Don’t look now, but it seems the 2021 NFL Draft is right around the corner.
This year’s draft is scheduled to kick off on April 29 in Cleveland. In countdown to the event, CBS Sports’ Chris Trapasso is looking at the top five picks taken at every spot in the first round. He delved into pick No. 29 on Tuesday, and two Vikings made the exclusive cut.
Topping the group was Hall of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton, whom Minnesota drafted 29th overall in the 1961 NFL Draft, which marked the Vikings inaugural season. Trapasso wrote:
Tarkenton’s NFL debut foreshadowed a Hall of Fame career – he came off the bench, threw four touchdowns and scored one on the ground in a comeback win over the Chicago Bears. While the Vikings had typical expansion-franchise struggles early in Tarkenton’s career, he asserted himself as one of the league’s most compelling players to watch because of his scrambling mastery. He made the Pro Bowl in 1964 and 1965 in Minnesota.
Tarkenton was traded to the Giants in 1966 but in 1971 was traded back to the Vikings under Head Coach Bud Grant.
In 1973, Minnesota rode a steady Tarkenton season to the Super Bowl, where they lost to the Miami Dolphins. Tarkenton made the Pro Bowl in 1974, and the Vikings again made a trip to the Super Bowl but were beaten, this time by the Pittsburgh Steelers. In 1975, Tarkenton finished with the most passing touchdowns in the NFL (25) and won league MVP along with the Offensive Player of the Year award. That marvelous campaign catapulted the Minnesota to yet another ultimately unsuccessful Super Bowl appearance.
