A political football: Kennedy was courted by the Packers

He undoubtedly still would have wound up in politics because that was Ted Kennedy's destiny from birth, given his family's history.

Still, it's interesting to wonder what might have been had the senator accepted the Green Bay Packers invitation to try out back in 1956. Apparently, Kennedy had caught the Packers' eye after catching a touchdown pass in a 21-7 loss to Yale in The Game during his senior year. Packers coach Liz Blackbourn saw the film. He liked Kennedy's size - 6-foot-2, 210-pounds - and athleticism enough to send the Crimson receiver a personal letter.

Kennedy reportedly was flattered, but not enough to take the coach up on his offer. He eschewed the tryout in order to attend law school and pursue politics, which he wittily and accurately described as "another contact sport.''

Upon learning of the senator's death earlier this week, the Harvard football team hung a lone jersey - Kennedy's No. 88 - in the locker room.

After graduating from Harvard, Kennedy's grid-iron activity would be restricted to those highly competitive touch football games at the family's compound in Hyannis. His life-long sporting activity wound up being sailing, but his favorite sport to follow was baseball. He was a die-hard Red Sox fan, and said one of the greatest thrills of his life was throwing out the ceremonial first pitch before a game at Fenway Park early this year. It was an honor also bestowed upon his grandfather, former Boston mayor Honey Fitzgerald, many decades earlier.

Kennedy also followed the New England Patriots closely, and had a running correspondence with coach Bill Belichick. He would send Belichick congratulatory letters following significant victories and spirit-boosting notes on those rare occasions the Patriots lost. The normally stoic coach opened his Wednesday press conference thanking the late senator for his loyal support.

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That was great news that the LPGA will return to Rochester for a 34th time next summer. As I stated on numerous occasions, the women's golf organization needs us more than we need them. To have snubbed one of your best supported venues and most generous sponsors (Wegmans) would have been a terrible business move, and fortunately the players realized that and rid themselves of commissioner Carolyn Bevins before it happened.

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Look, I've signed off on giving a Michael Vick a second chance despite his heinous acts, but I believe the standing ovation he received from Eagles fans the other night was a little much. True redemption takes time.

Monday morning musings

The way I see it, a one-year marriage between hometown boy Greg Paulus and Syracuse football is a no-brainer. I mean, it's not like the former Duke University point guard would be keeping the next Donovan McNabb on the bench. Paulus, who was the National Gatorade Player of the Year while playing quarterback for Syracuse CBA five years ago, would create immediate excitement in the moribund SU program and put fannies in the seats. In the best-case scenario, SU goes 6-5 and ekes its way into some insignificant bowl game. In the worst-case scenario, Paulus bombs out and SU goes 3-8 or 2-9, which is what they're predicted to finish anyway. There's a lot to gain and little to lose.

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I saw Paulus play football several times in my previous incarnation as a newspaper columnist, and he is, far and away, the best high school quarterback I've witnessed. To me, Canandaigua's Billy Scharr had a stronger arm, but Paulus had incredible vision and was a great decision-maker. He always threw the ball to the right receiver. I wonder if he ever second guesses his decision to play basketball at Duke, where his career didn't live up to the hype. I remember how his father pushed for him to play football (Greg had offers from a boatload of schools, including Notre Dame and nearby SU). But hoops was Greg's first love. And having a degree from the Harvard of the South isn't too shabby.

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I'm still wondering where the historical preservationists and politicians were four years ago when the new Yankee Stadium was being ram-rodded through. The bottom line is that there was no need to leave the original stadium, other than to line the Steinbrenners' pockets with more gold. There weren't any engineering studies proclaiming the old joint unsound. Plus, the Yankees were selling 4 million tickets a season for a major league record four straight years. It's not like people had stopped coming, the way they are now, thanks to the Yankees price-gouging.

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Don't get me wrong, I love Coach Mac. He was the man who made Syracuse University football relevant again. I just wonder if his overall accomplishments merited election into the College Football Hall of Fame. As my good friend and longtime newspaper colleague Frank Bilovsky points out - Dick MacPherson never won a major bowl game and it wasn't until a few years ago that Penn State's Joe Paterno, winner of three times as many games as Mac, was inducted. Again, I love Coach Mac, I just don't know if he did enough at UMass and SU to warrant induction. What do you think?

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I highly recommend a visit to www.kemppartners.com to read a letter that late Bills quarterback and longtime Western New York Congressman Jack Kemp wrote to his 17 grandchildren the day after Barack Obama was elected president. It is an eloquent and upbeat concession essay from a man who had strongly supported John McCain, but who still understood the historical significance of Obama's election. It's a must-read for conservatives and liberals alike, and speaks volumes about what a gracious man Kemp was, even in defeat.

A tribute to late Bills QB Jack Kemp

I interviewed Jack Kemp about a dozen times through the years, and always found him to be gracious and enlightening. The former Bills quarterback and Republican vice-presidential candidate provided one of my all-time favorite quotes when I asked him to compare football and politics.

"Pro football gave me a good perspective when I entered the political arena,'' he quipped, "because I had already been booed, cheered, cut, sold, traded and hung in effigy.''

Kemp died yesterday after a long bout with cancer. Although his career stats were pretty lame (77 touchdown passes, 132 interceptions in 88 games), he was a vital cog in the Bills to back-to-back American Football League championships during the mid-1960s. I believe his leadership skills more than made up for his paltry individual numbers, which is why I rank him as the No. 2 quarterback in Bills history, well behind Jim Kelly but a sliver ahead of Joe Ferguson.

