Jim Kelly has never been just a football legend. Over the years, he has become something more layered, as he knows both the stadium roar and the kind of silence that comes after loss. Bills icon Jim has time and again spoken about the times he was angry at God, unsure if the weight of grief and illness was survivable. Losing his son Hunter to Krabbe disease in 2005, facing down multiple battles with cancer, watching life reroute again and again, it shaped something in him. But this—this fight for his grandson’s life makes him feel more vulnerable. It is a different kind of battle, one that no amount of toughness can prepare you for.

The past several weeks have tested the faith and emotional strength of NFL Hall of Famer Jim Kelly and his family. In a recent Instagram Story, Kelly posted a photo of himself and his wife Jill beside Little Bean, in a hospital setting, as he penned a heartfelt caption: “My little buddy. (praying emoji).” In his latest post, Kelly revealed, “Last night didn’t go so well. (sad emoji) Little Bean is back on the medication.” The news marked yet another setback in what has been a painful, exhausting fight for the entire family.

What followed was a raw and deeply personal reflection on faith and suffering. “Most days, it feels like our prayers just hit the walls and fall to the floor….Sorry for being this raw,” Kelly wrote. “But we don’t understand how God can see this… really see it… and not move. How can he watch this suffering and still wait? (heartbreak emoji)” The hardest part, he confessed, is knowing that “He could speak one word and heal our grandson, but hasn’t yet.”

Despite the overwhelming fatigue, Kelly reaffirmed that he still harbors trust in God’s plan, writing, “We still trust Him… Because Jesus is worthy of our trust. Not just when prayers are answered… but even here, in the silence, in the waiting, in the heartbreak.” He closed the post by asking, once again, for prayers, as he wrote, “Please, keep praying. We need it.”

It’s always different when the heart gets involved. And for Jim Kelly, this time it is not about football or legacy. It is about his grandson, “Little Bean,” born in early July 2025. And the quiet war his tiny body has been fighting since day one. When Erin Kelly-Bean and her husband Parker welcomed their first child, the celebration that should have followed quickly turned to uncertainty. The Kellys spoke of “deep joy,” but also “unforeseen medical challenges.”

From the start, there was no name announced, just a nickname—Little Bean—and the tender, desperate hope of a family who had already known loss. A major procedure came just days after birth. “He is so strong and courageous,” they wrote, watching this little boy fight harder than anyone should ever have to.

And for a moment, it looked like their prayers were working. “THANK GOD!” they shared after the procedure. “We are overwhelmed with gratitude for God’s hand in every detail today…” But NICU stays don’t move in straight lines. And neither does recovery. They prayed for his heart, for his lungs, and for the chance to breathe on his own. What followed was good news—“Little Bean is off the ventilator!”  But that too was short-lived. “Two subsequent attempts for Little Bean to come off his medication have failed.”

Once again, the Kellys were right back in it, in the loop of the midnight alarms, while gathering courage to face difficult updates, knowing that they couldn’t control it. The questions got harder, too. “How can God watch this suffering and still wait?” Jim wrote as he opened the wounds of a grandfather who had already buried a son.

“Knowing he could speak one word and heal our grandson, but hasn’t yet… that’s the hardest part,” he wrote in his latest post. Back on July 28, he had posted yet another update, twenty days into this journey, as their faith hadn’t disappeared. “20 days of learning what it means to love, trust, and hope like never before,” Jim wrote. “Please also lift up Erin and Parker,” they asked. “They’re carrying so much as parents.”

As of July 31, Little Bean is still in the NICU, fighting for his life. Still reminding everyone what resilience looks like in the smallest of packages. “Jesus is still the Rock at the bottom,” Jim wrote. Not as a sermon, but as someone clinging to what he knows when nothing else makes sense.

Jim Kelly’s belief in prayers

Jim Kelly’s belief in prayer isn’t something new. It has been woven into his story for decades. In moments when even praying felt too heavy, he leaned on others. “We are weary. So weary that even praying has felt hard,” he admitted this July, during the ongoing fight for his grandson’s life. “But we know that when we can’t find the words… the prayers of others can carry us.”

When his son Hunter was diagnosed with Krabbe disease in 1997, he got angry at the doctors, at the world, at God. “I was mad. I didn’t know who to push the blame to… but more than anything, I was really mad at God,” he once said. And now, watching his daughter Erin walk through something heartbreakingly familiar with her newborn son, Little Bean, it is as if that faith is being tested all over again.

But this time, he is not silent about it. “Please pray for our daughter Erin, her husband Parker, and their precious newborn baby boy,” he wrote in mid-July. “We never imagined we’d be here again.”

For Jim Kelly, prayer is the language that he has learned to speak through loss. It carried him through a son’s slow goodbye. It steadied him through his own cancer battles. And now, it is all he has as he watches his family hold on for another miracle. He doesn’t promise answers, only that he is still asking for them. “We’re still praying for a miracle that defies all understanding,” he says. And, he wants his friends, fans, and family to pray with him.