Jim Kelly threw 83 TD passes in two seasons with the Houston Gamblers

Jim Kelly: Houston Gamblers

As the USFL’s future was in doubt in the summer of 1986, Jim Kelly’s professional football career was at a crossroads: He was the property of the New Jersey Generals after the merger with the Houston Gamblers, but the league's existence hinged on the $1.7 million anti-trust suit against the NFL; the Bills owned his NFL rights.

 However, Kelly wasn’t eager to shuffle-off to Buffalo.

In a 1986 with Sports Illustrated’s Rick Telander, Kelly said, “I’d love to play for the Raiders. I’d love to live in California.” While the Raiders toiled with several different NFL retreads at quarterback over the next decade, Kelly would help bring a franchise (Bills) back from obscurity.

“We tried to work out a deal with the Raiders or Steelers,” says Kelly from his Buffalo office where he runs children’s charities in honor of his son Hunter in February 2006. “I would have loved to play for either team.”

“I didn’t think the owner [Wilson] was committed to bringing in the players for a championship team,” says Kelly, who threw 44 touchdown passes in his first year in the USFL with the Gamblers. “The major reason I went to the USFL is that I didn’t want to play in Buffalo.”