Fran Tarkenton is still whining about the Steelers "steroid" use in the 70's

He claims he knew the Vikings were going to lose SB IX because when they came out of the tunnel they were so huge and juiced. He claims it was evident from the get go.

First, every team in the 70's was doing some extent of steriod. I find flaw in his theory. The well known offenders were Mike Webster, John Kolb, Steve Courson. Basically, offensive lineman. And they were not all there for all 4 SB's. If we were so juiced, why did we only win 16-6? On Defense the likes of Lambert, Ham, Donnie Shell, Joe Greene, LC Greenwood, Dwight White and Larry Holmes. (I know I am missing a few.) However, I am sure out defense was clean.

If anything Tarkenton should be complaining about the Oakland Raiders with a few such as Lyle Alzado When they did lose 32-14. I guess it is much easier to blame the Team of the Decade.

 

How would we know if the defensive players were clean? We know for sure that Webster and Coulson used steroids. Jim Clack, a starter on the first two Super Bowl teams, also used. I believe you are correct about Kolb as well, but I'm not certain.

Just because we haven't read an admission by any of the defensive guys doesn't mean they were clean. I'm sure at some point I'll hear about how they didn't look like steroid users. I will suggest that anybody who thinks that is a valid point should go look up pictures of baseball player Dee Gordon, who was suspended for PED use. Gordon is small and skinny, yet he tested positive for steroid use. There are many examples. He's just the first one that came to mind.

Talk all you want about Barry Bonds or other athletes who bulked up quickly, but the simple fact is we can't tell an athlete is clean just by looking at him. We never could, no matter how much some of us want to believe we can.

 

Get over it Frank.

The NFL of the 70's had as much steroid use in the game as the WWF did. Certain players did it to elevate their game and others with natural talent steered away. Nothing very different from today's players in the sense that everyone is doing what they can to gain an edge. If anything there is just more masking going on with people using different products. It's a multi billion dollar business for a reason.

Those Purple People Eaters weren't innocent by any stretch of the imagination.

I guess I do feel your pain though. It really must have sucked standing on the sideline watching Franco run up and down the field. I'd still be a little salty too.

 

Fran Tarkenton is still alive? The last I heard of him was when he was hosting "That's Incredible" with Cathy Lee Crosby 40 years ago.

 

......and, none of the "Purple People Eaters" used steroids?

 

Maybe not, all four are still alive and in their 70s/80s.

 

Funny read this thread reminded me of


My Father, Fran Tarkenton™

Childhood memories of a father figure

November 5, 2018 by Mike Silvia Leave a Comment

—
My biological dad wasn’t around much. Growing up, it was pretty much me, mom and my imagination. Don’t get me wrong. Marching band aside, I wasn’t a total social pariah. I had lots of friends, and the neighborhood was filled with potential playmates – though it was a bit of a circus freakshow.

The Rodmans were alright, I guess. I think they were in some sort of benign cult centered around eating a ****load of Count Chocula and never, ever sleeping. And there was the kid down the street named Dreck. I swear to God. Dreck.That’s some bad gentile parenting right there.
The Walker kid scared the crap out of me. Imagine Eddie Haskel with access to cigarettes and bottle-rockets. Next door was “Bobbie Jay,” whom we’d all quickly tire of. Trust me, the whole “Can Bobbie Jay come out and play” -thing gets old fast. Though he would later enjoy a renaissance of sorts when we discovered the concept of relentless ridicule and that Jay, of course, rhymed with gay. Yes, it was the seventies. We were still dicks.

But as far as immediate family there at 23 Michigan Court, it was just me and mom. That is, until the day she unknowingly came home with an honest-to-goodness father figure.

Francis Asbury Tarkenton—then quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings—was known for his super-human scrambling moves and winning a grand total of no Superbowls. He would go on to host the TV variety show That’s Incredible! and do something or another with infomercials I think. But in perhaps his greatest career move, he would lend his name to the finest toy ever: Fran Tarkenton’s Automatic Quarterback.

Now, I hesitate to call it a “toy,” this glorious opportunity for a fatherless, only-child. It was a wondrous contraption, about three feet tall, with a green plastic case, a steel arm sticking out the top, and a plastic “hand” (that, of course, looked nothing like a hand) to cradle a football.

Not exactly from the Steve Jobs School of Product Design, but holy crap could that thing throw a football—a “football” only in the sense that this hollow, plastic object was brown and roughly football-sized and football-shaped. Short passes, long passes, touch passes, it had some sort of timer thing on the side so all you had to do was crank it up and run your little ass off. It was everything I ever wanted.




And yet it was somehow… more.

