Fran Tarkenton On Deacon Jones

[Tark10]

Fran was interviewed yesterday on NFL Network regarding Deacon Jones. He stated he was a great player who played fair and never hit him below the knees and the offfensive lineman thought he was a great player as well. To the contrary, I can recall watching a program on NFL films whereby Jones was interviewed regarding one Francis Asbury Tarkenton and his scrambling.. He stated he tried desperately to end his career because he hated chasing him around the Coluseum in the heat. Maybe Francis doesn't remember or maybe Jones was exbounding for interviewing puposes. I'd like Mothman and the other senior fans to weigh in on this. I didn't start watching the game till 1971 so I don't have first hand knowledge of Jones and the Fearsome Foursome. I think Jones was interviewed on the Top 10 scrambling quarterbacks topic.

[Skoltastic_Voyage]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auZY7RByfmg 2:55
It was so weird, I was watching this and other old clips of Tark,Deacon,Marshall and other amazing players from the era that night and when I woke up one of them was gone. It's sad to say the least that the world lost one of the toughest competitors ever to play in the NFL.

[indianation65]

I saw that NFL Top 10 QBS of the 70s. Deacon commented on Fran, but I believe it was Merlin Olsen who also stated the "hated chasing FT around the hot coliseum" comments. I might be wrong.

...wisdom

[Mothman]

Fran was interviewed yesterday on NFL Network regarding Deacon Jones. He stated he was a great player who played fair and never hit him below the knees and the offfensive lineman thought he was a great player as well. To the contrary, I can recall watching a program on NFL films whereby Jones was interviewed regarding one Francis Asbury Tarkenton and his scrambling.. He stated he tried desperately to end his career because he hated chasing him around the Coluseum in the heat. Maybe Francis doesn't remember or maybe Jones was exbounding for interviewing puposes. I'd like Mothman and the other senior fans to weigh in on this. I didn't start watching the game till 1971 so I don't have first hand knowledge of Jones and the Fearsome Foursome. I think Jones was interviewed on the Top 10 scrambling quarterbacks topic.

I've seen Deacon Jones do a lot of that sort of tough talking in NFL Films clips, interviews, etc. over the years. He seemed to revel in it. However, I don't remember him being a dirty player. He was an aggressive player, always looking to deliver a hard hit but I never got the impression he actually wanted to end anybody's career.

That said, I started watching the NFL in 1969 so I only saw Jones play during the latter part of his career. Maybe he was a little more vicious early on...

[Tark10]

Thanks Mothman. If Francis said it..It must be so.

[Mothman]

Thanks Mothman. If Francis said it..It must be so.

LOL!

You're welcome.

[CaptainKirov]

Fran pissed off every single member of the Fearsome Foursome.....and every other defensive linemen that had the displeasure of trying to sack him. Not to take away from Deacon but im sure many of them would have loved to end his career.

[MV711]

I've seen Deacon Jones do a lot of that sort of tough talking in NFL Films clips, interviews, etc. over the years. He seemed to revel in it. However, I don't remember him being a dirty player. He was an aggressive player, always looking to deliver a hard hit but I never got the impression he actually wanted to end anybody's career.

That said, I started watching the NFL in 1969 so I only saw Jones play during the latter part of his career. Maybe he was a little more vicious early on...

I started watching the Vikings and NFL football in general in 1966 and saw the Fearsome Foursome play a number of times. All four linemen were very aggressive but played within the rules, played smart and worked great together as a unit, just like the Purple People Eaters.

I don't believe any of the Foresome tried to intentionally and severely hurt Fran or any other QB but they sure wanted to knock them out of the game. I remember Olsen saying he hated Fran more than any other QB because of his scrabbling ability and the fact that most of the time neither he or anyone on the Foresome could catch him.

I believe Jones as well as the others respected Fran because of his abilities but they wanted to get him out of the game because they were tired as hell chasing him around for 60 minutes.

Old school football that the Rams, Vikes, Packers, Bears and Cowboys played was great and very seldom seen in todays NFL. I miss it a lot.

[VikeMike]

I started watching the NFL in 1971, so I only saw part of Deacon's best years. But Jones was definitely a quote machine -- a friend of mine that used to work at NFL Films told me that he loved when he came in for interviews. But my friend also said the Deac was one for hyperbole. He might have exaggerated a tad here and there. For the player whom invented the head slap, he definitely went as far as he could to gain an advantage, but I don't think anyone ever accused of him as being a dirty player.

I remember seeing interviews where he said he hated chasing Tark, but I don't think he ever tried to end Fran's career.