How much money would Jack Kemp make in the modern day NFL?

[Buffalo03]

13 hours ago, oldmanfan said:

Top 5.  Can’t compare stats though because receivers could get mugged back then under the rules.  Kemp would be a Josh-like guy with a great arm and running ability.

You can't compare almost 70 more INTs than TDs?

[Mr. WEO]

he would never get a second contract in modern NFL.  

[Saxum]

Jack Kemp did not have the advantage current QBs with nutrition, training, out of season training, etc. 

Jack Kemp would be the type of QB who would follow instructions and be constantly be changing from  prospect to backup QB.

 

Assume he was signed from another league and had a season on practice squad to get professional nutrition and training.

In first league on roster he could he could be challenging some starting QBs for jobs and when he was available could be offered a starter contract by QB needy team.

[Augie]

As a 3rd grade kid I would walk home to his house after school with his son. He had the first color TV I ever saw in person. What more could a guy ask for??? 

 

 

I’m assuming he has ashtrays covered already. 

[oldmanfan]

1 hour ago, Buffalo03 said:

You can't compare almost 70 more INTs than TDs?

Not really.  Football in the 60’s was a completely different beast.   DBs could do anything they wanted so passing was more difficult. 

[JP51]

With Ralph as the owner lol... 20mm a year

[hondo in seattle]

1 hour ago, skibum said:

You can't compare the stats to today's QBs, but it's fair to compare the accolades. A 2-time AFL MVP and 5x first team All-Star equivalent today would be paid like a top-5 franchise QB. 

 

Correction:  He was the AFL MVP once and the AFL championship game MVP twice.  Still, this is a good argument and makes me rethink my original position that Kemp wouldn't command a big contract. 

 

But I still can't get over his imprecise passing.  In 1964, for example, he was the AFL Championship Game MVP.   But that same season, he only completed 44.2% of his passes - the lowest completion percentage of any qualifying AFL QB.   

[hondo in seattle]

1 hour ago, Punching Bag said:

Jack Kemp did not have the advantage current QBs with nutrition, training, out of season training, etc. 

Jack Kemp would be the type of QB who would follow instructions and be constantly be changing from  prospect to backup QB.

 

Assume he was signed from another league and had a season on practice squad to get professional nutrition and training.

In first league on roster he could he could be challenging some starting QBs for jobs and when he was available could be offered a starter contract by QB needy team.

 

I acknowledge that comparing QBs from different eras is difficult.  Not just nutrition and training - rules and schemes were different too.  QB could be legally murdured back then.  They got the crap brutally beat out of them, played with concussions...  all that.  QBs had to be tougher back in the day.

 

As for training...   Bills players back then used to have second jobs.  Instead of training and refining their craft during the offseason, they worked as cars salesmen, tended bar, or did whatever they needed to do to pay the rent.  

[Saxum]

24 minutes ago, hondo in seattle said:

 

I acknowledge that comparing QBs from different eras is difficult.  Not just nutrition and training - rules and schemes were different too.  QB could be legally murdured back then.  They got the crap brutally beat out of them, played with concussions...  all that.  QBs had to be tougher back in the day.

 

As for training...   Bills players back then used to have second jobs.  Instead of training and refining their craft during the offseason, they worked as cars salesmen, tended bar, or did whatever they needed to do to pay the rent.  

 

To me the question seemed like fantasy football and the results depend on what the rules and assumptions are.  

No way do many QBs from 50-60's just get put into a 2020's team so I made the assumption player was coming from another league but even the CFL, college, European and alternate US leagues have better training.  

 

How well a QB from 50-60's could adapt would be greatly determined by team coaches, staff and players they have.  IMO QBs get too high percentage of team cap but teams seem to be willing to pay that for a chance of ring even though it likely will result in many lean years.

[Augie]

Random Jack Kemp memory: did he really just keep retreating to avoid the sack until he could no longer launch the ball back to the LOS? It seemed he would zig, then zag backwards like the French clearing the path for the Germans. I was a just little kid and I idolized him, but that made even ME crazy! 

