Former Vikings QB Tommy Kramer back in town, still equal parts Norm and ‘What about Bob?’

Tommy Kramer doesn’t have his own home. He doesn’t even have a car. Mostly, he hangs out these days with a friend in the Twin Cities.

The former Vikings quarterback lived in his native San Antonio, Texas, after he retired from the NFL in 1991 until the summer of 2018. But after his third divorce, he was looking for a change of scenery.

Buddy Becker, a Realtor and business associate, invited him to return to Minnesota. So, Kramer ended leases he had on a home in San Antonio and on a Nissan Rogue, put most everything he owned in three big storage bins, and headed north.

It’s been 2 1/2 years, and he’s still here.

“He’s kind of like the Bill Murray movie, ‘What about Bob?’ He’s here, and he’s not leaving,” Becker said with a laugh while referring to the 1991 movie in which Murray stars as a patient who moves into his psychiatrist’s home.

He’s that, or he is the Minnesota version of Norm from Cheers. Maybe he’s both.

Kramer doesn’t disagree.

“All my exes live in Texas,” he said. “I’m not in a hurry to do anything (else).”

The gritty Kramer, who played for the Vikings from 1977-89 before concluding his career with one game as a backup in New Orleans in 1990, kept busy in his first two years back in the Twin Cities, when he lived in a room at Becker’s home in Centerville. Kramer, always known for enjoying the night life, could walk two blocks to hang out at Kelly’s Korner bar. And he was driven around with regularity by Becker, including going to an average of five autograph events each month throughout the Upper Midwest.

Since the coronavirus pandemic hit, things have slowed down considerably, and Kramer’s location has changed as well. Last summer, Becker moved into a new home in Blaine, where he lives with his girlfriend Teri Wiege and his son Davis, 12. And Kramer tagged along.

Kramer, 65, has a room in the basement, which also has a large room for entertainment. It features televisions, a bar area, and autographed jerseys of Vikings greats on the walls. In addition to one from Kramer, there are jerseys of defensive tackles John Randle, Henry Thomas and Keith Millard, running backs Ted Brown and Rickey Young, and linebacker Scott Studwell.

Before bars had to close last month due to the pandemic, Kramer was given rides to Kelly’s Korner, and he also was taught how to use Uber when Becker didn’t come along. And until the Nov. 22 game against Dallas, the house hosted weekly parties to watch Vikings games, and several of Kramer’s former teammates attended. Guests could use a custom-made urinal whose must-use feature was a Green Bay Packers logo in the bowl.

But now Kramer doesn’t have much to do and few places to go. Becker took him to an event last weekend in Waterloo, Iowa, but lately there haven’t been many autograph shows.

“There’s no bars open,” Kramer said. “You can’t go anywhere. I just stay here and watch TV all day and night. Investigative Discovery.”

That’s Kramer’s favorite non-sports channel. He also watches NFL Network, Golf Channel and all the NFL and college football games he can find.

“Hopefully, there’s only a few more weeks of this,” he said of closings due to the pandemic. “It’s got to go away one of these years.”

When things get back to normal, Kramer said he’ll go back to what he was doing before. He’ll hang out at Kelly’s Korner, play golf when it’s warm enough, help former teammates out at charity events, and he’ll mingle as much as he can with his many fans.

“They love him,” said Brown, a former Vikings teammate and Shakopee resident who has seen a lot of Kramer since he returned to Minnesota. “When I’m around, a lot of people look up to him. He’s really friendly, and he’ll talk to just about anybody. He’ll sign autographs. He’s a good fellow, a good guy.”

Kramer is very recognizable when out and about. He often wears a hat with his “TK9″ logo, his initials with his former uniform number. He sells autographed hats at shows for $100, with Becker saying some of the money goes to charity.

Those who don’t know about Kramer find out soon enough. He threw the football around last summer at a nearby field with some local sixth graders. They didn’t become really impressed with Kramer until Becker invited them to the house to watch some old Vikings highlights, and each of them left with an autographed football card.

“The kids were all excited,” said Becker, 49, who has known Kramer for about five years.

Older Vikings fans have no problem recognizing Kramer, who has been called the “original gunslinger” by hall of fame quarterback Brett Favre.

“There’s a lot of people who say, ‘Yeah, I remember you when I was 5 years old and you were my favorite player,’ and then they always want to hear the stories,” Kramer said. “It’s fun to react with them.”

Kramer loves to tell stories, and many have to do with his two most famous games. Both illustrate why he became known as “Two-Minute Tommy,” for his comeback wins.

As a rookie, Kramer came off the bench in the fourth quarter of a Dec. 4, 1977 game at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington with the Vikings trailing San Francisco 24-7. He threw three touchdown passes, including a 69-yard strike to Sammy White with 1:47 left for the winning touchdown in a 28-27 win.

And then there was the Miracle at the Met on Dec. 14, 1980. The 40th anniversary of what Kramer calls “one of the most miraculous comebacks ever” is just a week away.

The Vikings trailed Cleveland 23-9 at home with just over five minutes remaining before rallying for a 28-23 victory on a 46-yard Hail Mary pass from Kramer to Ahmad Rashad on the finalplay of the game. Kramer completed 38 of 49 passes for 456 yards and four touchdowns that day, and the dramatic win wrapped up the Central Division on the next-to-last week of the season.

The amazing winning drive started with the Vikings at their 20-yard line, trailing 23-22 with 14 seconds left in the game and no timeouts remaining.

“I looked in my linemen’s eyes and nobody was looking at me, so I knew I better say something that was going to get their attention,” Kramer said. “So I said, ‘They’re scared of us,’ and that got their attention.”

