Football: Right Between the Ears

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The most important piece of real estate in football, so the old aphorism goes, is the six inches between a quarter back's ears. It can also be the most costly. Last week, in one of the biggest deals in pro football history, the National Football League's floundering New York Giants (1966 record: one win, one tie, twelve losses) took title to an expensive piece of property indeed: Quarterback Francis Tarkenton, 27, late of the Minnesota Vikings. The price included Tarkenton's $60,000 salary, the Giants' first-round draft choices for both 1967 and 1968, plus their second-round pick this year and another player to be named later. It all adds up to some $500,000.

The Giants obviously expect Tarkenton to repair their fortunes both on the field, where they have turned into the patsies of the N.F.L.'s Eastern Conference, and at the gate, where they have been losing the battle to the A.F.L. All last fall, longtime Giant fans could be found across town at Shea Stadium, watching the New York Jets and their $485,000 quarterback, Joe Namath—whose talent for picking apart pass defenses made him a celebrity on the Manhattan nightclub circuit as well as on the field. Stealing the spotlight from Namath is a tall order for a Methodist minister's son who is married, a father, neither drinks nor smokes and makes speeches for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. But Tarkenton may be just the man to do it.

On His Knees. A six-year veteran, Tarkenton was the No. 2 passer in the N.F.L. in 1964, with 171 completions in 306 attempts for 2,506 yds. and 22 touchdowns. Last year, though the Vikings had a poor 4-9-1 season, he still passed for 2,561 yds. and led the Vikings to a 20-17 victory over the Green Bay Packers, one of only two games the world champions lost all year. He is known in the trade as a "scrambler," who would just as soon run as throw, who can turn a potential 10-yd. loss into a 50-yd. gain. He also has something that Joe Namath no longer has: a pair of sturdy knees.

"If you could order up a quarterback," said Giants' Coach Allie Sherman, "you would order up one like Fran Tarkenton." The one sour note was sounded by Norm Van Brocklin, Fran's coach for six years on the Vikings. Said Van Brocklin, who quit his job last month, mostly because he could not get along with Tarkenton: "There are two types of quarterbacks—those who carry a team and those who have to be carried by the team. Francis will win some games he shouldn't win, but he'll lose some games he shouldn't lose."