Brian Kelley
LB, NYG


Brian Kelley has a lot of "friends." 

Back in July of 2009, Brian Kelley called a former teammate to share some good news.  "Hey Lawrence - I was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame," Kelley told Lawrence Taylor.  "Great," LT said.  "Call me when you get induced into Canton." 

That same day, Brian Kelly was hired as the head coach of Notre Dame.  Before the induction ceremony, Kelley was on a golf course in South Bend, Indiana with fellow inductees.  His phone started to blow up with calls, emails, and texts of congratulations.  It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy, these messages said.

To one such message, Kelley replied, "Well, it did."  It was Brian Kelly who had been hired as the head coach, not Brian Kelley.

You'd like to think your friends know how to spell your name. 

One of Kelley's "friends" almost certainly knew how to spell his name.  Back in 1992, Kelley owned a bikini bar called Satin Dolls in Lodi, New Jersey.  The bar would later become famous as the filming site for the Bada Bing! club in the HBO series The Sopranos, but back then it was drawing attention for another reason. 

According to a New York Times article from February of that year, Kelley turned state's evidence against Vincent Ravo, a man he described as a "consultant," but who was later indicted as a member of the Genovese crime family.  The consulting fee?  $500 a month left in an envelope under the bar for Ravo to pick up. 

During his playing career, Kelley was famous for being a member of the "Crunch Bunch" - the New York Giants' linebacking corps that included Kelley, Brad Van Pelt, Harry Carson, and Lawrence Taylor.  In 1992. Kelley seems to have gotten himself involved in a bunch that could deliver a different sort of crunch.

Kelley asserted to New Jersey state investigators that he knew nothing of Ravo's criminal connections.  When asked to explain the fact that no payments to Ravo ever appeared on the Satin Dolls' books, Kelley replied, "I don't handle the books." 

Whether or not Kelley really handled the books for Satin Dolls, he certainly handled the Dallas Cowboys in Week 13.  In the upset of the week, Kelley turned the Cowboys into satin dolls, racking up 13 tackles as the Giants snapped their cold streak and whacked the 'Boys' division-title hopes.  As Kelley ran off the field, he could be heard exclaiming, "Bada bing, baby!  Bada bing!"