CAPTAIN COURAGEOUS
As 70,000 chilled-to-the-bone spectators at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y. looked on in early January, Jim Kelly grabbed the microphone from longtime Buffalo Bills teammate Thurman Thomas. Clad in a blue, No. 17 Josh Allen jersey, the legendary quarterback invoked the familiar pep-talk words of his former coach, Marv Levy.
“Where would you rather be,’’ Kelly boomed over the loudspeakers, “than right here, right now?”
Had there been a roof on the stadium it surely would have blown off.
The current-day Bills then proceeded to turn in a performance reminiscent of Kelly’s glory days, as Allen threw five touchdown passes in a 47-17 playoff rout of Bill Belichick’s New England Patriots — a team that had owned Buffalo and the AFC East for nearly two decades.
“That was a special moment for me, for sure,’’ Kelly said afterward. “Of course, it’s always special when I’m in that stadium in front of Bills Mafia.”
It’s hard to believe now, given the enduring love affair between Kelly and Bills fans, but there was a time when he would have given anything to
