NFL legend Fran Tarkenton explains why he invested millions in Apple — and is bullish on Tim Cook

• NFL Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton is an Apple shareholder.
• He remains bullish on the tech giant even as some investors worry about its pace of AI developments.
• "They've been around for 50 years, and look what they've done in those 50 years!" he told Business Insider.

NFL Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton started buying up shares of Apple a decade ago — and he doesn't plan on selling them any time soon, he told Business Insider.

"The Apple stock never gets sold," Tarkenton said in a recent interview.

Tarkenton said he "sleeps well at night" knowing that, regardless of what happens with his companies, he always has his backstop of Apple stock, of which he owns hundreds of thousands of shares, according to records viewed by Business Insider.

"I first met Steve Jobs when he was out of Apple and building Pixar, but I really started buying their stock around 10 years ago," Tarkenton added in a follow-up email. "I've handled my own money for a long time, because I wanted to know what the companies I was investing in were doing."

The Minnesota Vikings legend, who made the bulk of his fortune after retiring from the league, said he bought his first Apple shares in 2015 after researching the company.

"I started getting to know some of the people there, and they were brilliant people," he said. "I began investing in Apple, and I don't sell it. I reinvest all the dividends. I read about them and what they're doing every day, so I know that's the company I believe in more than any other."

Tarkenton told Business that he saw Apple's diversification and its famously high gross margin as too good to pass up.

"They've been around for 50 years, and look what they've done in those 50 years!" Tarkenton said. "They're so diversified; they're in everything, they have more assets than any company in the world, and they keep on growing and building in new ways."

'Tim Cook came in and didn't try to be Steve Jobs'

Tarkenton praised Apple CEO Tim Cook's "authentic leadership," saying that he has handled the difficult task of replacing the iconic cofounder Steve Jobs well.

"He's a very different person from Steve Jobs, but he's been just as good and maybe even better for Apple," he said.

"Tim Cook came in and didn't try to be Steve Jobs. Instead, he was his authentic self, and he's a genius leader," Tarkenton added. "Coming in after an icon like Steve Jobs is a tough job, and he's handled it magnificently."

Under Cook's leadership, Apple has grown at a staggering pace, increasing its market cap from $350 billion in 2011 to over $4 trillion. During that time, Apple unveiled hit products such as the Apple Watch and AirPods, as well as services like Apple Pay and Apple TV+ — though it also launched the relatively slow-selling Vision Pro and reportedly scrapped its long-in-development electric car project.

Meanwhile, Cook is steering Apple through the AI race, which it got a late start to — a critique that Tarkenton said TV pundits like to talk about but that he dismissed.

Tarkenton isn't worried about who will replace Cook, who is nearing retirement age. Cook has said Apple has "very detailed succession plans" and that he would like his replacement to be an internal hire. John Ternus, Apple's senior vice president of hardware engineering, is widely seen as the frontrunner, though Apple hasn't publicly discussed succession candidates.

"I don't think he'll leave in the next year; maybe in the next couple of years," Tarketon said in his follow-up note. "But if and when he does step away, they'll have another person ready to step up, because they've built that kind of company with that kind of leadership culture."

Tarkenton sees big things ahead for Apple TV

Tarkenton, who co-hosted "Monday Night Football" and an ABC reality TV series after retiring from football in 1978, said he foresees Apple making a big play for NFL rights.

One of the pillars of Cook's tenure at Apple has been building its services business, a high margin enterprise that includes Apple TV, iCloud, and Apple Music, among other digital subscriptions.

The iPhone giant has struck some major deals in the sports space in recent years, including a $2.5 billion agreement with the MLS and the rights to stream "Friday Night Baseball."

In October, Apple announced that it had struck a five-year deal with Formula 1 to exclusively stream races in the US starting next year.

In 2023, Apple began sponsoring the Super Bowl Halftime show, but it has yet to broker any deals to exclusively stream games for the NFL, the ratings king for live sports.

Tarkenton is betting that changes.

"They're going to end up being the biggest televisor of NFL football and maybe college football too, because they'll know how to do it better than anybody else," he predicted.

It doesn't matter what it is, Tarkenton said, as long as it has Apple attached to it.

"When Apple gets on something, it's going to be really good," he said.

Steven Tweedie contributed to this report.