If I requested you to call the richest NFL participant on earth, I guess most individuals would guess Tom Brady. In spite of everything, he earned $330 million in wage throughout his profession and one other $100-200 million from endorsements.
One other good guess could be Aaron Rodgers, who’s nonetheless taking part in and at present holds the report for the best profession earnings in NFL historical past, at about $380 million and counting.
Or perhaps you’d level to Patrick Mahomes, whose 10-year, $503 million contract with the Chiefs is without doubt one of the largest contracts in sports activities historical past, actually doubling Peyton Manning’s all-time profession earnings of $248 million. Peyton himself can be a strong guess.
If you happen to’re a longtime reader of CelebrityNetWorth, you would possibly even choose Roger Staubach, the legendary Nineteen Seventies Cowboys quarterback who constructed a real-estate empire in his off-seasons, which he offered for $650 million in 2008.
However none of these solutions can be appropriate. And in reality, I guess a bunch of readers have by no means even heard of this individual.
Okay, sufficient dancing round.
The richest NFL participant on the earth is a quarterback from the Sixties who parlayed simply $1.2 million in complete profession earnings into a rare second act as a expertise entrepreneur and investor.
His title is Fran Tarkenton. How extraordinary has Fran’s second act been? Effectively, let’s put it this manner: Fran Tarkenton is without doubt one of the largest particular person shareholders in a little bit firm referred to as Apple…
Fran Tarkenton (by way of Getty)
NFL Profession and Meager Earnings
Fran Tarkenton was one of the crucial thrilling quarterbacks in NFL historical past. Over 18 seasons with the Minnesota Vikings and New York Giants, he turned improvisation into an artwork kind. Nicknamed “The Scrambler,” he prolonged performs along with his legs lengthy earlier than that turned an ordinary a part of the place. He threw for 47,003 yards and 342 touchdowns, earned 9 Professional Bowl alternatives, and was named NFL MVP in 1975.
Regardless of all that, Fran Tarkenton by no means gained a Tremendous Bowl. He led the Vikings to the massive sport thrice — Tremendous Bowls VIII, IX, and XI — however misplaced every one. FYI: Tom Brady has seven rings, Patrick Mahomes has three, Peyton Manning and Roger Staubach every have two, and even Aaron Rodgers has one. Tarkenton? Zero.
When Tarkenton signed his first NFL contract in 1961, the deal paid $12,500 — about $111,000 in at the moment’s {dollars}. Even at his peak, he by no means earned greater than $250,000 per season. In complete, over an 18-year profession, he made about $1.2 million in wage — roughly $8 million after adjusting for inflation.
Like Roger Staubach (and most NFL gamers of the time), Fran needed to work aspect jobs within the low season to make ends meet. He spent one low season working for a trucking firm in Idaho, one other working for a printing agency in Minnesota, and even taking a desk on the New York advert company BBD&O.
These early low season jobs could not have been glamorous or glory-filled, however they taught Fran some extraordinarily priceless expertise for his eventual second profession: promote, handle shoppers, and construct relationships. Extra importantly, they satisfied him that when soccer ended, he needed to be greater than a former quarterback. He needed to construct one thing of his personal.
Early Enterprise Ventures and Classes Realized
Whereas lots of his friends spent their off-seasons resting or taking part in golf, Fran Tarkenton was already excited about life after soccer. Even within the late Sixties, when few athletes had enterprise ambitions, he was experimenting with entrepreneurship. His first try got here when he borrowed $50,000 to open a fast-food restaurant close to Minneapolis. Naturally, he named it “The Scrambler.”
The enterprise did not final. It failed inside a number of years, leaving him in debt — a troublesome lesson for a younger quarterback nonetheless in the course of his taking part in profession. However as an alternative of discouraging him, that failure turned a turning level. Tarkenton realized that counting on borrowed cash had made him complacent, so he made a vow: each future enterprise can be funded along with his personal money. If his personal cash was on the road, he’d work tougher and suppose smarter.
That mindset turned the muse of his post-football empire. Within the early Nineteen Seventies, whereas nonetheless taking part in for the New York Giants, he launched a administration consulting agency in Atlanta, adopted by an insurance coverage brokerage and a number of other actual property investments. These ventures gave him firsthand expertise in gross sales, finance, and buyer relationships — expertise that may serve him much better in the long term than any passing report.
By the mid-Eighties, lower than a decade after retiring from the NFL, Tarkenton’s companies had been producing greater than $11 million a 12 months in income. He had gone from operating for his life on the soccer area to operating a rising portfolio of firms. And his subsequent transfer would take him from Foremost Road to Silicon Valley — lengthy earlier than most individuals even knew what software program was.
