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Bills using OTA day to attend Kelly’s golf event

The Sports Xchange

June 01, 2015 at 10:17 am.

Kelly will attend the tournament after missing last year's event while undergoing treatment for cancer. Kelly was first diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma in 2013. A portion of his jaw was removed at that time. He has been cancer-free since September. Kevin Hoffman-USA TODAY Sports

Buffalo Bills coach Rex Ryan is taking his entire team to Jim Kelly’s charity golf tournament, which will count as one of the organized team activity days.

Kelly, the Hall of Fame quarterback, announced at his annual charity gala in Buffalo on Sunday night that the Bills will attend the golf outing in Batavia, N.Y., on Monday and count as the team’s fourth of 10 OTAs this spring.

“Thank the Good Lord for allowing me to be here today,” Kelly said at his gala. “I look around and just all the people. … You can’t spend an hour with each individual, but it’s so good to see my friends and see people I haven’t seen in over a year, because I was not here last year at this time.”

Kelly expressed his gratitude for everything Ryan and Bills owners Terry and Kim Pegula have done for his former team.

“I see what the Pegulas have brought here, I see what Rex Ryan has done with this team,” Kelly said. “I was just at practice on Friday. The enthusiasm that I saw from the players, it had me pumped up.”

Ryan has a reputation of being a players’ coach.

“He gets it, ” Kelly said when talking about Ryan giving the team the day off.

Kelly will attend the tournament after missing last year’s event while undergoing treatment for cancer. Kelly was first diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma in 2013. A portion of his jaw was removed at that time. He has been cancer-free since September.

The former Bills great has held the golf charity event for the past 29 years. The event helps raise money for Kelly’s charity, which serves disabled and disadvantaged youth in western New York.

“It feels good,” Kelly said. “I feel good. And it’s good because after last year, the money we were able to give out to all the charities, that makes you feel good because even though I couldn’t be here, it continued, it moved on and we are still making a difference.”

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