we're going to
play them. So Van Brocklin comes to me on Monday,
says before the game, said, hey, kid, you're going to
(10:48):
be the guy. Are you up to it? I said, hell, yeah,
I'm up to it. So I said, but I want
to come to your house Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday night.
Because back then quarter called their place wasn't called from
the up there. I called the place, and I said,
I want you to go look at films with me.
(11:11):
With the Bears, they blitzed about sixty percent of the time.
I want you to tell me my formation of what
place I should call. Teach me, help me, because I
don't care if I could do this, and then I
got to have here, and he did. I guarantee preparation
(11:31):
never never fails, and I was prepared. I was ready
to go. Now I come to the stadium, stadium seated
thirty thousand people, and we're going to play the Bears.
So all the visiting presses around. He comes in the trill.
He said, Hey, I'm gonna have to start this guy.
George Shaw's the quarterback. We gave her number one draft
(11:53):
George to get him have a vectim quarterback, and I
got to give him a chance. I said, you got
to be me. You're well, I've done all this work,
all this preparation, and you're gonna let him play. I
stormed out of there. I just got so so we
go living. We'll be nice here for living. And so
(12:15):
I the game starts and we go through the first quarter.
They're beating us six to nothing. We haven't made a
first sound. It was just awful. So here he comes
to me, Hey, kid, you want to go see what
you can do. I said, yeah, all right, go and
(12:37):
I went in. At the end of the first quarter.
I threw for four touchdowns and I ran for another.
We beat him thirty seven to thirteen. That's the start
of my career. And it just you know, quarterbacks, everybody,
you know. You see so many disappointments of quarterbacks and
(12:58):
they say, ah, this guy's got the big arm, and
he's six foot fard, he can run and hurdles and
so forth. Johniu Ninus couldn't run. Johniu Ninis didn't have
a big arm. But Johnny honest, in my era, he
was the guy. He set all the records. But somebody
(13:20):
came along and beat his records, Bran Tarkan, and he
was my hero.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
But when I finished, I had the most touchdown passes,
the most completion started, I had them all. My records
stood for nineteen years. You ever heard of Peyton Manning
once or twice? And he's a great player, a good
friend of mine. I love the family. You know how
many how long his records diod? Not long three years? Yeah,
(13:52):
not long now, and so the game has Yeahrew passed
them up and then Drew got passed by. But so
that's that's my start. Yeah, But now here I I've
never had original thought. As I told you, I learned
from other people, but I didn't stop learning. Yeah, So
I played in Pro Bowls. Here are my coaches, God
(14:16):
named Vince Lombardi, Don Shula. This is different years, Tom Landry.
These were the giants of our time.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
So during the week I would spend every minute I
could with him. Tell me how you do this, this, this, this,
and this, this, this this. So I'll give you just
one and I won't go through all three. But Lombardy,
Lombardy was a great coach. Yeller screamer or were they
(14:49):
yellows and screamers in your era?
Speaker 3 (14:51):
Yes, I sometimes I feel that's the only way people respond.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah, well he was a yellow screamer and and so
on my playbook we had back then, I don't even
know how many to have now, we had about you know,
we had about forty running plays and maybe twenty passing
plays in our playbook. So for the All Star Game,
he had six runs and six passes. So I finished
(15:17):
practice and so I've got him to stay with me
every after practice, every day, I said, coach lo Marty,
I do this, and you did this. This is you
do that because it's an All Star game. He said, no, Son,
this is our team. Six passes, six runs. Execution, Son
is execution. We can execute that with any defense they
(15:40):
put up, pass or run and could we could? I said,
you're a kidding me, that's it. So I did that
with Shoot and Tom Lantry. All of them were different,
but they're all great. I wanted to learn from them,
you know, And so that's how I have done it
(16:02):
in all of my life. Let me tell you my business, guys,
that did I learn from here? Ever heard of Sam Walton?
Of course you've heard of the company Walmart. Yeah, yeah,
Sam Walton. I'd retired in seventy eight and he was
just starting Walmart. He was a quarterback in high school.
He was in Bentonville, Arkansas. Nothing going on in Bittonville, Arkansas.