Kramer called Squadron Right, which was a Hail Mary play down the right sideline. But then he whispered to Brown and tight end Joe Senser that he had something else in mind.

Kramer threw a pass across the middle to Senser at the Minnesota 29, and he immediately lateraled to Brown at the 27.  Brown streaked down the left sideline and ran out of bounds at the Cleveland 46 with five seconds left.

“He didn’t tell everybody because he didn’t want the receivers to let up when they were running down the field,” Brown said. “But he told Joe and I it was going to be the flea flicker. I thought to myself, ‘Maybe I should try to run and score and be a hero.’ But then I said, ‘Oh, the Cleveland Browns are heading me off at the pass. I said, ‘I better step out of bounds.’ And then, you know the rest is history.”

On the next play, Kramer called Squadron Right, and this time there was no change-up. With three receivers streaking down the right sideline, Kramer lofted the ball high in the air. It was batted by Browns safety Thom Darden into the hands of Rashad, who caught it just over the goal line.

“As the ball went up, I think what people don’t understand is that I expected to catch the ball,” Rashad said. “It wasn’t like a crapshoot to me. I was going to make a play. … (Kramer) had a great disposition as a quarterback. He wasn’t afraid of anything. He was fearless. He was a swashbuckler.”

After the play, Vikings players piled on top of one another, and Kramer said he was “jumping up and down knowing that we just got into the playoffs.” Kramer called it the greatest ending in team history until Stefon Diggs’ Minnesota Miracle catch in the 2017 playoffs.

“We practiced that play every Friday,” he said. “People come up to me and say, ‘I remember where I was when you won that game.’ There’s got to be about 20,000 people who said they watched it or were at the game that I have run into over the years.”

One person watching from just a few feet away, and he could prove it. In 1980, Kevin Rivard was a 20-year-old member of the grounds crew, who was responsible for raising the nets behind the goal posts for kick attempts. When Rashad scored the winning touchdown, Rivard ran onto the field to congratulate him, which could be seen on the NBC broadcast.

A Pioneer Press photographer took a photo of Rivard cheering when Rashad scored, and it ran in the next day’s paper. Rivard obtained a copy of the print and Rashad autographed it for him in 1981, writing, “Peace and Best Wishes.”

Then in June 2018, Rivard saw that Kramer would appear at an autograph show in Shoreview, so he showed up. Kramer signed the photo “Tommy Kramer 9,” and posed for a picture. But it didn’t end there.

Rivard, who is now 60 and lives in Centerville, saw later that summer that Kramer was a regular at Kelly’s Korner. So he visited him there, and Rivard said they’ve since become “drinking buddies.”

“He’s got a great personality,” Rivard said. “He still loves the attention. He’ll sometimes bring some of the other players to the bars. … Depending on how many beers he has, the stories get a little better.”

Kramer was known during his playing career for his nights on the town. Rivard said he sometimes saw Kramer during his heyday having drinks past 10 p.m. at a Bloomington bar on the eve of a home game.

“He was the most popular guy in town,” Rivard said. “It was just a combination of him being the quarterback and the lady’s man and party boy. He was kind of the Midwest version of Joe Namath.”

During his Vikings tenure, Kramer had two stays in rehabilitation clinics and was charged twice with drunken driving. But Kramer said he never was late for curfew on a game night, which was 11 p.m., and he said his drinking never affected his play.

“It made me play better,” he said. “It just did.”

There wasn’t a curfew on other days of the week, and Kramer made the most of it.

“My first five years, I was single,” he said. “I was out every night.”

Kramer said his preference always has been Coors Light. He said on non-game nights when he was a player, he could “easily drink 10 to 12” beers. He said he drinks a lot less now, and might have “one or two” on a typical night when he’s hanging out at Becker’s house.

Kramer hasn’t slowed down with chewing tobacco. He said he’s been doing it for 40 years, and his preferred brand is Red Seal Winter Green Fine Cut.

Three decades after his last game, Kramer remains second in Vikings history behind hall of famer Fran Tarkenton in career yards passing (24,775) and touchdowns (159). He played in the Pro Bowl after the 1986 season, when he led the NFL with a passer rating of 92.6, and he was the first quarterback in league history to have two 450-yard passing games.

But Kramer had 158 career interceptions, all but one with the Vikings, and led the league with 26 in 1985. And he had a 54-56 won-loss record as a starter for the Vikings.

“The off-the-field problems kind of contributed to the inconsistency, but when he was on fire, there weren’t many better,” said Steve Jordan, a Vikings tight end from 1982-94.

Kramer said any problems with inconsistency were due to the numerous injuries he suffered in his career. After taking over as the starter when Tarkenton retired before the 1979 season, Kramer played in just 118 of a possible 165 games over the next 11 seasons. His had knee and shoulder injuries, multiple concussions and a 1987 preseason spine injury that he said “basically pretty much ended my career.”

Kramer was asked where he ranks among all Minnesota quarterbacks, and he didn’t hesitate in his answer.

“No lower than two,” he said, conceding the top spot to Tarkenton. “It was a heck of a different game when we were playing. There were no rules (like now) about hitting the darn quarterback and mauling your receivers, so you got to find a way to get rid of the ball quick.”

Running back Chuck Foreman, who played with the Vikings from 1973-79 and has been a longtime resident of Eden Prairie, agrees with Kramer’s ranking on the field. But when it comes to where Kramer rates off the field, Foreman said he just might be No. 1.

“Tommy was one of the most popular guys around the Twin Cities,” Foreman said. “He’s a major part of what the Vikings are about, and it’s good to see him back in town.”