Tarkenton Software program and KnowledgeWare
By the late Nineteen Seventies, as private computer systems started creeping into places of work, Fran Tarkenton was paying shut consideration. He wasn’t a programmer, however he understood that expertise would remodel the enterprise world — and he needed in early. Drawing on the operational and administration expertise from his consulting agency, Tarkenton based Tarkenton Software program, an organization targeted on creating pc program turbines for companies.
His timing could not have been higher. Whereas most retired athletes had been signing autographs or beginning automotive dealerships, Tarkenton was constructing an organization in one of many fastest-growing sectors in America. He started selling CASE (Pc-Aided Software program Engineering) instruments throughout the nation, even teaming up with tech pioneer Albert F. Case Jr. to host seminars explaining how companies may use software program to work smarter.
In 1986, Tarkenton made his boldest transfer but when he merged his younger firm with a struggling Atlanta-based software program agency referred to as KnowledgeWare. Most traders thought he was loopy — an ex-quarterback operating a tech firm in an trade dominated by engineers. Tarkenton believed in any other case. He invested $3 million of his personal cash ($9 million in at the moment’s {dollars}) to take management and got down to show he may construct a successful crew off the sector similar to he had on it.
Inside two years, he did precisely that. Tarkenton struck a partnership with IBM to bundle KnowledgeWare’s software program with IBM’s {hardware} choices, immediately boosting the corporate’s credibility and gross sales. Revenues exploded, rising from losses to tens of hundreds of thousands in annual gross sales virtually in a single day. In 1989, he took KnowledgeWare public. The inventory surged alongside fellow newly public software program firms Microsoft, Solar Microsystems, Adobe, and Oracle.
By 1991, KnowledgeWare was producing round $100 million in annual income, and Tarkenton’s 13% possession stake was value roughly $50–60 million on paper. His preliminary $3 million funding had multiplied greater than tenfold.
Over the subsequent few years, he step by step offered parts of his stake because the inventory matured. In 1994, he finalized the corporate’s sale to Sterling Software program for $73 million, personally incomes about $6 million from that deal and securing a five-year consulting contract value $300,000 yearly.
That windfall gave Tarkenton the capital to develop his enterprise empire — and to make the long-term funding that may quietly change into his biggest monetary determination of all…
Elsa/Getty Pictures
The Apple Funding
After promoting KnowledgeWare within the mid-Nineties, Fran Tarkenton had one thing most retired athletes by no means obtain: liquidity, persistence, and a deep understanding of how enterprise cycles work. He additionally had his eye on one other expertise firm — one which, on the time, was in deep trouble: Apple Inc.
Tarkenton started shopping for Apple inventory greater than 30 years in the past, at a time when the corporate was locked in a near-death wrestle for survival in opposition to rival behemoth Microsoft. His timing couldn’t have been higher. Extra importantly, he by no means offered — in actual fact, he stored including to his place 12 months after 12 months. He additionally persistently reinvested his dividends into extra shares.
This is what we all know:
In mid-2019, it was confirmed that, at the moment, Fran owned $40 million value of Apple shares. A 12 months later, Apple carried out a 4-for-1 inventory cut up. To personal $40 million value of shares in mid-2019, pre-split, implies that he held roughly 200,000 shares.
After the cut up, these 200,000 shares turned 800,000 shares.
As I sort this text, Apple’s inventory is sitting at an all-time excessive of $270. Assuming he has not offered any shares, and there is been no indication he has, Fran Tarkenton’s Apple shares are value round $216 million.
However let’s not overlook in regards to the dividends!
Apple’s quarterly dividend of $0.26 per share generates about $208,000 each quarter for somebody who owns 800,000 shares. That is roughly $830,000 per 12 months in dividend earnings. And Fran has traditionally reinvested his dividends into extra Apple shares.
While you do the maths on 800,000 shares owned in July 2021 with computerized dividend reinvestment, that provides one other 18,000 shares over the next 4 years, relying on the inventory value on the time every dividend was paid.
These extra shares would push his complete possession near 818,000 shares at the moment. At Apple’s present value of $270 per share, that is about $220 million value of inventory — and counting.
Assuming Fran owns 818,000 shares, that may place him amongst Apple’s high 10 particular person shareholders. He would possibly even be within the high 5.
Legacy of a Gridiron Entrepreneur
Fran Tarkenton’s life story reads like a masterclass in long-term considering. On the sector, he constructed his legacy by way of creativity, resilience, and management. Off the sector, he used those self same traits to construct wealth on a scale that few athletes — and even executives — ever attain.
He could not have ever gained a Tremendous Bowl, however with a web value of $350 million, Fran Tarkenton is the richest NFL participant on earth and maybe the best athlete investor of all time.