At the time, I wasn’t looking for a role model, some sort of surrogate dad. No thanks, I’m good. One less person yelling at me, the better.” And besides, I was more of Bert Jones kid myself. But every Saturday morning, I could almost hear him…
“Come on, boy, let’s go out and throw the ball around. Okay, right. I’ll throw it, you just run and catch it. Or more often than not, chase it down, pick it up, run back, put the ball in my freakish plastic hand, crank it back up, set the timer and run out again. And by the way, occasionally – and for no apparent reason – I’m just going to throw it over the ****ing fence.”

Yeah, my new father figure was awesome. His only real flaw was that he couldn’t do much else. For starters, my mother wouldn’t let him in the house. And we couldn’t exactly take him to the pool or bowling. I’m pretty sure he would’ve killed someone. Probably Bobbie Jay.

Still, Dad™ was always there, rain or shine. (Though not so much with the rain.) We played. We laughed. We cried. Mostly it was just me for the last two, the latter when he hit me in the goddamn eye at least a dozen times. Good times.

I haven’t seen him in years. Not since I was 13 or so. And I have no pictures him. In fact, I can’t even find a mention of him on the Internet. And no one I know has ever heard of him. But he’ll always be there – in my memories, in my heart – throwing me those perfect spirals, teaching me how to run routes. But most of all, teaching be how to be a good dad to my own kids. To always be there for them, even if just to toss around a hollow, brown plastic thing that only loosely resembles a ball.

And on those days when they’re in school or off with friends, to stand in the corner of the garage and wait quietly.

Thank you, Fran Tarkenton’s Automatic Quarterback. I love you.

 

The NFL did not ban Steroid usage until 1987. For that matter, as stated before, EVERY team was using it in some form or way. If there is one person to place blame, Pete Rozelle is the man who should be taking heat for it as he was the commissioner at the time and could have ended it there and then.

 

Here, you can try. He's not admitting nor denying anything.

 

Thought he expired. Go figure, he is still whining.

 

Steroids were introduced to the NFL in 1963 by a San Diego Chargers strength coach named Alvin Roy. The notion that the Steelers players in the 70's were the only users is ridiculous. The Vikings lost all those Super Bowls because they had a head coach who didn't believe in making in-game adjustments, ever.

 

who?

 

Tarkenton has to be the unluckiest QB to have ever played in the Super Bowl. All three times, he had the misfortune of having to play teams on steroids. Lighten up, Francis.

 

Who cares what Fran Tarkenton says?

 

When I said that, I meant when Pete was alive.

 

I know you were AQL, as usual, couldn't resist. So do you think that Troy will ask you to introduce him at Canton this summer? Your unwavering support of #43 by virtue of your never changing avatar should be sufficient cause IMHO. Unlike our esteemed comrade BBH who changes his avatar probably more often than his underwear.

 

If Troy asks me to go, I will happily stay in debt for the next 5 Years!! Those debts can wait anyway!! Troy is the man!!



Edit: Forgot one aspect of this. It is not that I do not want to change this pic. I am waiting on Troy's bust when it comes. Already called dibbs on it and if I did not...

 

damn... low blow lol

 

Sounds like sour grapes to me. Tarkenton is so far off when he said, seeing Webster playing during the Super Bowl he was astonished of his size. Webster didn't even play in the first Super Bowl as far as I remember. I think Ray Mansfield was the center for that season. Noll himself said he told his players to stay away from steroids. I'm sure some listened and some didn't. The Steelers didn't corner the market of steroids and the Chargers were the first and biggest abusers. How many Super Bowls had the Chargers won ?

 

As we've seen I don't think anybody won in regards to steroids, the users or their opponents. He's just still pissed off about his name , my neighbors poodle was named Fran.

 

Glemm

 

Mansfield was the starter, but if I remember correctly, he and Webster shared the center position that season. I believe that was the year that Mansfield played the first and third quarters while Webster played the second and fourth.

 

The offense wasn’t the only thing he talked about. After the Super Bowl he said while he was in the huddle calling a play, he would look over and the defense was already lined up. He said it was like they were saying “This is what we are going to do, what are you going to do about it?”

During the game L C Greenwood knocked down 2 of Frans passes. During the following draft, in some round, Minnesota couldn’t make up the it’s mind in time. The Commissioner said “Minnesota passes”, someone in the audience yelled back “And Greenwood knocks it down”.

 

Looking back at that first Super Bowl, and reading what Francis said before the game about those big, meanie Steelers, that didn't help the Vikings' confidence AT ALL and it put doubt in his player's minds. Great quarterbacks with toughness can overcome adversity and instill confidence. Can you imagine if Bradshaw would have said that within earshot of Joe Greene or Jack Lambert? Toughen up, Francis.

 

The same as they have now! Zero, Zip, Zilch!