“Game Of His Life” tells the story of Pittsburgh athletes who may not have had the most illustrious, Hall of Fame level careers, but had one absolutely amazing game. In today’s edition, Kameron Kelly.

Kameron Kelly had a very brief National Football League career.

A survivor of the failed Alliance of American Football, Kelly used the AAF to boost his stock and earn an NFL contract.

An undrafted free agent, Kelly signed with the Dallas Cowboys after the 2018 NFL Draft. He was released prior to the start of the season, but soon after joined the start up AAF, which was the latest attempt at a viable spring football league.

Kelly had several shining moments in the AAF for the San Diego Fleet, including a three interception game. The AAF was incredibly short-lived, and shut down rather abruptly midway through the year.

AAF players were suddenly stranded, in some cases literally, by the shut down, but a few were able to parlay their AAF success into NFL contracts.

Such was the case for Kelly, who was noticed and ultimately signed him in April of 2019. He made the final team, with an impressive training camp allowing him a shot in the NFL.

The Backstory

The 2019 Steelers were very much of a mixed bag. Through the ups and downs of a season that saw Ben Roethlisberger done for the year after Week 2, the Steelers had some memorable performances by both new and known players, but also some rather forgettable moments as well.

For Kelly, his first (and only) NFL start came against the New England Patriots in the season opener, which was a disastrous 33-3 loss.

After that, Kelly was used more sparingly in the lineup, as the Steelers got a bit healthier on defense.

For this game in particular, Kelly was only on the field for 13% of the team’s snaps on defense. For reference, that was just 10 total plays for Kelly in this game, but man did he make them count.

The Game

This game was Pittsburgh’s first real look at Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson.

Jackson had thrown just one single pass against the Steelers in his career prior, but now as the full time starter for Baltimore, this game was his real introduction to the rivalry.

Meanwhile, Mason Rudolph was on the other end of the QB battle for Pittsburgh, and his offense struggled to get going early in this contest. A negative play and a penalty forced an early Jordan Berry punt for the Steelers.

Meanwhile, on Baltimore’s opening possession, the Ravens made a field goal to go up 3-0 early. Kameron Kelly chips in, along with Minkah Fitzpatrick, to tackle Baltimore’s Mark Andrews.

The Ravens pick off Rudolph soon after, and this time they finish off the drive with a touchdown to take an early 10-0 lead.

The Steelers offense would get some rhythm however, and Rudolph connects on two nice throws to James Washington and JuJu Smith-Schuster, the latter of which ran it in for a touchdown to cut the lead to 10-7.

However, the Ravens would answer back with a touchdown of their own, and retake the 10-point lead midway through the second quarter.

It’s at this time that Kelly decides to take matters into his own hands. After Pittsburgh is forced to punt, Kelly makes a splash play to get the Steelers the ball back.

On a pass that tips off Andrews’ hands, Kelly leaps up and intercepts the pass deep in Ravens territory. It was the first interception of his NFL career.

That play was a massive momentum swing for the Steelers, who added a field goal after the Kelly pick and another field goal before the half.

The Steelers kept that momentum coming out of halftime, and Devin Bush would intercept Jackson to get the ball for the Steelers. On this drive, however, Mason Rudolph gets knocked out with a concussion. He was out cold, and after a lengthy stay down on the field, was assisted to the bench.

In comes Duck Hodges, who with the aid of a few penalties, gets Pittsburgh into the endzone to take a 20-17 lead.

As the second half goes on, both teams would trade field goals until things were all knotted up at 23-23, with Baltimore’s Justin Tucker making a late fourth quarter boot to take things into overtime.

In overtime, the Ravens won the kickoff and opted to take the ball, but they get stopped in a hurry by a buzzing Pittsburgh defense.

The final play in Baltimore’s quick series is made by Kelly, who makes a spectacular tackle on, once again, Mark Andrews, to force a Raven punt.

Kelly did not get a lot of the tight end, but he got just enough to bring him to the ground.

Unfortunately for Kelly, his overtime efforts would be for not. Once Pittsburgh got the ball, Baltimore’s Marlon Humphrey would punch the ball out of JuJu Smith-Schuster’s arms, setting up the Ravens in field goal position with the recovery. Justin Tucker kicks it three plays later, and the Ravens snag a win in overtime.

While it was an undesired result for the Steelers, it was a great day for Kameron Kelly. On just 10 defensive snaps, he recorded an interception, 2 solo tackles, 2 combined tackles, and was credited with a pass defended in the game.

He gave it his all in this game, that’s for sure.

The Aftermath

For his efforts, Kelly did play an extra 16 snaps on defense (42% of the team’s total defensive plays) the following week in Los Angeles against the Chargers.

After that, however, he was shifted solely to a special teams role with the Steelers, playing around 50% of the special teams snaps with the team the remainder of the season.

His final game as a Steeler came on December 15, 2019, in a loss against the Buffalo Bills. Five days later, he was arrested on the South Side after being escorted out of a bar. He was charged with making threats and resisting arrest after a scuffle started at the bar.

He was first taken to a nearby hospital to treat a lip injury suffered during the arrest, then was transferred to the county jail.

The Steelers waived him just hours after the incident, and promoted 2018 fifth round pick Marcus Allen to the active roster in his place.

A year later, in December of 2020, the charges against Kelly were dropped, and the NFL closed their review of him. Two months later, he signed in the Canadian Football League (where Duck Hodges also was in 2021), joining the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

(Featured image of Kameron Kelly from a different game from CBS Sports)