Marcellus Wiley Vs. Fran Tarkenton, Round 3

The recent comments from Hall of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton regarding retired (for now) quarterback Brett Favre sparked an intriguing side battle between Tarkenton and former NFL defensive end Marcellus Wiley. Wiley played the “grumpy old man” card on Tarkenton, and then Tarkenton looked down his nose at Wiley’s “minimal playing career.” On Friday, Wiley talked about Tarkenton’s comments regarding Favre on 790 The Zone in Atlanta (via SportsRadioInterviews.com), the radio station that sparked this mess earlier in the week. Wiley explained that his beef with Tarkenton’s comments is that Tarkenton violated some vague code that prohibits former players from wanting current players to fail. “As I took Fran comments, I had no problem with him having a public opinion about Brett Favre coming back or not,” Wiley said. “I have the same division between should he come back or not as well. I think most people have an opinion towards that. When you say, ‘OK, come back and fail,’ hold on now, Fran. You’re part of the fraternity, the special fraternity of guys who played in the NFL, and one of the rules in the code of conduct is you don’t want another guy to fail. “You want a guy to give you his best and you give your best and you just hope your best is better than his. To want a guy to fail, and I went back to my mental Rolodex through time and I’ve never heard another guy say that, and it was unfortunate because [he’s] a Hall of Famer, and you come into this game respecting those guys who are in Canton. You respect the guys who played the game and paved the road for you, and for one of them to come out and say, hey, why you’re battling one of the toughest decisions in your life which is to retire or not retire, you say I want you to come and fail, I mean that was very unfortunate and I think that was underneath what Fran Tarkenton really is.” Wiley also explained his use of the term “grumpy old man” in describing Tarkenton’s remarks. "[W]ho says that?” Wiley said. “I mean the next statement out of someone’s mouth like that is ‘Hey, get off my lawn and leave me alone.’” If Fran has anything more to say about this, we’d love to know whether he agrees that there’s a code of conduct that prohibits former NFL players from rooting for current football players to fail. Frankly, we’d love to know whether any other NFL player agrees with the notion that it’s impermissible for a former player to say that he wants to see a current player fail. It could be that Wiley is simply applying his own twist to the loose rules of the “jockocracy,” which generally prevents former athletes who have jobs in television or radio from criticizing the guys who currently are playing the game. Anyway, we’ll shut up for now and await further information as to whether Fran has put his fraternity membership in peril by suggesting that he wants to see Favre unretire and play for the Vikings, so that Favre can fail.