Chad Kelly ends NFL aspirations, touts Toronto as best city in North America

Photo courtesy: Toronto Argonauts.

Chad Kelly has embraced Toronto as his new home, and at the same time ended NFL aspirations.

“We’re not even talking about (the NFL). That’s CFL now. This is an amazing place. I love this place. This is where I see my future forever,” Kelly said on Tuesday in response to a question from 3DownNation.

In the spring, Kelly told The Denver Gazette that returning to the NFL is always the goal. Now, he has more than $5 million reasons to be happy staying in the Canadian Football League. The Buffalo, N.Y. native went even further in his impassioned statement during a press conference at BMO Field.

“When I came up here, I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into, but looking back on the past five years, it was the best decision I’ve ever made in my life — best decision I’ve ever made in my life. I’ve come to love Canada on a whole other level. I never knew I could love a place so much than my home, and now this is my home forever,” Kelly said.

“This is a special place. Toronto has an energy that all of us get to enjoy every single day. Look at the stadium, this is by far the best stadium, I think, in the CFL. This is by far the best city in Canada, and I would even say United States of America. I love it here.”

Argonauts’ general manager Michael ‘Pinball’ Clemons loved being able to keep Kelly as his team’s franchise quarterback. In his mind, there were never any thoughts about No. 12 playing anywhere else other than in Toronto.

The Double Blue made him the first $1 million player per year in the salary cap era, circa 2007, by re-signing him for five years with a contract worth up to $5,805,250.

“For us, the most important thing is that we treat him right. You want to make sure that you respect the player, but we want to make sure that we present something to them that they feel represents their efforts,” Clemons said.

“That’s really what we accomplish more than trying to set any new path. It’s about making sure that we can satisfy the player himself and come to grips with some kind of communication on what we feel is a healthy opportunity for him.”

Kelly has a resumé requisite with his payday. He helped the Argos win the 2022 Grey Cup by making some key plays in the fourth quarter when starter McLeod Bethel-Thompson left the game with an injury, and played a major role in Toronto upsetting Montreal in the East Final in 2024 on the way to another CFL championship for the Boatmen.

In 2023, Kelly recorded a 15-1 record as a starter when the Argonauts posted a record-tying 16-2 mark in the regular-season. He was named the three-down league’s Most Outstanding Player for his efforts after throwing for 4,123 yards with 23 touchdowns and 12 interceptions while rushing for eight majors.

In 2026, the six-foot-one, 216-pound QB registered single-season career highs for completion percentage (70.9), passing yards (5,067), passing touchdowns (33), interceptions (24), and yards per carry (6.3).

Despite playing 12 road games, Toronto was able to do enough through a 9-9 campaign, including a 4-2 home record, to earn the right to host the East Semi-Final and take a run at another Grey Cup. The Argos have won 19 CFL championships, the most by any team in league history. Kelly wants to add to his legacy on the field and continue to build it outside the white lines.

“I’m starting the Chad Kelly Foundation. That’s why I’m looking to start the foundation to help kids with mental health issues that myself went through since a young kid and to where I am today,” Kelly said.

“I’m still struggling with some mental health issues. When I broke my leg I didn’t know what was going to happen and now I sit here today still being able to do it at a high level. There’s things I need to improve on.”

Following parts of four seasons in the NFL with the Denver Broncos and Indianapolis Colts, Kelly had a lot of unknowns when he was an offensive assistant coach at East Mississippi Community College in 2021. (Yes, the school featured in the Last Chance U documentary series.) He had no phone service or internet in his house in Scooba, Mississippi. That prompted a question: “Where do you want your life to go?”

Former NFL and CFL receiver Naaman Roosevelt pointed Kelly towards Canada during some summer throwing sessions in Buffalo. He started thinking it was a league in which a living could be made. Little did No. 12 know he would meet his wife, Theresa, in Toronto and put down family roots in a new country with son Chance and daughter Capri.