‘Scariest time of my life’: Why Bengals-Colts game just means more to the Kelly family

Editor’s note: Emma Kelly, the wife of Indianapolis Colts center Ryan, joined the Bengals Beat Podcast this week ahead of Sunday’s game to discuss the emotions of returning to Cincinnati, her and her husband’s journey through still birth, IVF (In vitro fertilization) and the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) process. For more of the conversation, this podcast episode is available wherever you get your podcasts.

This is a big weekend in the Kelly household.

Indianapolis Colts center Ryan Kelly and his wife, Emma, are returning to Cincinnati with grateful hearts and with a newfound perspective on life.

Emma and Ryan attended high school at Lakota West and grew up five minutes from one another. They spend a lot of time in Cincinnati in during the NFL offseason as both of their families still live in West Chester Township.

But this weekend is different because of who is joining them in Cincinnati.

For the first time since they were born, Ford and Duke Kelly, will be visiting the hometown of their parents as Ryan and the Indianapolis Colts are set to take on the Bengals on Sunday at Paycor Stadium. Both of their families will be in attendance as will their two miracle sons, with their unborn daughter, Mary Kate watching from above.

Whenever the Colts play the Bengals it’s always special for Ryan – who grew up a Bengals fan – but this one is different.

“He’s playing for a lot this week,” Emma said.

The story of Mary Kate Kelly

Emma and Ryan first found out they were pregnant with their first child in the summer of 2021. At the time, HBO was filming its wildly popular “Hard Knocks” show that follows an NFL team around during training camp. When HBO found out the Kellys were pregnant, they wanted to share their story with the world.

With the cameras rolling, the Kellys and Mark and Alexis Glowinski, another couple on the offensive line for the Colts held a gender reveal inside Lucas Oil Stadium. Emma and Ryan stood on the field looking up at the video board awaiting the news. Emma, with her eyes closed, opened them to find out they were having a girl, what they always dreamed of.

“Baby Kelly is a Girl!”

Emma and Ryan were over the moon.

A few months later after getting through the most challenging part of a pregnancy for most women, Emma was feeling good. Until one day, Emma noticed a little bleeding. She wasn’t overly worried about the small amount of blood. What she became worried about was that she couldn’t feel Mary Kate moving.

Emma went to the hospital where she found out – at just shy of 20 weeks – that Mary Kate’s heart wasn’t beating. She would have to undergo a still birth where she was in labor for 36 hours.

“It’s so isolating… it was the scariest time in my entire life,” Emma told The Enquirer.

This was all going on during the NFL season. Indianapolis was about to host the New England Patriots in a few days and the Colts announced Ryan would be out for the game due to personal reasons.

Emma received a lot of discomforting messages about Ryan’s absence so to ensure the couple had the space they needed and time to grieve, Emma shared an update on what happened.

The Colts went on to win the game and in the locker room as the team celebrated, the owner of the team, Jim Irsay, did something that Emma and Ryan will never forget.

A tradition in the NFL following wins is to give out game balls to celebrate a player, coach or staff member for their role in the win. Irsay dedicated a game ball to Ryan and Emma Kelly.

The video was captured by the Colts and put on social media and went viral. Because of what “Hard Knocks” showed and Emma’s decision to go public with the information of what happened, the Kellys story was well known in the NFL circles.

Emma and Ryan received an outpouring of support and have chosen to be advocates for talking about still births and miscarriages.

“By sharing our story, we learned very quickly that we weren’t alone at all. I also realized that people needed this community. While there was still a community, there was still a lot of missing dots. People want to talk about this, but they just didn’t know how. The world still isn’t talking about it the way they should. It’s horrible. While it’s very painful and uncomfortable, we need to talk about it. We need to support those going through it.

Meet Ford and Duke Kelly

Emma and Ryan Kelly were finally ready to try again. The couple was unable to conceive naturally for close to a year. Emma didn’t understand why she couldn’t get pregnant again.

Her doctor told her she should try IVF. Emma was reluctant at first and felt like a failure in a way for not being able to conceive naturally. She finally got over that hurdle and the couple “went for two” as she likes to say because that’s one of her favorite football terms.

On Jan. 19, Emma snuck into the bathroom to take a pregnancy test, the day before she was supposed to see her doctor for her results from the first round of IVF. She wasn’t supposed to do this but couldn’t wait any longer.

And the test showed what she calls the faintest second line. She was pregnant with twins. She ran out of the bathroom crying to show Ryan the test and the couple held on to one another for a long time.“That was the beginning of the best and hardest journey for us,” Emma said.

She went on to have a rough first trimester where she was on bed rest. She had something called a subchorionic hematoma which involved a lot of “scary bleeding.”

Emma and Ryan were able to get through the first trimester, but little did they know, that wasn’t going to be the most challenging part of their journey.

The couple went to Nashville, Tenn. for a wedding in June. This was going to be the final trip the couple made before the babies came.

On June 23, just a few hours before the wedding, Emma started having contractions and was having several symptoms of pre-term labor. How could this be?

She was able to get to 27 weeks – the start of her third trimester – when she was able to deliver her twins, Ford and Duke, on June 27. All the while the head of fetal medicine told her, if your boys make it, be prepared to be here for six months with them in the NICU.

“I’m back to that hospital bed in Indianapolis all over again,” Emma said. “What do you mean, six months? That’s not possible, my husband’s season starts in one. We have to be home.”

Ford and Duke spent 85 days in the NICU with Emma spending 12 hours a day at the hospital. After 90 days, the Kellys were finally able to go home to Indianapolis.

On Sept. 25, the Kellys returned to their home. Irsay and the Colts offered to fly the family home from Nashville as soon as they learned what happened.

Emma is happy to share that Ford and Duke are fully healthy and the family is doing great.

‘I’m so proud of Ryan and I for getting through that,” Emma reflected. “I can’t believe I’m sitting here telling you that I have twin baby boys that are here right now getting ready to watch their dad on Sunday at our hometown stadium after everything we just went through.”