Vikings Ring of Honor linebacker Scott Studwell, who had joined the Vikings as a ninth-round pick in 1977, described Senser as a “late-round steal” who made positive impacts in multiple ways.<\/p>\n
“Unfortunately, his career was cut short due to a knee injury, or he would have taken his place as a true Legend and would have had a hugely productive career with the Vikings,” Studwell said. “He still impacted Vikings fans on and off the field and made his mark in the Twin Cities in a variety of ways and was such a caring and supportive soul who always had a smile on his face and warmth in his heart. He had more than his fair share of physical pain and setbacks, but he always had such a positive attitude and outlook on life that it always ‘picked you up’ knowing that he always had your back. Great man, player and person with a warm heart and huge smile.”<\/p>\n
Punter Greg “Touch” Coleman recalled a rough start with Senser that grew into a lifelong friendship.<\/p>\n
Coleman remembered meeting Senser at Vikings Training Camp in 1979, recalling Senser’s “chiseled” frame and flowing curly hair.<\/p>\n
“I remember running the scout team defense during a walk-through drill, holding a dummy bag, and he ripped and knocked me down,” Coleman shared. “Embarrassed by the play and that he was a rookie, I jumped up and shouted, ‘Rookie if you ever hit me again during walk-throughs, I am gonna kick your ass.’ “<\/p>\n
“He looked at me and said, ‘Touch, you don’t understand. I gotta do everything I can to make this team.’ Immediately there was a bond because I totally understood what he was going through, having been a rookie myself only a few years back and having had to prove myself day-in and day out, I got it,” Coleman said. “From that day on, I made it a point to watch and encourage Joe Senser as long as he was in a Purple uniform.”<\/p>\n
The 1981 campaign for the player in the No. 81 jersey, along with his endearing personality, launched him into immense popularity in Minnesota.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vikings Ring of Honor linebacker Scott Studwell, who had joined the Vikings as a ninth-round pick in 1977,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":884959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2073],"tags":[7,12700,233,259,2529,26262,1025,2818,6,234],"class_list":{"0":"post-884958","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-vikings","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-legends-all-content","10":"tag-minnesota","11":"tag-minnesota-vikings","12":"tag-minnesotavikings","13":"tag-news-in-memoriam","14":"tag-news-index","15":"tag-news-press-release","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-vikings"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116533954043162443","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884958","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=884958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/884959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=884958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=884958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=884958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}