December 2008 Show Us Your Green
When Kevin Kelly and his family moved out of the New York area, it meant giving up season tickets for his beloved Jets.
"I've been a fan since '81," said Kelly. "I had season tickets as part of a group, probably from the late Nineties up until about three years ago when I moved down to North Carolina. I'm pretty fluent in Jets history and just a real big fan.
"There are certain things about New York that you miss, one of which is obviously being able to go to the games every Sunday during the season."
But in hindsight, Kelly is thankful that his family's relocation forced him to change careers, as he was previously a trader on Wall Street.
He and his wife, Alyssa, have since become franchisees of Comfort Keepers, a home health care business.
"We basically provide home care for seniors," said Kelly, "where we would have caregivers go out to work with them in their home. It would be an alternative to them going into an assisted living facility, which is really Alyssa's background."
Their son, Ryan, is quickly being indoctrinated as a Jets fan, and their daughter, Kaitlyn, isn't far behind. Sharing a birthday, Ryan will turn 5 and Kaitlyn 2 on Feb. 25.
"Ryan is our biological son," said Kelly. "Kaitlyn is adopted, and we got the call that she was born, literally, during the middle of his third birthday, with a houseful of guests.
"It was kind of a weird way for that go to down. But we hopped on a plane the next day, were able to bring our daughter home to the hotel we were staying at two days later, and then brought her home two weeks later."
Now that he no longer attends Jets games regularly, Kelly, the December Show Us Your Green winner, enjoys watching Ryan become an enthusiastic fan.
"He knows Brett Favre, he knows Thomas Jones," Kevin said. "Those would be the two big ones that he knows, that he always asks about during games. But he'll actually sit down, watch games with me, asking me questions constantly — 'What's the score?' 'Is that a first down?' — so he is pretty precocious for a 5-year-old and probably knows more about the games, to be honest with you, than my wife does."
But Kelly tries to head up north for one Jets game a year and hopes to bring his son to a game as soon as next season.
And he's hoping they'll be able to see No. 4 in green and white when they do.
"I really would like to see Brett Favre come back," said Kelly. "Assuming he's healthy and wants to play and come to camp, I really think he does give the Jets the best chance to win this year."
