Saturday, August 03, 2002
Kelly's prayers answered as son attends ceremony
By TOM WITHERS
AP Sports Writer
CANTON, Ohio — Of the nearly 1,200 guests Jim Kelly invited to see him inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, one has a special place in his heart.
Doctors didn't expect Hunter Kelly to live past his second birthday.
On Saturday, the 5-year-old will see his dad reach football immortality.
“I've been blessed to have Hunter,” said Kelly, Buffalo's gritty quarterback who led the Bills to four straight Super Bowls. “I've learned so much from him.”
Hunter Kelly has never got to play a game of catch with his dad. He has never walked and hasn't smiled since he was 4 months old. He needs a machine to eat, another to breathe.
“He is the toughest little boy I have ever seen,” Jim Kelly said. “He is an inspiration to all of us.”
Kelly will be enshrined Saturday along with Pittsburgh wide receiver John Stallworth, Oakland tight end Dave Casper, Chicago defensive lineman Dan Hampton and the late George Allen, who coached Los Angeles and Washington.
Former coach and popular broadcaster John Madden is also being honored along with Edwin Pope, longtime sports writer and columnist for the Miami Herald. Madden, too, will present Casper.
Kelly is the marquee name of the 2002 class, but it will be Hunter who will draw most of the attention at the ceremonies, being held this year next door to the Hall in 20,000-seat Fawcett Stadium.
Hunter was born on Feb. 14 — Valentine's Day, same as his dad — with Krabbes disease, a rare degenerative enzyme disorder of the nervous system. Krabbe children eventually become blind, deaf and paralyzed. Most don't live past 24 months.
Hunter is believed to be the oldest person with infantile Krabbe disease.
“He's been in and out of hospitals all his life, and he continues to battle,” Kelly said. “Ever since I was selected, I've prayed every single day and night that Hunter could be there to see it.”
His prayers were answered.
Kelly, who passed for 35,467 yards and 237 touchdowns during his career, was the unquestioned leader of the Bills, taking them to the Super Bowl from 1990-93.
With his rifle arm and fearless attitude, Kelly turned around a struggling franchise and made a city better known for its snowfall and chicken wings, into an NFL powerhouse.
“He was the right guy, in the right place at the right time,” said Buffalo coach Marv Levy, who will present Kelly at the induction ceremony. “He was the key. We had a lot of great players, but Jim Kelly was the linchpin.”
Kelly's drive and determination gave him the appearance of being cocky, but it was what kept the Bills on top.
“He wanted to win,” said former Buffalo center Kent Hull, “and everybody else in the huddle knew that.”
Kelly has used that relentlessness off the field as he works to find a cure for Hunter and other Krabbe children.
In 1997, Kelly and his wife, Jill, formed Hunter's Hope Foundation, which has raised more than $3 million to fight the disease and fund research.
“The money the foundation raises is his new scoreboard,” said former Bills teammate Steve Tasker. “That is what drives him.”
Kelly's induction has caused a stampede of thousands of Buffalo fans, who have converged on the Hall for this weekend's festivities.
Stallworth, too, has brought in the usual wave of Steelers fans. He is the ninth member of Pittsburgh's four Super Bowl winners of the 1970s to be enshrined.
Stallworth owns virtually every meaningful Steelers team receiving record, and with his induction, he is once again paired up with Lynn Swann, his former teammate who was inducted a year ago.
“Every day we matched up one-on-one, and every day he made me a little better and, I'd like to think, I made him a little better, too,” Hall of Fame cornerback Mel Blount said. “That's why I'm the happiest man in the world to see him get into the Hall of Fame.”
Casper was one of the most versatile players ever at his position. But he is perhaps best known for nudging along a fumble and recovering it in the end zone for a game-winning TD in a 1978 game against San Diego.
The play caused the NFL to change its rules.
“The world will play football for 500 years and there will never be another play exactly like that,” Casper said.
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Kelly's prayers answered as son attends ceremony
