In midst of cancer battle, Jim Kelly makes surprise donation to Pro Football Hall of Fame
Jim Kelly continues to be one of the most inspiring figures in sports.
The Hall of Fame quarterback, who led the Buffalo Bills to four consecutive AFC championships, is giving back in a huge way to the shrine to the football gods in Canton.
On Monday, Kelly donated a 2008 custom chopper motorcycle, designed and created by Knievel Custom Cycles, and autographed by Evel Knievel himself and his son Robbie, to the museum for their exhibit on the quarterback.
As Kelly continues to battle oral cancer, if he’s headed toward life’s finish line, he’s determined to make one heck of a push in the final miles of the marathon to cross the tape with his head held high.
The Hall posted a picture of the motorcycle’s place of honor to their Facebook account Monday.
https://www.facebook.com/ProFootballHOF/posts/10160591904610510
The sign in front of the motorcycle says “do not touch,” and while it’s surely there as the standard warning to museum guests to look with their eyes and not with their hands, it might as well also say “you can’t handle this much awesome with your hands, kids.”
Kelly received the motorcycle as a gift during his 2008 Jim Kelly Celebrity Golf Classic, an event that benefits Kelly for Kids and Hunter’s Hope Foundation.
Hunter is Kelly’s child, who the quarterback and his wife lost to Krabbe disease in 2005 when Hunter was just eight.
“This is a donation unlike anything the Hall of Fame has ever received. It is fitting considering that Jim Kelly is one-of-a-kind,” Hall of Fame President David Baker said in a statement.
“There is nothing ordinary about Jim from the way he played the game to the manner in which he has battled his bouts with cancer. We hope fans are inspired by seeing the motorcycle and knowing it reflects the character of one of the greatest Hall of Famers ever, Jim Kelly.”
This isn’t the first time Kelly has donated memorabilia for the Hall to show off to Bills fans who make the four-hour drive to Canton from Buffalo.
Kelly has donated a game-worn jersey from the 1993 season, the game ball from the Bills’ win over the Raiders in the 1990 AFC title game that sent them to their first Super Bowl, and Kelly’s game plan from Super Bowl XXVIII.
Kelly’s been on a winning streak lately as he recovers from major surgery on his upper jaw in March that, doctors hope, removed the cancer once and for all.
He made an inspiring speech at the ESPYs, held his youth football camp without letting his medical issue get in the way, set the Internet on fire by participating in a social media dance craze, and now he’s giving the Hall of Fame a shiny new piece to put on display.
The lesson to the rest of us out there ought to be clear — let’s not wait until we’re dying to truly start living.
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