Jim Kleinsasser staying busy coaching his son's sports teams – Jamestown Sun

Sponsored By
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
MOUND WESTONKA, Minn. — The last almost 15 years of Carrington native Jim Kleinsasser’s life have been busy since he retired from the National Football League.
“I’ve been being dad,” Kleinsasser said. “I’ve been coaching my boys’ youth sports and loving every second of it … I just wanted to be with my boys and be around my family a lot more so that was the heading I took. I love sports and I think I have something to give young athletes and maybe set them in a direction and share with them what I’ve learned and set them the right way in the way that they do things.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Kleinsasser said he has been spending his time coaching football and basketball since his kids were young.
On Jan. 15, Kleinsasser was announced as one of the 19 inductees into the College Football Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2025. Kleinsasser said he found out about his induction when he received a package at his front door that included a commemorative football and a letter. Kleinsasser said the only fellow inductee he knows is former Texas Southern University and New York Giants defensive end Michael Strahan.
“It’s pretty humbling with some of the names that are in there and that are going in, especially this year,” Kleinsasser said. “So .. a big surprise, super excited for the University of North Dakota and all the teammates I had because that honor coincides with them, it’s part theirs too. So excited for it all, humbled and surprised and very proud of it.”
When he was growing up, Kleinsasser appreciated how much of a spotlight legendary NFL broadcaster John Madden put on the players who played with effort and were not afraid to get dirty and bloody. Kleinsasser said he remembers during his career in the NFL, he once got an opportunity to talk to Madden and spend time on his bus.
“I looked at and that was kind of the way my parents, they farmed together all those years, that’s the way they were, there was no real excuses for anything, you just got your work done and plugged away,” Kleinsasser said. “I always admired that part and I thought John Madden always did an outstanding job singling those guys out and making that relevant.”
Kleinsasser played high school football at Carrington High School where he received multiple awards including being named the 1994-95 North Dakota Gatorade Player of the Year for football. Kleinsasser said he felt like he had an advantage coming from Carrington because of the people in his corner, including his head coach Marty Hocchalter.
“I remember him sitting beside ya after my senior year about to go to UND (University of North Dakota) and he was, ‘Hey if you work, you keep working, I think you might have a chance at playing on Sunday.’ … Every time I felt so fortunate about everything and that was basically because I had unbelievable people around me pushing me forward,” Kleinsasser said. “I can’t say enough how grateful I am for all those people.”
ADVERTISEMENT
From 1995 to 1999 Kleinsasser played at the University of North Dakota as a tight end. Kleinsasser had 88 receptions for 1,309 yards and 10 receiving touchdowns. He also had eight carries for 91 yards and a touchdown.
After his UND Hall of Fame career, Kleinsasser was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings with the 44th pick in the 1999 NFL Draft. Kleinsasser is the highest-picked player in UND history.
“We had a bunch of family and friends out at the house on the farm and the place erupted,” Kleinsasser said. “Everybody was so happy and excited that I’d be close to home. It was an unreal day, that’s for sure.”
In the predraft process, Kleinsasser thought he was going to be moving much further away from home. Kleinsasser said before the draft, the New York Giants told him the organization would select him if he was there at the 49th overall selection. Kleinsasser said through all of his conversations with teams they told him they would be moving him around the offense and not just playing him as a tight end.
Instead of moving to the Big Apple, Kleinsasser stayed closer to home and played his entire career for the Vikings.
“You can’t really put a price on sticking in one spot for 13 years,” Kleinsasser said. “I think a lot of times you can get caught up trying to chase other things money-wise and whatnot. But I valued being here. I valued the people of Minnesota. I valued the people of North Dakota, my family, everyone I knew around this area. It really meant a lot to me and I’m super appreciative of everything that Minnesota and North Dakota have given me.”
During his 13-year NFL career, Kleinsasser played in 181 games as a fullback and tight end. He had 192 receptions for 1,688 yards and six touchdowns and 43 carries for 147 yards and one touchdown.
ADVERTISEMENT
Kleinsasser’s first career receiving touchdown in the regular season has a unique place in movie history, being featured in a scene in the 2004 film starring Adam Sandler — “50 First Dates.”
“It’s pretty cool. It’s kind of cool to have that immortalized in that type of media,” Kleinsasser said. “I think it’s maybe even cooler for my kids and my grandkids, maybe later on they can have a chuckle and say who that is. It’s always nice to have those memories and have those things kept around.”
In 2003, Kleinsasser set career highs in receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns. That season, he had 46 receptions for 401 yards and four touchdowns. Kleinsasser said his success that year came from the Vikings offense that finished sixth in the NFL that year for points per game.
One of the most notable moments in Kleinsasser’s career came in the 2010 season. On the morning of Dec. 11, 2010, Kleinsasser and the rest of his Viking teammates were at the team hotel assuming they would host the Giants that day. Instead, the weather had other plans, snowing so much that the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome roof collapsed, which forced the game to be postponed and moved to the Detroit Lions’ Ford Field on Dec. 12.
“The staff and everything make it super easy, us as players we’re changing up our routine,” Kleinsasser said. “But once you’re locked in and you’re going, you’re basically back on your same traveling protocol routine and it doesn’t take a lot of effort for us. It was everybody behind the scenes that had to do all the heavy lifting with everything.”
ADVERTISEMENT

source