Super Bowl Monday_ From the Persian Gulf to the Shores of West Florida - Adam Lazarus [15]
NFL coaches, scouts, and executives speculated—from afar and in person at workouts—about Kelly’s value in the following April’s draft. And although his arm was not completely healed by draft day, he assuaged any doubts.
During the first round of that now famous 1983 draft, six quarterbacks were selected: John Elway, Todd Blackledge, Tony Eason, Ken O’Brien, Dan Marino, and Jim Kelly. And each man would go on to experience his own unique professional football journey.
Eason helped quarterback the New England Patriots to Super Bowl XX and O’Brien earned a pair of Pro Bowl selections during a long tenure with the New York Jets. Ironically, Todd Blackledge enjoyed the least success of any members of the “Quarterback Class of 1983.” As a Kansas City Chief, Blackledge threw more interceptions than touchdowns and completed less than half of his pass attempts.
Elway was unhappy that the Baltimore Colts had selected him with the first overall pick and threatened to give up football to pitch for the New York Yankees. A week later, the Colts granted his wish and dealt the former Stanford quarterback to Denver.
Marino was similarly discontent on draft day, not because of who chose him, but rather when they had done so. By the impossible standards he had set as a freshman, sophomore, and junior, the Pitt quarterback was subpar as a senior. That perceived drop-off caused twenty-two teams to choose someone else. The Miami Dolphins finally selected Marino with the last pick of the first round.
And while Elway’s and Marino’s prolific careers each got off to a well-publicized rocky start, it was Jim Kelly who made the biggest splash.
Desperately in need of star power, the Buffalo Bills took Kelly with the fourteenth overall selection. Kelly would not, however, attend the team’s training camp at Fredonia State College that July. Nor would he spend a single Sunday at Rich Stadium that autumn dressed in Bills red and blue.
Three months before Buffalo drafted him, Kelly was selected—in the fourteenth round—by the Chicago Blitz of the United States Football League, the professional alternative that attempted to outspend and out-flash the NFL’s monopoly. (The Blitz waited fourteen rounds to choose Kelly because they expected him to join the NFL.) Officially founded on May 11, 1982, the new league opened play nine months later, and growing pains persisted from the outset.
Blitz General Manager Bruce Allen continued to pursue Kelly into May. So too did the Montreal Concordes (formerly the Alouettes) of the Canadian Football League. Kelly continued to listen.
“I always wanted to play in the National Football League. But there are other things you have to look at,” he said a week after being chosen by the Bills.
Money was a factor for Kelly, as was a real disinterest in joining the small-market Bills.
“Buffalo would have two chances (twelfth and fourteenth), and I was praying they would pass on me both times. Everything I had heard about the team and the city was negative,” he wrote years later.
Negotiations with the Bills dragged out into June, when Kelly’s agents received a phone call. The USFL executives and owners were so eager to sign a big-name talent for their infant league, they offered Kelly, in addition to an enormous salary, the opportunity to join whichever team he wanted. Kelly—and Mark Rush, who was also allowed to sign with any team he chose—flew to Texas to meet with the owner of the USFL’s Houston Gamblers.
“Jim and I always wanted to try and play [professional] football together,” Rush said. “And of course he was drafted by Buffalo, I was drafted by Minnesota, we’re living