(16:25):
It is now, Yeah, I know it is now because
of him, because of him. So anyway, he'd been a
store manager J C.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Penny.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
He went to J. C. Penny, Ceres, Robug Montgomery wore
these are the names you probably never heard of Kmart.
They're all gone.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
I got an idea of Walmart and they threw him out.
So he started no technology. He was the biggest employer
in the world. He was the richer. He had more
revenue than any company in the world. He did that
in twenty years. Was no technology, was no a stand nothing.
(17:03):
He did it. And those of us who grew up
with no money, we learned faster because we don't have
all the answers. We're not a member of the country
about member of the country club. You know. I wasn't
in the rich Man's Witch Boys club in high school.
I was over here. I lived on the other side
of the tracks. I was in the clubs. That was
(17:27):
really good for me because I all that made me
a better personal, better man. I learned better because I've
never thought I had all the answers. And the reason
I thought I was because adults I today learned at
a faster clip than I've ever looked in my life.
And so that was for me in sports. So Sam
(17:51):
Sam Walton. There here in Atlanta, we lost a guy
named Bernie Marcus. Bernie Marcus was the founder of Home
Depot and he grew up in poverty, migrant child in
New Jersey. He was a member of a black gang
in New Jersey. And the reason he was because they
(18:11):
were beating his ass and he said, I want to
join you. That's his background. I got him on video
to tell him the story. So he was out in
la working for some company that was similar to Home Depot.
Arthur Blank, now the owner of the thing was a
financial guy working for Bernie out there. They fired them both.
(18:34):
They fired them both. Everybody thinks all these billionaires just
became big in it. Fired them both, and he comes
to Atlanta. He has no money. Arthur Blank had no money,
but they were going to do this store that will
become home Depot. They get a financier out of New
York who's still living. He raised the money and they
(18:54):
started it. And my goodness, it's everywhere.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
It is.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
It's everywhere. It's a multi billion dollar business. And he
did it and he and he stopped working twenty years ago.
But he was a philanthropist. He gave money to everything
because he had billions of dollars. But he died at
age ninety five.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
We'll be right back after a quick break.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
Friend, I got a question for you. You said you learn
more now to better clip than you ever have before.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Why is that because I'm hungrier for success at eighty four,
at eighty four point six, I want to change the world.
You know, when I came in football, I scrambled, you know,
they they laughed at me because I'm running and nobody
else is, and so it's it's I don't know any better.
(19:49):
I was a runner and pastor in high school. I
was a runner and pastor in college, and I wasn't
drafted until the third round because they didn't think I
had the skills to do do that. And so it
was it was, it was all of that, but I
had this thing up here that I wanted to be
smarter and better than anybody that ever played that position.
(20:13):
So we go back to Geno Marquetti, my all time
hero and the greatest defense Aloma ever. So we we
beat them in third game of the season, and so
they were interviewing Gino after the game, and Gino is
very quiet, and Gino, he said, what do you think
of this targeting the kid? In all that script they're
killing he wrote, the last two years they have killed
(20:39):
And so they didn't kill me, and we beat them,
and so now he's retired and I've gone to play
one year. I played five years in New York and
so I I got Player of the Year, and a
guy named Dick Shapp, who was a legend. The newspaper
(21:01):
got in and they were going to give me the
award Player of the year in New York thing, who
would you like to introduce you? I said, I want
Geno Marquetti to introduce because he was the one that
said I'd never met a kid, and he became great
friends of mine, and mostly because I didn't want him
to kill me on the on the football field. But
(21:23):
it's just that I still have that.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Where do you think that mentality came from? Though?
Speaker 2 (21:29):
At some point in time when you were a high school, junior, high,
elementary school? Like, where did that mindset come from?
Speaker 1 (21:37):
I don't know, but I can tell you how it started.
The first thing I ever remember in life is a
ball in my hand. So I was in Washington, DC,
member of Merrick's Boys Club across the street from where
my father preached, six blocks from the Capitol. And I
went over there and I played baseball, I played football,
and I played basketball, and I played and I liked
(22:03):
it so much I had. I hated school in my
high school college. I made good grades, but I didn't
have any interest in any of it. But I had
interest in those three sports, and I had interest in
also UH business. On Saturdays, UH at six o two
(22:28):
Maryland Avenue where I lived, there's a safeway store down
maybe two blocks away, and I take a little wagon
down there, and the little ladies, they didn't drive their
cars there. They went there, got their groceries and put
them in my little buckets, and I to go two
blocks take them home. And they gave me a dime.
