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| Jack Kemp says certain traits serve well both on the gridiron and in the political arena: “Intuition, self-confidence, teamwork, high expectations, encouraging others, an indefatigable spirit that you get from … a game of any kind where you pick yourself up and dust yourself off and go back after your goals.” |
Jack Kemp has worn various hats throughout his professional life. A quarterback drafted by the Detroit Lions in 1957, he later became a mainstay of the American Football League and a co-founder of the AFL Players Association. Kemp jumped into the political arena in 1971 and served 18 years in the U.S. House of Representatives. After an unsuccessful run for the Republican presidential nomination in 1988, he was later secretary of Housing and Urban Development and his party’s vice presidential candidate in 1996. Kemp started the free-market advocacy group Empower America, which in 2004 merged with Citizens for a Sound Economy to form Freedom Works. He is a principal with the strategic consulting firm Kemp Partners, chairman of USA Football, serves on a number of corporate boards and writes, lectures and travels extensively on various projects. He recently spoke with SportsBusiness Journal New York bureau chief Jerry
Kavanagh.
Favorite movie: “A Man for All Seasons”
Favorite actress: Katharine Hepburn
Favorite piece of music: Dvorak’s New World Symphony
Favorite vacation spot: Vail, Colo.; Yellowstone Club, Big Sky, Mont.
Favorite quote: “The credit in life goes not to the critic who stands on the sidelines and points out where the strong man stumbles. The real credit in life goes to the man in the arena, whose face is marred by sweat and dust and blood; who knows great enthusiasm and great devotion and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best if he wins knows the thrill of high achievement, and if he fails, he at least fails while daring greatly so that in life his place will never be found with the cold and timid souls who have never known victory or defeat.” That was Teddy Roosevelt as quoted by John F. Kennedy, circa 1960 at a football banquet I attended.
What are you reading: Ron Chernow’s new book on Alexander Hamilton, and “Judgment Days” by Nick Kotz
Pet peeve: People with no sense of humor
Business advice: Listen to your customer.
You have had three careers: sports, politics and business. Are there any parallels or constants for you in all three?
Kemp: They’re all competitive. They all require a great deal of transparency, integrity and, in my opinion, ethical standards. Without sounding like I’m a paragon of virtue, I really believe that the challenge of the 21st century, certainly in business, is to find men and women who can compete along the lines of the values I just alluded to. They all require a great deal of personal accountability and responsibility. And, of course, my congenital optimism is a carryover from being a professional football quarterback, because you can’t be a pessimist and be a quarterback on a football team.
To what extent have your personal and political perspectives been shaped by football?
Kemp: My sense of optimism about the future, whether it’s sports, politics or business. … I’d say the other quality that I would associate with my own career was a single-minded pursuit of a goal, never giving up, never quitting, on myself or my team or my country — with all its faults.
Ari Fleischer said that the same instincts and skills that work in government apply to sports. He didn’t say what those are, but I wonder if you agree. Are there some instincts and skills that work in both areas?
Kemp: Intuition, self-confidence, teamwork, high expectations, encouraging others, an indefatigable spirit that you get from getting knocked down on a football field or in a game of any kind where you pick yourself up and dust yourself off and go back after your goals. Never giving up. [Gen. Douglas] MacArthur said, “On the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that, upon future fields, on future days, will bear the fruits of victory.” I think those seeds are the ones I just alluded to.
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| Kemp starred in the American Football League as a quarterback with Buffalo. |
You were the only quarterback to last the entire life of the AFL; years later, you served 18 years in the House of Representatives. What’s the key to your staying power?
Kemp: Being challenged by and taking advantage of new opportunities. Being enthused about the future. I’m approaching 70 years of age. I’ve got 15 grandchildren, and I guess being excited about the future is something that keeps me going and wanting to contribute, both from a philanthropic standpoint as well as a business standpoint here in the fourth quarter of my life. My son says it’s only the start of the second half, but I say it’s the fourth quarter.
One constant theme for you is empowerment through ownership. Can you explain what that means?
Kemp: When people have a stake in an outcome, in the system, they tend to improve that which they have a stake in. It really came to fruition for me when I was secretary of housing for the first Bush administration in 1989 to ’93. I saw low-income people in urban and rural areas of America hoping against hope that they would someday have the education, have a piece of property, have a stake in this ownership society that President Bush has talked so much about and which I strongly support. When you own your own education, when you own your own home, when you own your own portfolio of stocks and bonds, not only do you want to improve that for their intrinsic value, for your own material well-being, you also tend to respect other people’s private property. It is a conservative — in a small “c” sense — and leavening influence on a society where everybody can own something, share in the wealth of our nation.
What’s your definition of a leader?
Kemp: Inspiring others to maximize their potential. Bringing people together in a common cause. Setting high goals and helping people execute them. Bringing out the best in your teammates or fellow workers.
You are chairman of USA Football, whose mission statement is “to promote youth and amateur football and its invaluable lessons.” What are the invaluable lessons of football?
Kemp: To be disciplined and forward-looking. To put off immediate gratification for a greater goal. To put aside differences in race, religion and ethnicity to achieve a common outcome. It’s a tremendous opportunity to promote character development, obviously with the right coaching.
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| Bob Dole (right) named Kemp as his running mate for his 1996 challenge to Bill Clinton. |
How important is sports in this country?
Kemp: I think participation in sports, at all levels, amateur and above, and particularly football, the greatest game in the world, is an essential ingredient to the well-rounded person, and particularly useful to young people because it teaches discipline, respect for other people, character development, sportsmanship and, hopefully, academics. I have a problem with some of our institutions of higher learning that don’t promote academics enough. One son played football at Dartmouth and my other son played at Wake Forest, and their coaches really encouraged academic excellence along with football excellence.
What’s the biggest crisis facing sports today?
Kemp: I think steroids are if not a crisis then at a critical juncture in professional sports because of the impact they have had on high school and younger athletes. I don’t care what Jose Canseco says. There is a definite risk of taking these things. I think we’re seeing signs of steroid use in high schools now. And I think that’s a huge problem for our society. I worry about it quite a bit ’cause I’ve got nine grandsons, all of whom I want to play football — not necessarily pro football but play football, experience football. I don’t worry about them because they’ve got great parents, but I worry about kids who are influenced so heavily by the money, the fame and the genre of professional athletics.
Look for more of this conversation in our sister publication, SportsBusiness Daily, located at www.sportsbusinessdaily.com.