 

….or am I imagining that?  🤷‍♂️

[North Buffalo]

Jack wasnt a tall man... shorter than me by a bit... hard to know if he'd make a team in modern NFL but seems unlikely... maybe a doug Flutie type.

[amprov56]

1 hour ago, oldmanfan said:

Not really.  Football in the 60’s was a completely different beast.   DBs could do anything they wanted so passing was more difficult. 

My best Kemp memory actually happened during a pre - season game in 1967. Philadelphia Eagle come to the Rockpile, first NFL Team to visit Buffalo as the merger slowly formed. Rockpile soldout, everyone in my neighborhood listening to the game on the radio. and both teams played hard keeping starters in for the whole game. Tom Flores and Art Powell lit the sky up with passing and it appeared to look great for the Bills as Lamonica went off to Oakland. Then Tom Flores gets hurt and Jack Kemp enters the game to sellout crowd boos! First play he throws a 70 yard touchdown to Dubenion and the boos turn into a long standing ovation - class, character, intelligence and integrity, highly respected by the entire team. 

3 minutes ago, North Buffalo said:

Jack wasnt a tall man... shorter than me by a bit... hard to know if he'd make a team in modern NFL but seems unlikely... maybe a doug Flutie type.

I seen him speak and was surprised how small he was, somewhere in the video of the 1965 Championship game it showed Ernie Ladd (6'9" 300 pounds) and Kemp talking after a tackle he looked like a little kid!

[GoBills808]

2 hours ago, Mr. WEO said:

he would never get a second contract in modern NFL.  

He wouldn't get a first one

[GunnerBill]

I never watched Jack Kemp play, obviously, but I think rather than trying to work out his skillset translates (different game, different world) isn't a better question: "where was he ranked relative to his peers when he played?" i.e. was he a top 5 QB of his era? Top 10? Top half of the sport (appreciate a lot of his career was pre-merger)? Then look at how the modern equivalent for that level of QB gets treated by the market today.

[WotAGuy]

I think a big part of Kemp’s legacy is the respect he commanded from everyone associated with the AFL. He started the players union and was supportive of black players at a time when racial tensions were high. 
 

Kemp made the AFL All-Star team when he only played about 4 games in 1962 and also made it in 1969, when the Bills were awful and Kemp did not particularly shine individually. 
 

Kemp was kind of like Peyton Manning, who also seemed to be universally respected. 
 

 

Edited July 28 by WotAGuy

[amprov56]

10 minutes ago, WotAGuy said:

I think a big part of Kemp’s legacy is the respect he commanded from everyone associated with the AFL. He started the players union and was supportive of black players at a time when racial tensions were high. 
 

Kemp made the AFL All-Star team when he only played about 4 games one year and also made it in 1969, when the Bills were awful and Kemp did not particularly shine individually. 
 

Kemp was kind of like Peyton Manning, who also seemed to be universally respected. 
 

 

Class, character, intelligence and integrity!

[Utah John]

Very strong arm, very smart, good leadership. You can't compare stats between eras, and the mid-60s were not a great time for QBs.  But Kemp could make all the throws.  If he were playing today, he'd be very effective.

 

But those of us old enough to remember know he wasn't good enough to put much daylight between him and Lamonica, leading to all sorts of chatter about which QB should play.  The Bills ended up keeping Kemp of course. Lamonica went to a different type of team and thrived.  Put Kemp on that Raiders team and he would have thrived, too.  The Raiders were really good.  So the question of which QB was better hasn't and can't be answered, IMO.  

 

The QB who reminds me the most of Kemp, is Ryan Fitzpatrick.  

[Utah John]

2 hours ago, WotAGuy said:

I think a big part of Kemp’s legacy is the respect he commanded from everyone associated with the AFL. He started the players union and was supportive of black players at a time when racial tensions were high. 
 