Maybe I don't know. I don't think they gave me
(22:49):
twenty five cents. But all of a sudden I had
my own money, and I went back and would buy
bubblecump cards and I'd put them in, you know, and
put all the great players in. Would have been formations
and stuff. So my brain was always working now, not
only in sports, but in business. And so when I
(23:10):
was fifteen years old, I lived in Athens, Georgia. We
had moved and I told my father, I said, you'll
never have to buy anything from me again, because I
worked in the off season. I worked in the all
seasons of high school and college. I learned business. I've
worked in chicken factory, so farming, the whole deal, and
(23:30):
it never stopped. I got to Georgia, I became an
insurance agent my freshman year, and I had no idea what.
I could hardly spell insurance, and I so insurance for
Franklin Life Insurance Coveny and my guy who was supposed
to be my mentor for Franklin Life Insurance Company was
Walker Word. And I said, mister Word, I got my
(23:51):
insurance license. I'm playing football and I'm playing baseball, and
I'm going to classes. I said, but I'm going to
be the best person to sell insurance state of Georgia.
What do I do? He says, Well, Son, you would
go to your warm market. What do you mean warm market?
Your friends and family, go sell them insurance. So I did,
(24:15):
and I became the number one insurance sales for Franklin
Life Insurance Company, playing football in the all season, playing
baseball in the all season, And so I started. The
only way you can learn sports is to start early.
Did you guys start early? Yes, sir, Yeah, we did.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
H I love that you were talking about you're calling
football the off season. You're like, you know, I'm selling
insurance in football's. I played football in the off season,
and you're the number one salesman in the state of Georgia.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
For Franklin Life Insurance Company. And so then, but it
was a learning thing, and I was making a little money.
I like to make money. I like to throw touchdown passes.
I like to be doing good things.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
That was something everyone had to do at that time, though, right, No,
but they didn't, Oh, they didn I was the only guy.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
I made twelve five hundred dollars a year, and I'd
go out and make speeches for twenty five dollars a speech.
I got all seasoned jobs for a Wilson truck system
sitting up in North Dakota. I stayed up in the
cold weather. I knock on the doors of shipping clerks
to get them to ship their goods on Wilson trucks
from the Dakotas to Minnesota to Chicago and back. They
(25:24):
paid me six six hundred dollars a month I think
sixty dollars a month and made no money. But there's money,
and I learned to do all that. Then when I
was twenty five years old, I started my own companies.
I've started twenty five companies and I've still got five
companies that we're working today, and we're in all the
(25:45):
new stuff. But I also understood from sports, no matter
how good I thought I might have been, you've got
to have great teammates. You've got to be in a
great organization. You gotta have great coaches, great front office,
and if you don't have that, you're not gonna win much.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Would you say that is the biggest key to what
has allowed you to sustain your success in business? I mean,
like you said, you've been doing it for fifty plus years. Yes,
when you played, you through eighteen years you had you
made a salary of one point two million dollars if that.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Yeah, I was the highest paid player in football in
my eighteenth yer and I was making one hundred and
eighty thousand dollars in eighteen years. I made one point
two million in football. That's it. That's it.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
And your net worth is much harder. Pardon, your net
worth is much harder. That now, we don't need to
discuss that.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
But Ivan golf stream Jet.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
Yes, that says enough enough.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
It's paid for it. Yeah, I can say anything else.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Mike was dropped. Mike was dropped. Yeah, and we'll be
right back.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
So I keep going and I stumble and I get
back up and someone hits me in the face, and
I said, you know, you're right. You know I'm messed up?
Is everything A touchdown pass? Know? Is everything you know?
And I make mistakes like anybody else. But I admit
the mistakes. I own them. We're kind of taught. If
(27:25):
you fumble, you messed up. Or if you missed your assignment,
you messed up. If you drop the past, you messed up.
