Christian Retailing

NFL star's 'Kelly Tough' scores spot on 'New York Times' list Print Email
Written by Jeremy Burns   
Monday, 15 June 2015 03:30 PM America/New_York

Kelly-Tough-coverBroadStreet Publishing has announced that Kelly Tough: Live Courageously by Faith (May) by Erin Kelly with Jill Kelly is a New York Times best-seller appearing on the June monthly Sports list. The book is in its second printing.

NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly’s fight against cancer has been a public battle, garnering widespread support and attention from both media and football fans. In Kelly Tough, Jim’s oldest daughter, Erin Kelly, shares the not-so-public ups and downs of the family’s journey as they watched their father and husband fight the toughest opponent of his life—cancer.

The book launched in mid-May with national media, including interviews with the TODAY show in the 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. hours, FOX & Friends, FOX Business Network, ESPN, ESPN2, The NFL Network, CBS Sports Radio, CBS Sports TV, TheBlaze, Fox News Radio, SiriusXM, Yahoo Sports, Sporting News, Entrepreneur and The 700 Club. Erin also did book signings in New York City and Buffalo, New York.

Upcoming media interviews include CharismaESPN’s SportsNation, The NFL Network, The Rich Eisen Show, Good Day LA, LA Timesand Jay Mohr Sports on FOX Sports Radio Network. Parade will include the book in a Father’s Day feature, and CBS This Morning will air a special feature with the Kelly family Friday, June 19.  

“Cancer wasn’t supposed to be a part of my story,” Kelly wrote. “Our family experienced the heart-shattering loss of my younger brother Hunter in 2005. When you go through something like that, you kind of assume that you’ve been through the worst and that the other shoe dropped when the first one did. But that’s not the case with our family.”

In the past decade, the Kelly family—Jim; his wife, Jill; and daughters Erin and Camryn—have faced the death of their son and brother Hunter, who was diagnosed with Krabbe Leukodystrophy, the disease that took his life at 8 1/2 years old, and Jim’s life-threatening diagnosis, removal and return of squamous cell carcinoma of the upper jawbone.

In Kelly Tough, Erin shares the love, faith and meaning behind the mantra that binds them together and pulls them through life’s greatest struggles. She also reveals unknown details of her father’s battle against cancer—candid family moments as they learned of treatment successes and setbacks, forgiving those who brought death wishes against her father, supporting her father from afar while in college in Lynchburg, Virginia, cancer victims who deeply impacted the family, weekend visits to the toughest man she knew, fighting with all he had for the little life left in him—along with never-before-seen photos and journal entries.

“Seeing him cry only made me cry more—my big, tough father who was slammed to the turf by blitzing linebackers day after day … only to rebound and put six points on the scoreboard. But there was no linebacker, and the numbers we were following were very different from the numbers on the scoreboard as he sat across from me with tears rolling down his cheeks," Erin Kelly wrote. "This wasn’t football; it was the game of life! Getting thrown for a loss in this forum meant losing a lot more than yardage.”

The book features a foreword from Sports Illustrated Senior Writer and NFL Columnist Peter King, as well as a letter from Jim Kelly.