In tribute to Kemp, I'm reprinting what I wrote about the Bills Wall-of-Famer in my 2007 book, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Heart-Pounding, Jaw-Dropping and Gut-Wrenching Moments in Buffalo Bills History. It's my hope it will give you an appreciation for what he meant to those great Bills teams of the 1960s.

REPRESENTATIVE JACK KEMP PLAYS POLITICAL FOOTBALL

Jack Kemp went from running for daylight to running for political office. He graduated from old War Memorial Stadium, to the U.S. House of Representatives, to President Reagan’s cabinet. Kemp’s post-football career path didn’t surprise his former Bills teammates in the least. They just can’t believe the quarterback’s journey didn’t take him all the way to the White House.

“I think,’’ said Bills owner Ralph Wilson, “he would have made a hell of a quarterback for the country.’’

Billy Shaw, an All AFL guard who once protected Kemp from would-be tacklers, vividly remembers the quarterback campaigning locker-to-locker for Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater (who was running against Lyndon Johnson) in 1964.

“Jack stopped by my stall for about half an hour extolling the virtues of Goldwater,’’ recalled Shaw, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. “Now, I don’t remember the particulars of his spiel, but I do remember him being quite convincing. He got me to vote for Barry.’’

While many of his teammates restricted their reading to the playbook and Playboy, Kemp was devouring books such as Edward Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

“I used to kid Jack that carrying those big books on the plane was part of his weight-lifting routine,’’ said Eddie Abramoski, the Bills long-time trainer. “Jack often would give me one of the books and say, ‘Abe, you should read this. This is what’s wrong with our country.’’ Or, ‘This is the direction we should be going.’ Eventually, the conversations always got around to politics. Jack was passionate about it.’’

Kemp was equally passionate about football. His arrival during the 1962 season marked a turning point in Bills history. Lou Saban had taken over as head coach that fall, and had begun assembling the defensive players who would form the backbone of the Bills’ championship teams of the mid-1960s.

“The missing piece was quarterback,’’ said Bills owner Ralph Wilson. “That’s why, when Jack became available, we spent about two seconds deliberating before claiming him off the waiver wires (from the San Diego Chargers for $100). Our defense was good enough to make us contenders, but you’ve got to have a quarterback, a leader, if you want to win a championship.’’

Kemp paid immediate dividends, helping the Bills overcome an 0-5 start to finish 7-6-1. The following season, they made the playoffs but were beaten by the Boston Patriots. In 1964, the Bills went 12-2 and won their first AFL title. They repeated in 1965, and Kemp earned league MVP honors.

Although he finished as the AFL’s all-time passing yardage leader and competed in five title games in 10 years, Kemp’s time in Buffalo was not without its difficult moments. Saban occasionally played musical quarterbacks, yanking Kemp and putting in the popular Daryle Lamonica. The relationship between Kemp and Saban was mostly a good one, but there were times when the strong wills of quarterback and coach clashed.

“Jack wasn’t afraid to stand tall for what he believed in, and sometimes when he didn’t agree with a play Lou sent in, he would run his own,’’ Shaw said. “If the play worked, Lou was fine. If the play didn’t work, Lou would send in Lamonica.’’
The occasional benching were tough for Kemp to stomach, but he never complained.
“I roomed with him, and if he were upset about it, I’m sure he would have said something to me,’’ Shaw said. “I know if it were me in that situation, I’d have a tough time keeping my feelings to myself. But that was Jack. He was a true team player.’’

Kemp was often the target of fan criticism. He has joked that his job as quarterback of the Bills prepared him for a career in politics because he had already been booed, spit on and hung in effigy.

“I guess it did thicken his skin,’’ Shaw said. “But I know it bothered him, and a lot of it was unfair. Jack would get blamed for the missed blocks and the wrong routes and dropped passes. But just like with any quarterback controversy, he kept it to himself. That’s part of being a leader, putting the team above yourself.’’

Kemp, who helped co-found the AFL’s players’ union in 1965, was the go-to guy when his teammates had gripes with the coaching staff. In his most famous mediation, Kemp convinced Saban to allow star running back Cookie Gilchrist back on the team after the coach had released him for insubordination in November 1964.

“Jack was a master at solving problems without confrontation,’’ said former Bills cornerback Booker Edgerson. “He told Lou that the entire team wanted Cookie back because it was best for the team, and since it was a team decision, Lou agreed. It happened because Jack helped make it happen. I believe Lou had great respect for him.’’

The voters of Western New York also had great respect for him, sending him to Congress for nine consecutive terms. Kemp spent time in the Reagan administration as the director of the department of Housing and Urban Development, and was Republican Bob Dole’s running mate in the 1996 presidential election. They wound up losing decisively to Bill Clinton and Al Gore.

Some Jack Kemp trivia
Despite finished with 18 interceptions and a 54.8 pass efficiency rating, he earned AFL most valuable player honors after leading the Bills to the championship.

He established the team standard for most touchdowns by a quarterback when he rushed for eight in 1963.

He was named to the AFL All-Star team five times.

In 88 games, he threw 77 touchdown passes and 132 interceptions and passed for 15,138 yards, most in AFL history.