This Day in Buffalo Sports History: Jimbo retires
January 31, 1997 -- The Buffalo Bills lost their quarterback on this day. You could argue that they are still looking for his replacement.
Jim Kelly announced his retirement, ending a career that would eventually put him in the Hall of Fame. Columnist Larry Felser summed it up this was for The News:
Jim Kelly came to Buffalo with a big splash and Friday he left in an equally extravagant departure.
People lined the streets from the airport to his first press conference to welcome him when he signed with the Bills in late August of 1986. He had come to deliver them from the football wilderness and if there had been palm fronds around, the fans would have spread those in his path, too.When he officially announced his retirement in the Ralph C. Wilson field house, it was televised and broadcast live to a dozen upstate outlets aswell as ESPN. His words were recorded by a battalion of media as his teammates, coaches, family and friends watched. The comparisons ended there. This was not the swashbuckling, swaggering, supremely-confident Jim Kelly who took over the Bills more than a decade ago. Friday he was thoughtful, thankful, emotional and downright gracious. It was the classiest of leave-takings. Kelly had carefully prepared his remarks and it was easy to see that he expected to sail through his final press conference as a Buffalo Bill, but by the time he reached the third paragraph and the words "the most difficult decision of my life," his voice broke. When he tried to speak of the people he loves, and the camaraderie with his teammates which he cherished, he could barely get any words out. This was a Jimbo we've seldom, if ever, seen, with emotions bared down to the bone, exiting the sport which had been his life for the last 28 years.It was the most majestic send-off for a jock icon in Buffalo sports history. When Gilbert Perreault retired from the Sabres, he just quietly left town for his Quebec home. O.J. Simpson tore up his knee halfway through the 1977 season, recuperated on the West Coast and then was abruptly traded by Chuck Knox, the new coach, the following March.
--- Budd Bailey
