Review: Better Scramble Than Lose

Better Scramble Than Lose by Fran Tarkenton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book was written by Tarkenton when he was quarterback for the Giants, in between his tours with the Vikings. His stories are mostly of his time with the Vikings, though. The book appears to be a heavily edited recorded monologue by Tarkenton covering many of the game situations he had been in. He drops names liberally, especially teammates and key opposing players – he knows opposing defensive line folks well. He spends an entire chapter describing how to pick up opponent’s defenses, though you get the idea that this level of discussion is really aimed at student-age readers of this Scholastic Books imprint that are football-knowledgeable – deep but oversimplified. Tarkenton talks about defensive plays and the offensive plays meant to overcome them, including stunts. This really was more detailed than I expected about the game of football as played by the pros in the late 1960s. I learned a lot, not being a big football fan, but I have the feeling that the strategies and tactics described are all quite dated. Beyond the gameplay, Tarkenton describes some of the business aspects of the game, including how the Vikings used him as their second franchise quarterback, and he describes Viking coaches personalities. You can sense respect for most, but not all. Also I noted that the photo section in the middle used some truly awful pictures, some blurry, some just not interesting shots. Overall, I found this a fun book reminding me of the kinds of books I read decades ago when in school. You really could not tell that Tarkenton would later become a network TV show host and CEO of a software company. Quite a dichotomy.

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