NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. – Three years ago Chad Kelly was coaching at East Mississippi Community College taking showers in a trailer and was not sure what was next for him.
On Thursday evening, the Toronto Argonauts quarterback was standing centre stage at the CFL Awards getting recognized as the George Reed Most Outstanding Player.
In his first year as a CFL starter, Kelly helped Toronto go 16-2 record which tied for the most wins in a season, a mark set by Edmonton back in 1989. He received 39 first-place votes out of 61 ballots, beating out Winnipeg Blue Bombers running back Brady Oliveira for the award.
Kelly threw for 4,123 yards and 23 touchdowns — leading the CFL with 10.5 yards per pass attempt — while adding another eight touchdowns on the ground. In games he started, the Argonauts went 15-1 which was the best winning percentage by a starting quarterback with at least 14 starts.
For years, Kelly believed that he was good enough to play in the NFL but after getting cut by the Denver Broncos and Indianapolis Colts, he didn’t feel like he had enough confidence left in him to play football.
It was at that point working with young players trying to keep their college football dream going that he realized that there was still something left in him to achieve.
In 2021, the Argonauts made a deal with Edmonton to acquire Kelly’s rights signing him to a contract the following February.
What would come after was something that would have been tough for anyone to imagine, even Kelly himself.
“You never know where life can take you. I’m sitting up here today as the most outstanding player, which is beyond a blessing to be able to even achieve something so amazing.” Kelly said. “That’s kind of where I look back and say that was a moment where I wasn’t sure what was going to happen with my life.”
The 29-year-old is the eighth Argonauts player to win the award and just the fourth quarterback to receive the honour. Chad Owens was the last Toronto player to win MOP back in 2012.
The league renamed the award after former Saskatchewan Roughriders running back George Reed, who died back in October a day before his 84th birthday. Reed was one of the CFL’s top running backs, retiring as the league’s all-time leader in rushing yards (16,116) and rushing TDs (134) when he stepped away from the game before training camp in 1976.
It was a big night for the Argonauts who took home five of the seven awards handed out at the Avalon Theatre in Niagara Falls, Ont. While the season didn’t end the way the team wanted to after a devastating loss in the CFL’s East final, Kelly believes the awards show a lot about the team’s quality.
“There’s a lot of quality men and football players in that locker room that have had the focus and determination all year long, the mentality to go 1-0 each week,” Kelly said. “It’s a team game, but to know that we were essentially stacked at every position is obviously heartbreaking that we’re not out there competing for a championship.”
The road certainly hasn’t been easy for Kelly, as even in his first year in the league in 2022 he had to wait for his opportunity. He finally got it in the 109th Grey Cup when he was forced to come into the game after starter McLeod Bethel-Thompson suffered an injury, and Kelly helped Toronto score 10 unanswered points in the Argonauts’ upset win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
When Bethel-Thompson left in the off-season, head coach Ryan Dinwiddie was confident Kelly could step in and be the leader the team needed. It took Kelly time, but once he did that confidence he was searching for years ago was back.
“When I talked to Jim Barker, last year, he would always say ‘hey it’s just going to take you three games and you’re going to get it,’” Kelly said on when he knew he could handle the job of a starting quarterback. “After that third game, I kind of felt like, ‘OK, I do belong in the CFL and I finally do understand the game.’”
The Argonauts showed their belief in Kelly back in August signing the Buffalo native to a three-year contract extension that will make him the highest-paid player in the league in 2024.
Now the team will hope that Kelly can rebound from a loss that remains on the team’s mind and deliver at the level they know he can.