Kemp made the AFL All-Star team when he only played about 4 games in 1962 and also made it in 1969, when the Bills were awful and Kemp did not particularly shine individually. 
 

Kemp was kind of like Peyton Manning, who also seemed to be universally respected. 
 

 

Kemp's role in the boycott of the 1965 AFL All-Star game which was supposed to be in New Orleans, can't be overlooked.  Initially the white players wanted to play the game but the black players wouldn't go along.  Kemp saw Cookie Gilchrist's insistence on not playing, and he turned to the while players and got them to agree not to play.  He was very widely respected as a player and a man.  

 

My Kemp story happened in 1972 or 73.  Our high school band (West Seneca East) had a band exchange program with a school in Maryland, which meant we had a day free in Washington DC.  A group of 5 or 7 of us boys found Kemp's House of Representatives office, and we asked to see him.  He said sure, come in for a few minutes.  I was as much a football fan as the rest of the boys (I remember a photo of Kemp in his office of him releasing a pass, and an enormous defensive lineman, Ernie Ladd I believe, in the air above him, about to crush him), but I wanted to talk politics with Kemp.  I remember I told him I thought that the Chinese people, who were starting to improve their lives as their economy shifted, were doing very well under the Communist government.  Conservative Republican Kemp was, well, he disagreed, let's put it that way.  This conservative was most interested in the human rights of the people of China, who were then and are now under the thumb of their government.  Our short meeting went 45 minutes as we argued back and forth, very respectfully.  I will never forget the courtesy and engagement that man showed to us as a group, and me in particular.  

[ControllerOfPlanetX]

22 hours ago, Rich Stadium Original said:

The AFL in 1965

1st Down:  Fullback up the middle for 1 yard

2nd Down: Halfback sweep with lead block by fullback for 2 yards

3rd Down: Try that fullback thing up the middle again

4th Down: Punt

....repeat......

 

Throwing the ball is strictly an emergency procedure.

Just a different era and almost an entirely different game.

Not if Cookie was carrying it..LBs and DBs pointing at each other saying..”you tackle him.”

 

[amprov56]

1 hour ago, Utah John said:

Kemp's role in the boycott of the 1965 AFL All-Star game which was supposed to be in New Orleans, can't be overlooked.  Initially the white players wanted to play the game but the black players wouldn't go along.  Kemp saw Cookie Gilchrist's insistence on not playing, and he turned to the while players and got them to agree not to play.  He was very widely respected as a player and a man.  

 

My Kemp story happened in 1972 or 73.  Our high school band (West Seneca East) had a band exchange program with a school in Maryland, which meant we had a day free in Washington DC.  A group of 5 or 7 of us boys found Kemp's House of Representatives office, and we asked to see him.  He said sure, come in for a few minutes.  I was as much a football fan as the rest of the boys (I remember a photo of Kemp in his office of him releasing a pass, and an enormous defensive lineman, Ernie Ladd I believe, in the air above him, about to crush him), but I wanted to talk politics with Kemp.  I remember I told him I thought that the Chinese people, who were starting to improve their lives as their economy shifted, were doing very well under the Communist government.  Conservative Republican Kemp was, well, he disagreed, let's put it that way.  This conservative was most interested in the human rights of the people of China, who were then and are now under the thumb of their government.  Our short meeting went 45 minutes as we argued back and forth, very respectfully.  I will never forget the courtesy and engagement that man showed to us as a group, and me in particular.  

Great post, too many on on TBD overlook the true character of the man and just spew statistics and ESPN want to be opinions! He was a player Buffalo was proud of, not just his performance on the football field; all players on the team loved and respected Jack Kemp!

Just now, ControllerOfPlanetX said:

Not if Cookie was carrying it..LBs and DBs pointing at each other saying..”you tackle him.”

 

Chuck Shonta 1964 Patriots at Fenway Park after getting knocked out; Cookie which one of the MF's is next!