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Jim Kelly grew up going to church mostly because his parents made him – but those Sunday visits turned out to be a precursor to how he lives his life today.
The Hall of Fame quarterback is a devout Christian, but it took a long while for him to get to that point.
In fact, even as he began to rely on his faith, God “tested” him, he said on a recent podcast.
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Former Buffalo Bills quarterback Jim Kelly poses on the red carpet before the NFL Honors award show at Symphony Hall. (Kirby Lee-USA Today Sports)
Kelly, of course, lost four Super Bowls in his career, but that pales in comparison to his four cancer battles and losing his son, Hunter, at the age of 8 in 2005.
“I even got to a point, it would drive me crazy, I said to my wife, ‘If being a Christian is being like you, I don’t want to be one.’ I was mad at God. I was like, ‘Man, you put me through all this? I can’t handle this,'” Kelly said on “Grit and Grace.”
While his son was sick with a fatal globoid-cell leukodystrophy, Kelly was working as a football analyst and “away from home a lot.”
“To be honest with you, it was a tough part of my life, not only for me, but for me and my wife. It was a struggle. We weren’t getting along… Me and my wife lost interest in each other,” said Kelly, who admitted he was unfaithful.
Jim Kelly stands on the field before a game between the Buffalo Bills and the Tennessee Titans at Highmark Stadium. (Mark Konezny-USA Today Sports)
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“Unfortunately, it got to a point where my mother-in-law confronted me and said, ‘If you don’t change your life, you’re going to lose everything.’ And she was right. I manned up, I said, ‘I’m gonna lose everything.’ So, I changed my life… I totally admitted everything.”
Kelly said God “threw every curveball at me,” but for good reason.
“I know why he put me through all that – to test my faith and if I’m ever going to give up on Him. And there’s no way. He’s the reason I’m still here, but my wife, my daughters, and the life I live now, I thank God every day for it.”
Kelly actually said he “didn’t want to hear” about religion, adding that it was “getitng forced on me” by his fellow NFL players. So, he gave advice to those who may want to help others find their faith.
Jim Kelly waves to the crowd as he leaves the field during the Buffalo Bills’ training camp at St. John Fisher University in Rochester, New York, Aug. 10, 2022. (Shawn Dowd/USA Today Network)
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“If you want to change someone’s life, don’t throw it on them. They’ll come around on their time. If you keep throwing it and forcing them into it, you’re gonna scare them away. That’s what happened to me early on, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted it. I took it slow, my wife did such a great job, she knew when to talk to me about it and when not to. She slowly brought me into it, and here I am now.”
Kelly has been cancer-free since 2019.
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