*3.27.14 update: According to Newsday, Kelly will instead undergo chemotherapy. Surgery was deemed too risky.

Because NFL football has changed so much over the years, it's difficult for a mid-twenty-year old sports fan even as hardcore as I consider myself to make sense of players from before the late 1990s. I can't really look at statistics, which are inflated in today's game/deflated in yesterday's. Nor can I really look at old films, which for some reason don't seem as accessible or appealing as classic footage from the NBA and MLB. Super Bowl titles help, unless of course the player in question doesn't have any. All of that means is the only way I'll ever know how good/great Jim Kelly was is by reading or hearing about it.

Unfortunately, the former Bills quarterback has been in the news recently for his battle with oral cancer, which is aggressive and spreading, according to Fox. To treat it, he's been scheduled for surgery. It's his second fight with the disease.

The difficulty with oral cancer is that its initial symptoms are subtle and relatively benign, meaning its diagnosis usually comes later than most types of cancer.

Because so many were moved by Kelly's playing career and his notable work raising money in honor of his son's medical condition, which took his life at the age of eight, many have been moved by his fight with cancer. A column published in Fox today wrote in admiration of his career.

Reading about it, Kelly's was a unique career, highlighted by the four straight Super Bowl losses from 1991 to 1994. Before that, he played for the Houston Gamblers of the USFL, where he set numerous records that won't ever be broken -- since the league folded during his second season.

The only reason he joined the Gamblers was because he hated the cold. Either he could play in Texas or play for the team that drafted him, the Buffalo Bills. Weather, however, wasn't an issue for him in high school in Pennsylvania. It became more important during his college career at Miami. He went there after Penn State Coach Joe Paterno would only offer him a linebacker scholarship.

By his fourth NFL season, he was something of a star. By his fifth, he became one of the best quarterbacks in the game with 24 TDs, 9 Ints, and a 101.2 rating. He retired in 1996.