Every time NFL backup quarterback Chad Kelly's name pops up in the news cycle, it is almost never for his football accomplishments. The Ole Miss star quarterback-turned NFL backup for the Indianapolis Colts has been the subject of more bizarre headlines than I can count on one hand.
The nephew of Pro Football Hall-of-Famer Jim Kelly was involved in a high school football brawl in 2016 while still a member of the Ole Miss Rebels. He came under fire the same year after a photo allegedly showed him rolling blunts of weed. In 2014, Kelly was arrested for fighting and threatening bouncers at a Buffalo night club.
"Swag Kelly" apparently hasn't grown up, as evidenced by a new accusation and lawsuit against him stemming from a 2018 trespassing incident while Kelly was still a member of the Denver Broncos, the team that drafted him with the final pick of the seventh round in the 2017 NFL Draft.
Kelly is being sued by Broncos linebacker Von Miller's photographer and videographer for allegedly assaulting him and breaking his nose the night of Miller's Halloween Party at The Gothic Theater in Denver, Colorado, on Oct. 22, 2018, TMZ reported.
The man, Jackson Belcher, claimed an aggressive Kelly was drunk and high before he "inexplicably grabbed" Belcher and punched the hired photographer "directly on the bridge of his nose, causing him to fall into the group of people, and then onto a railing."
Kelly then was allegedly restrained by multiple team security guards at Miller's team-only themed party, according to TMZ.
Belcher said he needed four surgeries to fix his broken nose and is suing the NFL quarterback after experiencing a concussion, physical and emotional trauma and damages to his $14,000 camera.
Miller said Broncos security was there as well as his own hired security.
"It was a private event, it was safe," Miller told ESPN in 2018. "I had team security there, I had my own private security there ... just all of Denver sports. It was a private event, it was Halloween party, it was a safe event."
The alleged assault occurred the same night Kelly was arrested for allegedly stumbling into a random home before sitting and mumbling incoherently on the couch next to a woman holding her young child. The woman called to a male resident of the home, and he hit Kelly with a vacuum tube and forced him out of the home.
Kelly, who was still wearing his cowboy outfit from Miller's Halloween party, was arrested on first-degree criminal trespassing charges.
The Broncos quarterback was released a day after the altercation with Miller's personal videographer and arrest, ending a tumultuous time with the team since general manager John Elway chose to draft the problematic signal caller.
The Colts signed Kelly in May of 2019 and suspended him for the first two games of the season for violating the NFL's personal conduct policy. He's currently the team's third-string quarterback behind Jacoby Brissett and Brian Hoyer.
