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The Minnesota natives held a joint news conference at the team’s Eagan headquarters to celebrate their careers and reminisce with family, friends and former coworkers.
The lives of former Vikings team captains Adam Thielen and C.J. Ham are so intertwined that not only did they play against each other in college as Division II conference rivals for Minnesota State Mankato and Augustana University, but so did their wives, Caitlin Thielen and Stephanie Ham, who were soccer players for the same schools.
So it was fitting that on Thursday, March 19, Thielen and Ham officially retired as Vikings in a joint news conference held inside the team’s auditorium at their Eagan headquarters. The larger space than the typical media center accommodated friends, family and former coaches who attended to see the lifelong Minnesotans retire in purple. The event began with a short video from co-owner Mark Wilf celebrating the “Vikings for life.”
They announced their retirements this offseason after wide receiver Thielen (146) and fullback Ham (141) played the second- and third-most games by undrafted players on offense in Vikings franchise history, trailing only Hall of Fame center Mick Tingelhoff (240).
“A lifelong friend,” Thielen said of Ham. “We’re already doing a few events together, so we get to spend more time as retired guys. Hopefully we’ll get on the basketball court together. Trying to get him to go in the mornings and he’s trying to get me to go at nights, so we got to get on the same page.”
Ham told Thielen: “For the first times in our lives, we don’t have to wake up at 6, 7 o’clock in the morning, so I’m going to choose to play basketball at 7 p.m. versus 6 a.m., I’m sorry.”
Their storybook football careers began as rival high schoolers. Ham, from Duluth, and Thielen, from Detroit Lakes, provided a preview of two future Vikings on local high school fields.
“Who would’ve thought when Detroit Lakes was playing Duluth, that we’d be playing together on Sundays,” Thielen said. “That’s pretty crazy. Funny note on that — I think C.J. was 250 pounds at that time.”
“270,” Ham corrected.
“And I was trying to tackle him, and I was 155 pounds soaking wet,” Thielen said. “That was not a good matchup.”
Thielen, 35, announced his retirement in January after 13 NFL seasons, the first 10 in Minnesota. His journey to the Vikings — as an undrafted tryout from MSU Mankato — became embedded in NFL lore as he ascended from overlooked to two-time Pro Bowl selection. He interviewed for a job selling dental equipment the same month, May 2013, he tried out for and made the Vikings’ summer roster.
“I remember coming back and telling you that I was going down this [NFL] journey,” Thielen told his wife, Caitlin, during the news conference, “and you saying, ‘I don’t know, maybe you should get a real job.’ I did get a real job — maybe a little different than we thought.”
Ham, 32, also retired this offseason following 10 Vikings seasons. His own journey as a tryout player began in 2016, when he went undrafted as a running back out of Augustana in Sioux Falls.
Ham earned a practice squad spot during his first training camp, a portion spent with his wife, Stephanie, and their newborn daughter, Skylar, living with him in the team hotel after Ham’s roommate was cut from the roster.
“I don’t know if the team knows this,” Stephanie Ham told the Minnesota Star Tribune in 2021, “but me and Skylar lived in the team hotel with him for the first, I think, month of her life, or second month of her life. Right away, she was born into this football lifestyle.”
Ham missed only two of 138 possible games due to injury before this past year, when he underwent the first two surgeries of his playing career: an offseason ankle repair and a midseason operation to fix a broken hand. He also dealt with a knee injury, which contributed to him missing six games overall.
He considered retirement entering Year 10, but that thought solidified when he was forced to miss playing time.
Thielen said there was no doubt where he wanted to retire after spending about 2½ seasons between Carolina and Pittsburgh.
“I grew up a Vikings fan, dreamed to play for this team,” he said. “I always wanted to be like Cris Carter and Randy Moss and Jake Reed, so to be able to retire with my hometown team is such a blessing.”
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