In business, I don't find much of anybody says I
was wrong. When I'm wrong, I'm wrong because what that
does makes me deal with it right and fix it
and make it right. Puts the mission of business help people?
(27:48):
What's the mission of business? We want to have products
and services that gets you more money. The only reason
we have Apple watches and so forth because they work.
And so Apple's done all right. They've built products and
services that do something for you, that work for you.
(28:09):
And there's so many people about you know, ah, I
love this product. Well, what's the product doing nothing? And
they want tot through some way to maneuver and stri
to make you buy it. They don't care whether you
use it or not, just so you pay them, and
just so I make money. My mission is to help
(28:29):
people in business off business, and by product of that,
we make a little money. And if you don't make
a little money, you better find something that really helps
that customer. But now we can do it easier with AI,
and the AI is just starting, and so I bought
into a company. Is two guys at the company. Guys
(28:52):
have a background in AI, really good guys. And they
came to me and that we can't make it work.
I said, I may not be a to make it
work either, but let's partner up. We're fifty to fifty
partners and we make it.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Didn't work.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
I can hardly spay it spell AI, but but this
guy can. Yeah, and he knew how to do it.
I knew how to make it work, and so we
but we keep going. What else am I going to do?
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Right? I don't know.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
I made it.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
I feel that eighty eighty four point, but it.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Might even be points. February thres, my birthday.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
I've got a non football question, okay, or excuse me,
a non business question for you. You are one of
two quarterbacks to have ever been ejected from a football game.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Who's the old one? Because I know I'm one. Who's
the other one?
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Trit Dilford really for Tampa Bay.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
So Trent Dilford got kicked out of the game too, Yes.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Sir, we washed yours.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
I'm sure you're remembering right of course, yeah, so oh
it was a it was a boot.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
It was a scramble and you ran. You moved to
your left, I.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
Moved the left and from the like a six or
seven years I scored. Yes, sir, you said, there's a
little defensive back. Nice guy. I can't remember his name now,
just a terrific guy. And so as I'm going into
the Ron Bolt Ron Bolts great from the from the
New England paper. Yeah, new Eland, Patris, and I'm going
in and so he clipped me, probably not on the
(30:25):
back of my shoe. The shoe and I went over.
So I got pissed and I scored the touchdown and
I looked back around at him and he's there, and
I'm here to go, broom right here, knock him down. Now,
I wouldn't have done that if I didn't have my
center and few remembers you're looking to come. My center
(30:49):
was Mick Tingohoff, who's in the Hall of Fame. He
was my roommate and best friend and he could have
been a professional boxer, and so I knew he was
around me somewhere. So he came in there pounding on me,
and he's one throwing them off of me. So I
so I had a reason that I could be a
little more daring because I knew kingle Off was going
(31:11):
to always cover my my ass and take over, and
so I meant a lot of bars and I you know,
i'd be rude to somebody because I knew Mick would
if they came to me. I didn't have to fight
a Mick with But I didn't know. That's an interesting
I'm glad you told me that, because I thought I
was the only quarterback to ever get kicked out of
(31:32):
the game. That's a great record. I'm proud of that,
you know what.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
I'm glad. I'm glad you own it.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
Oh, I own it.
Speaker 4 (31:40):
It was hilarious because you know when it was described
just like you know, oh, well this guy pushed him
late and like friends just kind of lost it.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Then we saw the play and you're even.
Speaker 4 (31:50):
Like, I mean he hit my angle and that because
we looked at the ball.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
Up at it.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
When I looked at it, I was like, here, really, yes,
they were a little defense.
Speaker 4 (32:03):
But I was like, I don't know if he turned
around and fired Swiggs that you you go at him
and then your boys coming and getting them right off.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
It was I was great.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
But I say, you know, I a lot of the
guys that I agitated were great. I'm playing against me
and Joe Green. Yeah, he was a he was a freak.
He was just a freak of My time in Pittsburgh
was nothing before he got there. And so we're playing.
I'm with the Giants who were playing him, and and
he's going after me. He's a rookie. And I said, hey, Joe,
(32:36):
you're not quick enough. I'm a step ahead of you. Yeah.
