Hallmark Star Asks Fans to Send ‘Extra Love’ to NFL Legend

When Hallmark Channel’s second NFL-themed movie, “Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love Story,” premieres during the 2025 holiday season, it will include appearances by Buffalo Bills players past and present, including legendary former quarterback Jim Kelly.

Although Kelly was all smiles while filming his cameo in the spring, the NFL superstar has been keeping fans updated about a family crisis. August 7, 2025, Hallmark’s Patti Murin asked fans to send them love and positive energy.

Sharing a photo of her and Kelly on the set of “Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love Story,” Murin wrote, “If you have any extra love and energy available, please send all of it to this amazing man and his family. @jimkelly1212 and @jillmkelly are on an extremely difficult journey right now and need as many of us to rally around them as possible. They are truly incredible people ❤️”

Jim Kelly Shared Good News Hours After Patti Murin’s Post

Kelly, who led the Buffalo Bills to four Super Bowls in a row, revealed in mid-July that his grandson was born with “unexpected medical complications,” according to Sports Illustrated. Kelly has posted periodic updates, asking for prayers their family, including his eldest daughter Erin Kelly-Bean and her husband, Parker Bean, as their baby has remained hospitalized.

Hours after Murin’s post, Kelly shared an “amazing update,” revealing that on August 5, the baby — whom he calls “Little Bean” in his posts — “came off of oxygen… and has remained off ever since.”

The date was especially significant because Kelly and his wife Jill’s only son, Hunter, died on August 5, 2005, from Krabbe Leukodystrophy when he was just eight years old, per Sports Illustrated.

Kelly wrote that for Little Bean to be taken off oxygen “Hunter’s Heaven Day” was a bit of synchronicity “that only God could orchestrate.”

“Thank you for continuing to pray with us, believe with us, and hope with us,” Kelly wrote. “We feel it. And on August 5th, we witnessed it! Your prayers are making a difference!!!”

Kelly also asked fans to “keep praying,” writing that August 11 will be “a very important day” for the family. On that day, he wrote that “the doctors will try again to take Little Bean off his medication and our prayer is that he will be able to stay off the medication and not need any additional intervention.
Until then we wait and we heal!!”

Jim Kelly Joins Multiple Past & Present Buffalo Bills Stars in New Hallmark Movie

Kelly won’t be the only Buffalo Bills star appearing in “Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love Story,” which was filmed in the Buffalo area during the spring.

According to press materials, the cast includes Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott, running back Ray Davis, offensive tackle Dion Dawkins, tight end Dawson Knox, long snapper Reid Ferguson, defensive tackle DeWayne Carter, and wide receiver Joshua Palmer. Superstar safety Damar Hamlin, who announced the Buffalo Bills movie on social media in March, is also part of the cast.

Former players Steve Tasker, Thurman Thomas, Scott Norwood and Andre Reed will also appear, as well as Bills announcer Chris Brown and Luke Russert, the son of late broadcast journalist and die-hard Bills fan Tim Russert.

The primary cast is star-studded, too. “Teen Wolf” alum and rising Hallmark star Holland Roden and “Shadowhunter” alum Matthew Daddario are the leads. In addition to Murin, the all-star supporting cast includes “Family Ties” alum (and wife of Michael J. Fox) Tracy Pollan, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” cast member Caroline Aaron, and two alums of “The Sopranos” — Steve Schirripa, whose first Hallmark movie was February’s “Sisterhood Inc,” and Joe Pantoliano.

Murin, who played the original Anna in Broadway’s “Frozen,” has starred in Hallmark movies including 2023’s “Mystic Christmas,” 2022’s “In Merry Measure,” 2021’s “To Catch a Spy,” 2020’s “Love on Iceland, and 2019’s “Holiday for Heroes,” per IMDb. Her 2020 and 2021 movies co-starred her husband, actor Colin Donnell.