Jim Kelly bio via BuffaloSportsHallofFame.com
Seldom in the world of professional sports does the arrival of a single player significantly alter the fortunes of an entire team. However, the August 1986 signing of quarterback Jim Kelly was clearly the catalyst for the resurrection of a Bills franchise which hit the depths of despair with consecutive 2-14 seasons in 1984 and 1985. Kelly came to Buffalo with not only a strong right arm, but the heart and desire of a champion, and his leadership and inspiration brought the Bills first respectability… and soon after preeminence.
The former Miami University and USFL Houston Gamblers star owns virtually every significant Bills passing record, including passing yards for a season (3,844 in 1991) and career and touchdown passes for a season (33 in 1991) and career. Over his career, Kelly completed 2,874 of 4,780 passes for 35,467 yards and 237 touchdowns. Among all National Football League quarterbacks who have ever played the game, Kelly is eighth in completions, tenth in yardage and fifth in completion percentage. The Bills regular season record with Kelly at the controls was a sparkling 101-59 (.631).
Kelly’s Buffalo career, and his legacy, cannot be appreciated with reference to personal statistics, however. Above all, he will be remembered as the spark behind eight playoff appearances in nine years by the Bills (1988-1996), six American Football Conference East Division titles, and an unprecedented four consecutive Super Bowl appearances. Given the current state of the free-agency ridden, high-turnover NFL, the last record may be safe for all time.
The Kelly resume is filled with clutch victories in the pressure-packed situations in which he thrived. Kelly brought the Bills from 4th quarter deficits to victory 23 times, many under unforgettable circumstances. The image of Kelly diving into the end zone at Joe Robbie Stadium to beat the Dolphins on the game’s final play in 1989 will remain with Bills fans forever. Even the rallies which fell short thrilled us, like the game effort in a 1989 playoff in Cleveland when, in Kelly’s finest statistical outing as a Bill, a single dropped pass spelled defeat. While Jim never received the acclaim accorded Dan Marino and John Elway for fourth-quarter exploits, Kelly’s Bills posted a 4-2 record against Elway’s Broncos, and a 15-8 mark (3-0 in the playoffs) against Marino’s Dolphins.
Jim Kelly reveled in his reputation as “a quarterback with a linebacker mentality” but all his on-field toughness could not mask his soft spot for children. Jim’s well-known commitments to children’s charities include those to the Kelly for Kids Foundation, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
Kelly personified a Bills team which ranked among the toughest and most resilient in the history of the NFL. Kelly won many games with his arm, but it was his spirit which drove him and his teammates to heights unimaginable to Bills fans of the early 1980s. With Jim Kelly’s induction into the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame in 1997, the Buffalo community expressed a resounding thank-you to the quarterback who captained the greatest joyride in Buffalo sports history.
Article about Jim & Dr. Shah via WGRZ.com
BUFFALO, N.Y. — “My saying now is … I may have lost four Super Bowls, but I kicked cancer’s butt four times!”
Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly is a lucky man, and he knows it. Doctors originally thought his oral cancer was incurable. At best, his survival rate was around 2 percent.
I told Jim that his story really is a story of a medical miracle.
“Ain’t no doubt about it, never thought that before, but have now,” Kelly said. “I remember one doctor said to my brother, I know they are Christians, and believe in miracles. Well, he’s going to need a miracle to live.”
It was back in 2013 when Kelly was initially diagnosed with mouth cancer. A tumor that started on the upper gum line was removed. Doctors thought it was all clear, but then as cancer often does, it came back.
The cancer spread to some facial nerves into the jaw line, then right under his eye and very close to his brain.
It was now 2014, and Kelly was in the battle for his life, a battle more difficult and more serious than any football game he ever played.
Dr. Dhiren Shah, who was Kelly’s radiation oncologist, recalled, “I see Jim’s name on the file, I said, ‘Oh gosh, what’s going on?’ I look over the records and scans, and suddenly my whole mood dropped. I realized how serious this was. Truly, at that point, what we found. It was incurable.”
It was deathly serious, with pain described as 10 times a normal tooth ache, all day, and all night.
“He suffered a lot. The pain Jim went through was indescribable, the severity of pain, this nerve was destroyed by the tumor. So, severe most people would quit. Jim didn’t quit,” Dr. Shah said.
Jim didn’t quit.
He was determined to survive. He had everything to live for.
“To begin with, it was my wife, thank God for her, my two daughters, every time they walked into my hospital room at ECMC. Not one time did they ever have a frown on their face, Their attitude was to make my day better by their presence. For me, that made me fight to beat this,” Kelly said.
The Western New York community also rallied around the Kelly family, even wearing “Kelly Tough” T-shirts to show their support.
But despite Jim’s “Kelly Tough” exterior, there were private times when even he doubted if he had what it takes to beat it.
“I remember one night in NY, it was not good,” recalled his wife, Jill. “He’s like, ‘I can’t keep doing this.’ I was like, ‘Oh yes, you can, because its not your strength, it’s about what God can do.’ ”
Jim added: “God had a plan for me; injuries, losing four Super Bowls, son diagnosed. And, as I look back on it, so many things were a pivotal part of not giving up, but it always started with my faith, and it wasn’t always good back then. Jill, she sought God from Day 1. I ran.”
Jim’s battle was still not over.
In 2018, doctors in New York City performed a 12-hour surgery to remove a new cancer from his jaw and neck. They then reconstructed his upper jaw with bone from his femur.
I asked Jim about a picture with his daughter Erin. The picture that so many saw on social media that showed us all how serious this battle was.
“I remember the picture. It’s the cover of her book,” Kelly recalls. “That made me feel and never want to give up. It was for them. I knew how much I loved my family and that was huge.”
Jim had four chemotherapy sessions, and nearly three dozen difficult radiation treatments. For every single one of them, Jill lead a prayer for the entire team. “We would pray before every treatment Jim ever got,” she said. “And obviously, people were in the room, so it was Dr. Shah who asked to join, and I said of course, so then everyone joined in on praying.”
This picture was taken after Jim’s final radiation treatment 10 years ago, a day Jim said he will never forget.
Now Jim travels the country as a motivational speaker, paying it forward and hoping to make a difference in the lives of others.
“There’s only one person who knows all our days, including yours, Scott. That’s the good Lord above, and I know that, so I take it one day at a time. If the good Lord decides tomorrow is my day, I will go out with a smile on my face, because I’ve lived a life many people would love to live,” Kelly said.