I baited him, and I baited, and I baited him,
and so anyway, and so he's chasing me again and
I go out of bounds. I didn't get hit. I
was a scrambler and all that stuff. I didn't get hit.
A watch I get down, jump over out a bounce.
(32:57):
So now I'm in the Yankee stadium in football, and
so I got he's chasing me, and he's just the
wanting to get a hold of me, and I just
step out of bounce. He didn't stop.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
He hit me.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
My shoulder pads, my helmet flew off, but he somehow
I had my wits and he's there on the ground
and said, hey, mean, Joe, he will kick your ass
out of this game, and they did so. But I
had that was I had fun playing football. Yeah, I
mean football, and I like the juice to the defense.
(33:33):
Jack Youngblood, who's still living. Jack young Blood doesn't speak
to me anymore because we're playing them in a playoff game.
I think a championship came up in Minneapolis and we
got the game won, and we're going in where I'm
gonna kneel and so forth. And so I kneeled the
first time and he's over here and he just he's
trying to get it me and hit me at da
(33:55):
da da, And luckily my lineman kept him off on me.
And the talk is going down, and so now I
can run off the field and I go up to
the line, I said, hey, hey, Jack, have a merry Christmas.
Ask I ran off the field because he was trying
to kill me. And oh, he give me the big
mouth all during the game.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
Right.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
I enjoyed that. Yeah, you see, And Joe and I
became great friends. Geno Marquetti, great friend. Jack Youngblood never
has spoken.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
That's funny. So I want to talk about Mount Rushmore
real quick. So Mount Rushmore it has four people and
if you could put four people on your mount rushmore
of influence, people of who helped.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
You get to where you are today. Who would those
four people be?
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Cobra and Kelly who you've never heard of because he
was He was the athletic director of the Athens Georgia
Wayiam c a OK and he coached me football, basketball, baseball.
He took us one trips we'd go play other teams,
and he was a giant of a man. And I
(35:08):
met him at age ten and he really was my foundation.
I'm gonna jump way on board. I've had a lot
of bad coaches. Probably my high school coach was a
total asshole, and my college coach was a total asshole.
(35:31):
My first pro coach, Van Brocklin, who was a great player,
was a total asshole. And so I had all these
should have been great role models, you know, awful. And
so anyway, my last six years of playing, I'm playing
(35:52):
for a guy named Harry Peter Grant. But Grant, yeah,
was my hero. Without him, I came back to Minnesota
to play my last six or seven years. We went
to three Super Bowls during that time, won six straight
division championships. He never raised his voice in anybody. He
(36:13):
wasn't an ex and those guy, but he was a chance.
He didn't graduate from college. He wasn't his thing, but
he he died a year ago. I thought he's going
to live for effort. And I talked to him probably
twice a month. He was a hunter, fisherman. Unbelievable life,
but he was. He saved my life in many ways,
(36:37):
and so he was really really important to me. And
then I'd say Sam Walton took me under his arms.
I bet I opened forty stores with him. I did
a lot of work with him. And he was a
soft spoken guy, genius guy, wanted to bring guy and
(37:02):
he did something that nobody else has ever done in
the timeframe, right, and so and so he would he
would be that guy. And the fourth guy's my father. Yeah,
the fourth guy's my father who grew up. His father
was a policeman. His father was killed in Norfolk, Virginia,
(37:24):
in line of duty. He lost his mother when he
was sixteen years old. He took care of his younger
sister and he made it and he became an educator, preacher,
and he was a smart business guy. And I'll give
you one. We're playing game against the Cowboys and it's
(37:45):
the Roger Staubach Hail Mary pass and we have the
game one. There's thirty seconds left. He's on his own
forty yard line, about his last deal. He throws it
up in the air. It was the first hail Mary
past ever was. It bounces off the ends, the foot
goes up there, catches it in the end zone and
(38:07):
they win, and we had it won. So I came
out after the game and I'm looking, we're going to
win a bago with some of my teammates and wives.
We're watching the second half game and Jack Buck, the
father of the Buck who's now doing football, he was
the announcer. So he announces the death of my father.
(38:31):
My father was sixty two years old and he was
preaching for a friend of his in Savannah, Georgia, and
somewhere doing the second half of the game, watching the game.
