Football Career
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| Quarterback | |||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Date of birth: (1935-07-13)July 13, 1935 | |||||||||
| Place of birth: Los Angeles, California | |||||||||
| Date of death: May 2, 2009(2009-05-02) (aged 73) | |||||||||
| Place of death: Bethesda, Maryland | |||||||||
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| Career information | |||||||||
| College: Occidental | |||||||||
| Debuted in 1957 for the Pittsburgh Steelers | |||||||||
| Last played in 1969 for the Buffalo Bills | |||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
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| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||
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After being drafted by the Detroit Lions in the 17th round of the 1957 NFL Draft, Kemp was cut from the team before the 1957 NFL season began. He spent 1957 with the Pittsburgh Steelers and 1958 on the taxi squads of the San Francisco 49ers and New York Giants. The 1958 New York Giants played in that year's NFL Championship Game, known as the "Greatest Game Ever Played" and the first overtime NFL playoff game, but, as a third-string quarterback member of the taxi squad, Kemp did not take the field.
After his time in the NFL, Kemp served a year as a private in the United States Army Reserve. During his service, he played one game for the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League, which made him ineligible for the NFL in 1959. According to his older brother Tom, his parents drove him from California to Calgary, Alberta only to see him cut. By this time Kemp had been cut from five professional teams (Lions, Steelers, Giants, 49ers, and Stampeders) and his family encouraged him to get on with his life.
On February 9 and February 11, 1960, the newly formed AFL agreed to "no tampering" policies with the NFL and CFL respectively, protecting each league's players. Players like Kemp, with modest NFL experience, were often signed by the AFL at the time. Kemp signed as a free agent with the AFL's Los Angeles Chargers.
Read more about this topic: Jack Kemp
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