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Fran Tarkenton has a few critics among the players who shared three trips to the Super Bowl with him in the '70s. They will tell you that it's a push if Tarkenton was more talented as a quarterback or as a self-promoter.

"You better not say anything like that around my mother," Chuck Foreman said. "If you have any issues with Fran, she's going to put you in your place."

Foreman will be inducted into the Vikings Ring of Honor at halftime of today's game with Green Bay. Janet Foreman -- known as "Tootie" to family, friends and Fran -- will be standing near her son as the ceremony takes place.

This is the 10th season that the Vikings have been placing people in what amounts to their hall of fame. Tarkenton's icon status was confirmed when he was given the first induction ceremony on Sept. 9, 1998.

By then, he already was a Vikings all-timer, in the opinion of Tootie Foreman.

"I knew that Fran had been very nice to my mother when we were teammates in the '70s," Chuck said. "I didn't know they had stayed in contact after that with phone calls.

"My dad, Billy, had a stroke in the early '90s. They put him in a rehab facility. When we went to see him, he hadn't been washed up. My mom saw that and just broke down.

"She said, 'We're taking him home,' and that's what we did. That meant daily nursing care, and the insurance wouldn't pay. That pretty much wiped out all of us, but that's OK, because we're a family that takes care of our own.

"My dad died in 1998, six years after the stroke. One day, I was back visiting my mom and I saw this check stub that had Fran Tarkenton's name on it.

"She had never said anything to me, and neither had Fran, but I'll tell you this: I always respected Fran Tarkenton, but the level of that respect went up when I learned that he reached out to help my mother."

A number of the players from the '70s will be gathered on the Metrodome turf with Foreman's family today. And we can hear this story from Foreman and understand there's a bond that goes beyond the three Super Bowls (after 1973, '74 and '76) that came within a period of four years.

Tarkenton was on his five-year sabbatical with the New York Giants when the Vikings went to a first Super Bowl after the 1969 season. He came back in 1972, and the Vikings went 7-7.

This one-year flop turned out to be fortuitous. The Vikings were able to select Foreman, the running back from Miami, with the 12th pick in the 1973 draft.

Foreman was a two-way player -- receiver and cornerback -- as a Miami senior. It was unclear whether NFL scouts looked at Foreman as a running back or receiver when he was invited to the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala.

"During workouts that week, this lanky guy with a crewcut was always nearby, just watching me," Foreman said. "Never said a word -- just watched -- but I found out later that was Bud Grant."

Grant and offensive coordinator Jerry Burns had developed a fondness for throwing the ball to running backs before Foreman's arrival. Once they had a back with size, speed and great hands, Burns and his empowered quarterback, Tarkenton, plotted to get the ball to Foreman with a handoff or a pass 25 times a game.

"The idea was to get me one-on-one, either single coverage downfield or one defender in front of me on a pass in the flat," Foreman said. "If it was one-on-one, I was going to win 90 percent of the time."

Foreman had five consecutive Pro Bowl seasons, starting as a rookie in 1973. He scored 51 touchdowns from 1974 through 1976. In 1975, he led the NFC with 22 touchdowns and 73 receptions, and he was second with 1,070 rushing yards.