He has a massive heart attack and he dies. That's
tough deal. Yeah, that's tough deal.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
And so but you know what they all they all
either destroy you or they build your character. Yeah, very true.
They build my character. And I'm whatever. You know, success
I've had is not because of me. It is because
of these people and many more people who I've learned from.
(39:16):
Uh And and I look back and I want to say,
I'm surprised that all these things have happened from not
only from sports and football, but business business. I think
I've done even more than I did in sports. I
know I am, yeah, uh and I'm very proud of that.
But that's because of the other people too. You know,
I had the right partners, the right the right right people,
(39:38):
the right them. And so now you know, I'm the
old guy around there.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
You know.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
Now at my age, I'm dealing with deaths of my friends.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
And one of my great friends died two days ago,
and he was a basketball player South Carolina Big he
was eighty seven years o oh. And I talked to
him two weeks ago and he was doing fine. People
asked me what he die of. I he died of
old age, you know, but but I had this. I
(40:12):
celebrate his life the last two days with who me
with me? You know, I talked. So I've been talking
to him for the last two days like that, and uh,
And he will never be dead in my life. He's
alive and well in my life. And that's the way
I live my life. That's beautiful and uh, and I
(40:33):
appreciate you guys coming around and and and chatting with me.
Uh and I I got to tell you this year
both obviously great successes. And you you're smart as hell
and you're good looking guys. And I played. I didn't
play with any black players in college. I played in
(40:56):
the Orange Bowl against Missouri players. On my first team
in Minnesota, we had four. On my last day in Minnesota,
we had about seventy. And I it was the greatest
to be able to come and play in the NFL.
And I would say all of my teammates are kind
(41:19):
of my favorites. But you know the name Jim Marshall. Yeah,
of course I went the wrong way exactly. I was
in that game. We're in San Francisco and we're gonna
beat him, and Jim had picked up a fumble and
he starts going the other way and I'm on the
sideline running with him. Jim, you're going to run play Jim.
(41:43):
He looks over at me and he gets in the
end zone. Me to them, all, well, let me tell
you what Jim. Jim Marshall came to us in sixty one,
one week before the season started. He had played a
couple of years in Cleveland and one in Canada. Thing
he had had some sickness or something. He was six
(42:06):
foot three or four, maybe two thirty five. He played
that first game with us three days. He never missed
a game, He never missed a practice. He is the
Minnesota Vikings. He's the heart and soul of our team.
I played him in chess in training camp every year.
(42:28):
I never beat him. He's the sweetest, toughest, smartest, greatest
human being I've ever known. And I'm working on He's
out in the Hall of Fame and I have been working.
I'm going to get him in that Hall of Fame somehow.
But he he just he was phenomenal. He was phenomenal.
(42:52):
And you know, I think in this crazy world, we
have the greatness now for you guys who came after me,
to be able to go in and have diverse people
playing side by side. There's nothing all the business I had,
nothing like being around the guys. There's nothing like being
(43:16):
in the trenches. You either win or lose. You do
it in sixty minutes. And those guys that we deal with,
if you guys, you never forget them.
Speaker 3 (43:24):
True.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
That's the people that live forever in your life, and
I'm so grateful that I had that chance to do that.
Speaker 3 (43:33):
We appreciate you, mister Frank. Thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (43:35):
Man, I really, really truly am thankful for that. And
you spend this time with us. Man, We're going to
get ourself out of here. You ready, So wherever you
listen to all your view your podcast at Viewers listeners,
wherever you pick them up at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, thank
you as always give us a five star rating of review,
give it, leave a couple of comments, make sure you
(43:56):
get that follow button, subscribe wherever it is, and also
watch us on YouTube the NFL NFL YouTube channel.
Speaker 3 (44:02):
You tell a friend, and tell a friend and teller friends.
Get us out here.
Speaker 2 (44:06):
Hey, I'm peanut. We were blessed with Hall of Fame.
Mister friend. Hey, that's my guy.
Speaker 3 (44:11):
Wrong. We appreciate y'all watching the show.
Speaker 2 (44:13):
This is the NFL Player's second Acts podcast and we
out
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Charles “Peanut” Tillman
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