Kelly Gets the Wrong Records : Buffalo: The Bills’ quarterback takes some backward steps on the road to respectability.

Buffalo quarterback Jim Kelly set Super Bowl records that didn’t matter, picked the wrong year to score 24 points, took a step backward on the road to immortality and made it safe for John Elway to come outside.

After the Bills’ 37-24 loss to the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XXVI, Kelly has some explaining to do back home in Western Pennsylvania, the cradle of Super Bowl champion quarterbacks.

Joe Montana, who hails from Monongahela, has won four Super Bowls without a loss. Joe Namath, from Beaver Falls, put the American Football League on the map with a victory in Super Bowl III. Pittsburgh’s John Unitas stuck around long enough to accept a ring for Super Bowl V.

Jim Kelly badly wants in the fraternity. He grew up in East Brady, Pa., watching Terry Bradshaw grow up with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Kelly wears uniform No. 12 in Bradshaw’s honor.

Bradshaw pulled Kelly aside last week and told him that statistics were for accountants, that the ring was the thing. Some people thought Bradshaw was dumb, until he won four Super Bowls.

So what does Kelly do? He sets a Super Bowl record for most passes, 58, in a losing cause. He throws four interceptions, tying Craig Morton for that dishonor. He completes 28 passes, throws for 275 yards, all for the benefit of statisticians.

Kelly joined the wrong list of Super Bowl quarterbacks. He joined the one that has Elway and Fran Tarkenton at 0-3 and Craig Morton and now Kelly at 0-2.

“I would like to win one,” Kelly said after Sunday’s loss. “Bradshaw had been my idol, (so was) Joe Namath. I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.”

Being in the right place at the right time is what history is all about.

Twenty-four points would have been plenty enough to beat the New York Giants in Super Bowl XXV, but it didn’t come close against Washington.

Like a joke cigar, the game exploded in Kelly’s face starting with the first snaps from scrimmage, when his star tailback, Thurman Thomas, was left on the sideline looking for his helmet, like some 10-year-old playing in a Pop Warner league.

“I said, ‘What the hell is going on?’ ” Kelly recalled. “I said, ‘Did he pull something?’ ”

Then came the Kelly interceptions, four in all. The first one didn’t hurt much because the Redskins didn’t score as a result of it.

But during the second quarter, a Kelly pass intended for James Lofton was intercepted by cornerback Darrell Green. The Redskins drove 55 yards from their 45 to a touchdown that put Washington ahead, 17-0.

Green said the Redskins hit Kelly with everything they had.

And the Bills took it.

The killer for Kelly, though, was his third interception on the first play from scrimmage during the second half, when linebacker Andre Collins busted up the middle on a blitz and crushed Kelly as he released the ball.

Linebacker Kurt Gouveia intercepted the pass and returned it 23 yards to the Buffalo two. The Bills trailed by 24-0 seconds later when Gerald Riggs scored on a short run.

“It was an all-out blitz,” Kelly said. “I was trying to get the ball off quickly. I don’t remember the rest of it.”

Later, cornerback Martin Mayhew charged Kelly as the quarterback broke free from the pocket and started a baseball slide.

On contact with Mayhew, Kelly’s head whipped back against the artificial turf, knocking him unconscious. Later, Kelly was a little fuzzy on the details. Teammates told him he complained to the officials on his way off the field.

“I don’t remember that,” Kelly said.

Kelly returned to the game and threw two touchdown passes to make the game appear closer than it was.

“On the goal line, I called a play and I didn’t know what it was,” Kelly said. “That’s what they said. . . . I can remember some of the game, not all of it. The parts I remember, I didn’t like.”

Kelly doesn’t want to know the details. He said this is a game film he will not watch again.

“Maybe I shouldn’t remember most of it,” he said. “Maybe it’s better off that way.”

The record will show that Kelly was ambushed from the start. The Redskins blitzed early and often, throwing the Bills’ delicate no-huddle passing game off its rhythm.

The Redskins sacked Kelly five times. They harassed him 20 times. When Washington moved out to a 24-0 lead, Washington called off the blitzes and dogs, and Kelly was able to finish with some inflated passing numbers.

“They changed their defensive coverage in the second half,” Buffalo Coach Marv Levy said. “They blitzed less.”

Teammates said there was nothing much they could do.

“Jim is a great quarterback if you give him time,” Bill tight end Keith McKeller said. “He did not have time. He stayed in the pocket and took some shots.”

While Kelly was receiving smelling salts afterward, Mark Rypien made off with the MVP Trophy that Kelly had sought.

Kelly described his body as hurting “from the neck down.”

It wasn’t great from the neck up, either.

He might wake up today and remember Bradshaw whispering to him about the ring, the ring.

“We’re runners-up again,” Kelly said. “But there’s a lot of pride on this team. There’s always next year. You hate to say that, but what else can you do?”

Wait again for another chance, if it comes. Last year the opportunity was swept away in the last second, as Scott Norwood’s field goal sailed right of the upright in a 20-19 loss.

This year it wasn’t even a contest.

Kelly isn’t getting any younger.

How much time does a man have left?

“I’m 32,” Kelly said. “I’m running out.”