Buffalo Bills legend Jim Kelly has faced enough heartbreak for several lifetimes, but through devastating loss, repeated battles with cancer and even four straight Super Bowl defeats, the Hall of Fame quarterback says his faith has helped carry him forward.

Kelly recently reflected on his relationship with God alongside his wife, Jill Kelly, even finding room to joke about one disappointment from his legendary NFL career.

“But don’t you think God could at least got me one or two Super Bowls?” Kelly joked before the couple laughed.

Kelly led Buffalo to an unprecedented four consecutive Super Bowl appearances from 1990 through 1993, but the Bills lost each one. They fell to the New York Giants in Super Bowl XXV, Washington in Super Bowl XXVI and the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowls XXVII and XXVIII.

Yet those football disappointments pale in comparison to what Kelly and his family have endured away from the field.

Jim and Jill’s son, Hunter, was diagnosed as an infant with Krabbe disease, a rare inherited neurological condition. He died in 2005 at just 8 years old. The Kelly family established Hunter’s Hope Foundation in his honor, working to raise awareness of Krabbe disease and other leukodystrophies.

Kelly faced another major battle in 2013 when he was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma in his upper jaw. He underwent surgery, but the cancer returned in 2014, leading to chemotherapy and radiation treatments. In 2018, Kelly underwent another surgery after his cancer returned.

Today, Kelly is a cancer survivor, and Jill believes the painful experiences her husband has endured have given him a unique opportunity to share his faith and hope with others.

“You had an opportunity to speak your hope and all the experience that you’ve gone through and what God has done,” Jill said on her “Immeasurably More” podcast.

She said people are willing to listen to her husband precisely because they know what he has survived.

“It’s because you went through cancer that people are like, ‘Wow, he went through all that, and he still has hope, and he trusts God,'” she said.

For Kelly, the victories that matter most now have little to do with football trophies. His story has become one of perseverance through grief, illness and disappointment — and a testimony to finding purpose in hardship while holding onto faith.