Jack Kemp

[jayjacobson]

"....Kemp led Buffalo to the 1964 and 1965 AFL Championships, and won the league's most valuable player award in 1965. He co-founded the AFL Players Association in 1964 and was elected president of the union for five terms. When he retired from football in 1969, Kemp had enough support in blue-collar Buffalo and its suburbs to win an open congressional seat.

In 11 seasons, he sustained a dozen concussions, two broken ankles and a crushed hand — which Kemp insisted a doctor permanently set in a passing position so that he could continue to play.

"Pro football gave me a good perspective," he was quoted as saying. "When I entered the political arena, I had already been booed, cheered, cut, sold, traded, and hung in effigy."

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said "Kemp was an extraordinary American leader who became a trusted colleague and exceptional friend to countless NFL owners, team personnel and commissioners after his MVP playing career with the Buffalo Bills...."

:bowdown: For being an all-around great guy, I salute you, sir! Thank you for showing us class right to the very end. :bowdown:

[batdriver51]

They don't make em like that anymore, the ones like him and Reagan were all class. What America used to be.

[pjessen]

+1 on the above.

Married once. Four kids who followed in his footsteps. Prototype father and (should be) hero to anyone who is trying to raise their family correctly.

Unfortunately, examples like his are few and far between, and even more uncommon is the media espousing these people and their values. And when the moral compass is gone, so goes the society, and therefore, the country.

I fear for your grandchildren.