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Jim Kelly sat down with his wife Jill Kelly on the latest episode of her Immeasurably More Podcast, and the most legendary quarterback in Buffalo Bills history delivered a line that shows that, through his health struggles, he's not lost his sense of humor.
"But don't you think God could at least got me one or two Super Bowls?" Kelly joked, as the couple laughed it off.
He famously led Buffalo to four straight Super Bowl appearances from 1990 to 1993 — a feat no franchise has matched before or since — though he and a Bills team with multiple future Hall of Famers sadly lost all four contests.
Jill kindly countered her husband's joke.
"You had an opportunity to speak your hope and all the experience that you've gone through and what God has done," Jill replied. "That person's life has changed. The ability to do that doesn't come from you. It comes from God working through you and your story. And what's amazing about that is it's because you went through what you went through that people will listen to you. It's because you went through cancer that people are like, 'Wow, he went through all that, and he still has hope, and he trusts God.'"
Kelly and Jill lost their son Hunter to Krabbe disease in 2005. He was 8. The family founded Hunter's Hope that same year. Kelly was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma in his upper jaw in 2013, had it come back in 2014, had it come back again in 2018, and beat it all three times.
Health issues have been what Kelly now hurdles since his retirement, and on Good Morning Football last week, Kelly expounded more on the episode he experienced earlier in the year.
"Yeah, I had one. As a matter of fact, it was Easter weekend and I was at the lodge with my wife, my two daughters and my son-in-law and of course my first grandchild, my grandson and I was make a long story short, I was having some really bad headaches and I've had migraines before," he shared. "So, I took the medicine, it didn't help, and things just weren't going the way I thought they should, and I was too much pain. So, I wind up going in for an MRI, and they prescribe me some medicine, but it didn't help. And all of a sudden they said I had a stroke. And I'm like, are you kidding me? I mean this weekend and going through all that. Spent most of my time in bed, but you know, long story short, I'm here now. I'm better. I feel a lot better. "
The Bills teams of the early '90s had Thurman Thomas and Andre Reed and Bruce Smith and Cornelius Bennett and a general manager in Bill Polian who kept swinging until the roster ran out of runway. They still didn't get one.
Even still, Kelly's greatest battles would take place off the gridiron- The loss of his Son Hunter, his battles with cancer, and most recently with a stroke.
"As I say that I've already been through my nine cat lives, but now the good Lord has blessed me with a few more mulligans. So, I'm good with that. I'll live with that one."
Kelly's outlook is one that inspires, to come up short in four Super Bowl opportunities, to get cancer three times, to lose a child- These all could have led to a different perspective.
But with God, Kelly's had one that focuses on his true wins in life instead.
This article originally appeared on Bills Wire: Bills legend Jim Kelly offers further health update, provides perspective
Continue reading...
"But don't you think God could at least got me one or two Super Bowls?" Kelly joked, as the couple laughed it off.
He famously led Buffalo to four straight Super Bowl appearances from 1990 to 1993 — a feat no franchise has matched before or since — though he and a Bills team with multiple future Hall of Famers sadly lost all four contests.
Jill kindly countered her husband's joke.
"You had an opportunity to speak your hope and all the experience that you've gone through and what God has done," Jill replied. "That person's life has changed. The ability to do that doesn't come from you. It comes from God working through you and your story. And what's amazing about that is it's because you went through what you went through that people will listen to you. It's because you went through cancer that people are like, 'Wow, he went through all that, and he still has hope, and he trusts God.'"
Kelly and Jill lost their son Hunter to Krabbe disease in 2005. He was 8. The family founded Hunter's Hope that same year. Kelly was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma in his upper jaw in 2013, had it come back in 2014, had it come back again in 2018, and beat it all three times.
Health issues have been what Kelly now hurdles since his retirement, and on Good Morning Football last week, Kelly expounded more on the episode he experienced earlier in the year.
"Yeah, I had one. As a matter of fact, it was Easter weekend and I was at the lodge with my wife, my two daughters and my son-in-law and of course my first grandchild, my grandson and I was make a long story short, I was having some really bad headaches and I've had migraines before," he shared. "So, I took the medicine, it didn't help, and things just weren't going the way I thought they should, and I was too much pain. So, I wind up going in for an MRI, and they prescribe me some medicine, but it didn't help. And all of a sudden they said I had a stroke. And I'm like, are you kidding me? I mean this weekend and going through all that. Spent most of my time in bed, but you know, long story short, I'm here now. I'm better. I feel a lot better. "
The Bills teams of the early '90s had Thurman Thomas and Andre Reed and Bruce Smith and Cornelius Bennett and a general manager in Bill Polian who kept swinging until the roster ran out of runway. They still didn't get one.
Even still, Kelly's greatest battles would take place off the gridiron- The loss of his Son Hunter, his battles with cancer, and most recently with a stroke.
"As I say that I've already been through my nine cat lives, but now the good Lord has blessed me with a few more mulligans. So, I'm good with that. I'll live with that one."
Kelly's outlook is one that inspires, to come up short in four Super Bowl opportunities, to get cancer three times, to lose a child- These all could have led to a different perspective.
But with God, Kelly's had one that focuses on his true wins in life instead.
This article originally appeared on Bills Wire: Bills legend Jim Kelly offers further health update, provides perspective
Continue reading...
