{"id":825398,"date":"2026-03-21T16:28:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T16:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/825398\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T16:28:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T16:28:15","slug":"adam-thielen-c-j-ham-sign-retirement-deals-with-vikings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/825398\/","title":{"rendered":"Adam Thielen, C.J. Ham sign retirement deals with Vikings"},"content":{"rendered":"

A pair of longtime Vikings returned to the team\u2019s facility on Friday to sign one-day retirement contracts.<\/p>\n

Receiver Adam Thielen and fullback C.J. Ham are now officially Vikings for life.<\/p>\n

Thielen, a Minnesota native who played at Minnesota State University in Mankato (where the Vikings used to conduct training camp), earned his spot<\/a> on the team as an undrafted tryout player in 2013. He wasn\u2019t even invited to the Scouting Combine.<\/p>\n

By 2014, he had a roster spot. (That year, he blocked a punt against the Panthers and returned it for a touchdown.) By 2016, he had nearly 1,000 receiving yards. The following year, he made the Pro Bowl and landed on the All-Pro second team.<\/p>\n

In 2018, he started the season with eight straight 100-yard receiving games, matching Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson\u2019s record.<\/p>\n

Thielen left for the Panthers in 2023 as a free agent. In 2025, the Panthers traded him back to the Vikings. He eventually asked for his release, so that he could sign with a contender. He finished his career with the Steelers.<\/p>\n

Ham was undrafted in 2016, after playing college football at Augustana. He caught the eye of former Vikings assistant Kevin Stefanski at the University of Minnesota\u2019s pro day workout.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m putting the Gophers running backs through some individual drills,\u201d Stefanski told Vikings.com, \u201cand there\u2019s one kid who\u2019s just staring me right in the eyes, doing it exactly how it needs to be done, doing it with maximum effort. And I said, \u2018Who\u2019s that kid?<\/a>‘”<\/p>\n

It got Ham an invitation to the Vikings\u2019 rookie minicamp and, like Thielen, Ham earned his spot.<\/p>\n

He spent 10 years with the Vikings. He arrived as a running back; in 2017, he moved to fullback at the urging of former Vikings running backs coach Kennedy Polamalu.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told him, \u2018I\u2019ve been blessed to coach guys who played 10 years or more,\u2019 \u201d Polamalu told Vikings.com. \u201cHe looked at me and said, \u201910 years?\u2019 \u2018Yep. But you\u2019ve gotta promise me now, if I move you, you\u2019ve gotta give me 10 years.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He did. At a time when so much attention will be paid to the names landing in round one of the various mock drafts, it\u2019s important to remember two things.<\/p>\n

Plenty of those guys won\u2019t last. And some of the guys no one is talking about will.<\/p>\n

Thielen and Ham are two clear examples of that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A pair of longtime Vikings returned to the team\u2019s facility on Friday to sign one-day retirement contracts. Receiver…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":825399,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2026],"tags":[7],"class_list":{"0":"post-825398","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116268112919350410","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=825398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/825399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=825398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=825398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=825398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}