Robert James Kelly III (born June 21, 1974) is an American former professional football player who was a safety for four seasons with the New Orleans Saints in the National Football League (NFL) and one on the injured reserve list for the New England Patriots. He played college football for the Ohio State Buckeyes.

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Kelly was selected in the second round of the 1997 NFL Draft.^[1] Kelly retired from football in 2002 and age 28, after he sustained an injury during training camp to a nerve between his neck and shoulder.^[2]

On February 2, 2018, Kelly's ex-wife, Emily, co-wrote an article for The New York Times chronicling her husband's life after football. She wrote that her husband had never used steroids or had a diagnosed brain injury, but starting in 2009, he began suffering mood swings and depression and later saw his weight plummet to 157 pounds by 2016. She wrote that in 2013, the NFL player retirement plan and supplemental disability plan awarded him total and permanent disability benefits, which will provide monthly payments for the rest of his life. She wrote that the clinician who examined Kelly concluded that "repeated concussion" likely had caused Kelly's "neuropsychological dysfunction."^[2]

Lives in Ohio.