Jack Kemp

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Jack French Kemp, Jr. (born July 13, 1935) is an American politician and former professional American football player. He was the Republican candidate for the Vice Presidency in the 1996 Presidential election.

Kemp was born, raised and educated in Los Angeles, California. He is a graduate of Occidental College, where he was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity.

1 Football career
2 Political career
3 Post-political life
4 Hatred of Soccer
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

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Football career

{{NFL player

  |Image=
  |DateOfBirth=July 13, 1935
  |Birthplace=Los Angeles, CA
  |DateOfDeath=
  |Position=QB
  |College=Occidental
  |DraftedYear=1957
  |DraftedRound=17
  |DatabaseFootball=KEMPJAC01
  |PFR=KempJa00
  |Honors=Buffalo Bills Wall of Fame
  |Awards=
  |Records=
  |years=1957
1960-1962
1963-1969
  |teams=Pittsburgh Steelers
San Diego Chargers
Buffalo Bills
  |ProBowls=7
  |HOF=}}

Jack Kemp began his professional football career in 1957 when he was selected by the Detroit Lions in the 17th round of the NFL Draft. After three NFL seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New York Giants, Kemp signed as a free agent with the Los Angeles Chargers of the AFL. Kemp won two American Football League Western Division championships with the Los Angeles - San Diego Chargers before being picked up by the Buffalo Bills. He led Buffalo to three straight Eastern Division titles and two American Football League championships, in 1964 and 1965, throwing to receivers Elbert Dubenion and Ernie Warlick. Kemp was the first 3,000 yard passer in the American Football League (1960, 14-game schedule) and the league's Most Valuable Player in 1965. He had the most career passes attempted, most completions and most yards gained passing in the history of the American Football League.

Jack Kemp was an American Football League All-Star six consecutive years and for seven of the league's ten years, and the only AFL quarterback to be a starter all ten years. Kemp co-founded the American Football League Players Association with Tom Addison of the Boston Patriots, and was elected its president five times. He was one of only twenty players who were in the American Football League for its entire ten-year existence.

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Political career

Kemp represented the Buffalo, New York region in the United States House of Representatives from 1971 to 1989. In 1988 he ran unsuccessfully for the Republican Presidential nomination, and subsequently served as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 1989 to 1993 under President George H. W. Bush.

Kemp was the Republican Party's Vice Presidential nominee in 1996, running alongside Senator Bob Dole.

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Post-political life

Although mentioned as a possible 2000 presidential candidate, Kemp did not run, instead endorsing eventual winner Governor of Texas George W. Bush.

Jack Kemp also started the free market advocacy group Empower America, which later merged with Citizens for a Sound Economy to form FreedomWorks, but resigned as Co-Chairman of FreedomWorks in March 2005 after he was questioned by the FBI about his ties to Samir Vincent, a Northern Virginia oil trader implicated in the U.N. Oil-for-food scandal who pled guilty to four criminal charges stemming from the scandal, including illegally acting as an unregistered lobbyist of the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein.[1]

That same year he was exposed as being part of a highly questionable oil-for-influence deal with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. [2]

His legacy includes the Kemp-Roth Tax Cut of the 1980s, also known as the first of the two "Reagan tax cuts." He also served at a Distinguished Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute where he wrote regularly on economic and regulatory issues.

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Hatred of Soccer

Jack Kemp has been an outspoken opponent of soccer, the world's most popular sport. In 1986, Kemp spoke out against a congressional resolution in support of the United States hosting a future World Cup. On the House floor, Kemp famously proclaimed "I think it is important for all those young out there, who someday hope to play real football, where you throw it and kick it and run with it and put it in your hands, a distinction should be made that football is democratic, capitalism, whereas soccer is a European socialist sport." Critics pointed out that aside from hurting the United States national team's chances for future World Cup glory, not hosting the World Cup would have deprived the American economy of millions of dollars, most of which would come from foreign sources. Despite Kemp's opposition, the United States hosted the 1994 World Cup, which to this day boasts the all time attendance record in World Cup tournament in history.

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