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By Root 392 0

a long day of practice and reviewing game films, Jim walked wearily into the house. I met him at the door and told him we needed to talk. Intimate communication was a challenge for us at the time. Jim was a bottom-line guy, a vigilant, hard-core leader who wanted everything simple and to the point. My way, on the other hand, was to elaborate and talk things through… thoroughly. We walked back to our bedroom, where I took a seat in his favorite recliner. He sat on the couch nearby.

Initially I held it together while we talked about the day’s events. But as soon as I started to tell him about missing my period, I fell apart. The words wouldn’t come out.

Jim was shaken but unusually calm. “Are you sure?” he asked hesitantly.

Nervously, I struggled through the details, even telling him about my pregnancy test experience at Mary’s, which ended up providing a much-needed moment of comic relief for us. The fleeting laughter was welcomed with open arms, and suddenly so was I.

Jim couldn’t have been more loving. He gathered me in his embrace, assuring me that everything was going to be okay. “Jill, you know I love kids, and you know I love you. We’re just going to have children sooner than I expected, that’s all. It will all work out. I know it will. So don’t worry, and please stop crying. We’re going to be fine.”

Always the optimist, Jim talked about doing the “right thing” and getting married before the child was born. We also discussed how he would tell his parents and five brothers, and how we would handle the media frenzy once the word got out. Although I knew Jim was stunned, he was very tender and honorable. And yet in spite of his confident, calm exterior, inwardly he was afraid, too.

I was probably most concerned about how Jim’s mother, Alice, would respond. She had raised six rough-and-tumble boys, and she deserved every bit of the respect she commanded. As the grand matriarch of the Kelly clan, if she didn’t like you—you were history.

Jim had gotten his mother’s approval to continue dating me, but now what? She hadn’t been crazy about our living together to begin with, and now I was carrying her son’s child! Would this woman, who didn’t allow Jim and me to sleep in the same room whenever she was around, blame me? She’d made it very clear that the marital bed was to be respected. What if Jim’s entire family shuns me? I thought. What if they convince Jim to leave me and I’m forced to become a single mother? What am I going to do?

I wasn’t present when Jim told his mom and dad that we were pregnant, and their disappointed response, while expected, made me feel all the more awkward and alienated. However, after the initial shock of it wore off, life went on as usual. At least it seemed to for everyone but me.

Eventually the focus drifted back to winning football games, with Jim’s family assuming their game-day demeanor: food, football, and fun. Despite the difficult circumstances, I remember those days fondly. Jim’s family looked forward to every home game, and so did I.

In fact, every time the Buffalo Bills took the field at Rich Stadium/Ralph Wilson Stadium, the entire Kelly family suited up for a weekend of memories. Win or lose, they were ready to party. Everyone had a role to play, and what appeared to be complete chaos was actually a well-organized and structured game-day routine. In fact, game day was more like a production.

Tailgating and pregame warm-up festivities began as soon as the Kelly boys flew into town. Jim’s aunt Toni from Pittsburgh would prepare the secret pregame spaghetti sauce on Saturday while friends and family huddled around the basement party room at Kelly’s Irish Pub.

While Jim was at the hotel mentally preparing, the rest of the family and countless friends prepared our house for the much-anticipated pre- and postgame action. Jim’s dad, Joe, and his five brothers—Pat, Ed, Ray, Danny, and Kevin—readied the motor home for Kelly-style tailgating, while the sisters-in-law dressed the children in number 12 jerseys.

Jim’s close friend and housemate, Tommy Good, was always the guy in charge.