There was some good news for one of the genuine good guys
of American professional football earlier this week, when the physicians for
former Buffalo Bills’ quarterback Jim Kelly who’s been in a much-publicized
battle with sinus cancer, gave him a clean bill of health.
I grew up a fan of Broadway Joe Namath and to this day I can’t
muster a lot of love for the Jets’ upstate cousins in Buffalo but Jim Kelly has
always been a class act and his willingness to share his trials and travails
(and those of his family with him) made me better appreciate what me and mine
have and how quickly it can all disappear. His grace under pressure while the trials of Job were being visited upon him is
singular and amazing.
I smiled when I first heard the descriptive “Kelly Tough” about his mindset towards his illness
because I’m thinking that maybe that attitude has something to do with the
name. And by that, I mean another Kelly,
probably with her tootsies in the sand even as I’m typing this, oblivious to
how much awe she inspires in her own children by always bending but never
breaking in the face of enough tribulations to fill three lifetimes. And all
she says is “how’s it going?” and then keeps going herself.
Yeah, with all due respect to Jim, I can substitute Joan,
and still get to Tough. And the good thing about that is I don’t waste any time
helping Thurman Thomas look for his helmet. For all the good it will do him once we find it.
-bill kenny
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