Kelly, whose birth name is Anthony, went on to be a four-year starter at Graceville as a quarterback and running back on offense and cornerback on defense while also participating in baseball, basketball and track and field. The opportunity to watch elite players suit up led to a love for the game that manifested long before Kelly put on shoulder pads for the first time in seventh grade. His uncles played, however, and his youngest uncle, Jacob Sorey, played at Graceville High about 10 minutes from Campbellton alongside talented players like future NFL running back Neal Anderson. Campbellton didn’t have youth football leagues and he didn’t have the money to travel to neighboring cities that did, so his only experience with football through grade school was watching it. And I strongly believe in community and that thing kind of sticks with me every day as I traverse through these buildings in the NFL.”īefore he made it to working in the NFL, Kelly was a baseball player. “So, I was the kid that was kind of blessed to be raised by a community.
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They are tough, they are strong and they know how to work,” Kelly said. “Most people there, they don’t have a lot of high net worth from a financial standpoint, but they are resilient. Campbellton is one of those small places where almost everyone knows everyone and thus, in a way, Kelly was raised by the community. She and June also made him comfortable leaning on others for support. She was deeply religious and taught her grandson to follow suit.
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Kelly believes he’s living off the intercessory prayers of Mary, who died last year. My grandmother was the backbone of our entire family.” “My granddad gave me an example of being a man. “They taught me what it meant to work hard,” Kelly said. His parents, Michael Kelly and Marcia Sorey, were around, but his maternal grandparents were who influenced him most throughout his upbringing in the 1980s and ’90s in Campbellton, Fla., a rural, farm town in North Florida made up of dirt roads and cornfields. “Change is often uncomfortable,” Kelly said, “but the theme of my whole life has been being able to thrive through uncomfort and being able to operate when things are not ideal.” Kelly has had to navigate plenty of adjustments on his own as a first-time assistant GM, but the exercise of doing so is where he finds his comfort zone.
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As the Raiders went on to trade for Davante Adams, sign Chandler Jones, extend players such as Maxx Crosby, Derek Carr and Hunter Renfrow and construct their 2022 draft class, Kelly alleviated the pressure on Ziegler as a first-time GM. Kelly was Ziegler’s right-hand executive as the Raiders navigated a transformational offseason. “That was an awesome opportunity for me and my family,” Kelly said in a phone interview last month, “and we’re extremely excited for what’s ahead.”Īnthony “Champ” Kelly has been named Assistant General Manager of the Las Vegas Raiders. In turn, Las Vegas provided stability for Kelly, who worked in the Bears front office from 2015 to 2021 and had been in a period of transition after Chicago fired its head coach and GM in January. Davis looked to the power trio of Ziegler, new head coach Josh McDaniels and Kelly - who all overlapped in 2010 with the Broncos - to steady football operations following a tumultuous 2021 season.
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The Raiders hired Kelly as assistant GM just three days after owner Mark Davis handed Ziegler personnel power following the respective departures of Jon Gruden and Mike Mayock. “Even thinking before I had this opportunity - if this opportunity ever came - Champ Kelly was always someone that I would hope would be able to go on this journey with us.” … Champ sees things and gets things done that I want to get done before I even know I need them to get done. We have a level of trust and respect for each other. He’s really smart in terms of just football, big-picture thinking.
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He has a very high standard for all work that’s done whether it’s big or small. “Champ just embodies a lot of the things that are important to me,” Ziegler said in March. The Broncos brought Ziegler onboard and, almost 12 years later when Ziegler became the general manager of the Raiders, he had Kelly circled as someone that he wanted to hire. Kelly, then entering his fourth season as an executive with Denver, was his first point of contact. Dave Ziegler was a high school football coach and had only recently discovered what scouting entailed when he applied for a scouting assistant role with the Broncos in 2010.