As I made my way through the Election Day crowd at the Butte Civic Center, trying to find the right table to get my ballot, I saw Ed Kelly making a beeline toward me.

“I owe you an apology,” Ed said.

“You owe me an apology?” I asked. “For what?”

As it turns out, he did not really owe me an apology at all. Instead, he owed that apology to himself because he broke what has become the cardinal rule in the Mining City.

He doubted Tommy Mellott.

No, Ed did not doubt “Touchdown Tommy” and his ability to lead the Montana State Bobcats to wins. Ed, a Butte Sports Hall of Famer who briefly played football for the Cats, is as big of a Tommy Mellott fan you will find.

When he witnessed me wearing a Montana Grizzly hat and hoodie as I interviewed Tommy for a podcast two years ago, Ed read me the riot act — even though he understood that I was only doing it to be funny.

No, Ed didn’t doubt Tommy’s ability. Instead, Ed doubted my assertion that Tommy will be drafted — and drafted fairly high — in the 2025 NFL Draft.

As we stood on the concourse at Alumni Coliseum during the Montana Tech-Rocky Mountain College football game on Oct. 26, Ed and I started talking about Tommy. Most conversations in Montana during football season usually turn to Tommy these days.

He has, after all, reached one-name status in Montana. You can mention his first name in Kalispell, Helena or Ekalaka, and everyone knows which Tommy you mean.

I told Ed that Tommy can play in the National Football League. I think he can play quarterback, too, I said. If not, though, he has a ton of options at the next level. He can play receiver. He can play safety. He can play running back.

“He can be as good as Christian McCaffrey,” I said. “Tommy runs the ball like Gale Sayers. He doesn’t just run like Justin Fields. He can run up the middle for tough yards, and he has incredible breakaway speed.”

“He isn’t that fast,” Ed said, meaning top-end NFL speed.

“I bet he runs at least a 4.4 40,” I said, referring to running a 40-yard dash in 4.4 seconds.

(Actually, I saw a report that says Tommy’s 40 time is actually 4.3, a speed that is not topped by very many people in the world. A 4.2 time in the 40 is very rare.)

“Nooo,” Ed said, looking at me like I lost my remaining marbles. “There’s no way he is that fast.”

I didn’t offer a bet, but I’m pretty sure by that look on his face that Ed would have taken me up on it.

As it turns out, it only took one play on the very next Saturday for Ed to see how wrong he was.

The Bobcats played on that awful red turf at Eastern Washington the Saturday before Election Day. With the score tied at 28 late in the third quarter, Tommy broke free for a 76-yard touchdown run.

It was one of those runs that you could see that nobody was going to catch Tommy once he was 10 years past the line of scrimmage. It was like he was shot out of a cannon.

It was like a man playing against boys. Or Superman playing against regular men. Eastern Washington defenders had to be looking for Tommy’s cape the next time the Bobcat offense took the field.

The run, which led to a 42-28 Bobcat win over the Eagles, is one that will be watched over and over by every scout in the NFL. Even teams set at quarterback will think that they have to add that kind of talent to their roster.

Sure, Tommy has a lot of those oh-my-God-did-you-see-that runs. He did that in Saturday’s 31-17 semifinal win over South Dakota in Bozeman.

The play started when Tommy dropped a bad shotgun snap. But just as Bobcat fans were collectively saying “Oh no,” Tommy quickly picked the ball up and raced up the middle. In the blink of an eye, he scored on a 41-yard touchdown run.

His speed looked more like 3.3 than 4.3 on that score. The Coyote had a better chance to catch the Roadrunner than the Coyotes had of catching that Bobcat.

Seconds later, former Wayne State football coach Dan McLaughlin, a Sheridan, Montana native, texted me to say, “How about that??? Incredible.”

“Incredible” is a word we could use to describe just about all of his 42 rushing touchdowns for the Bobcats. Just when you think Tommy cannot possibly outdo himself, he outdoes himself.

You might use some awe-inspired adjectives to describe his 53 passing touchdowns, too, and 29 of those have come this season.  If he is not the best football player in the history of the Montana State Bobcats, he is certainly the most exciting.

While Tommy was one of the best athletes on the field from Day 1, he has really turned into a great quarterback, too. He goes through his progressions, and he drops more dimes than a payphone.

He can play quarterback on Sundays.

That is because he is at least a tie for the smartest player to ever put on a football uniform. He graduated from the difficult academic institution earlier this month with a 4.0 GPA in financial engineering.

Of course, in Butte we have known that Tommy was an amazing person for years. We saw the essay he wrote about veterans when he was a student at East Middle School.

We saw how he treated Bulldog fans, young and old, when he was starring in three sports at Butte High School. He was just the second boy to earn 12 varsity letters at Butte High, and he was a valedictorian of the Class of 2020.

If you were to write a movie and include a character like Tommy Mellott, nobody would believe it because he appears way too good to be true.

If Tommy told me he was going to be an astronaut, I would believe him. If he said he was going to be president of the United States, I would believe him.

If he told me he could fly, I would believe him.

Those of us who paid attention to his high school and middle school career have long known about his greatness. Seeing others around the state discover it over the last four years that he has played for the Bobcats has been incredibly fun.

My brother and dad are both Grizzly fans who never cheer for the Bobcats. Until Tommy, that is.

Now they are bleeding blue and gold as Tommy and the Bobcats head to Frisco, Texas for the second time in four years to play in the FCS National Championship Game.

The Bobcats head down to Texas on an unprecedented roll, too. MSU is 15-0, and the Bobcats have scored at least 30 points in every game.

MSU has a great offensive line, an incredible running game and a ton of weapons in the passing game. But Tommy is driving the bus.

He’s an All-American. He is the Big Sky Conference Offensive MVP. He is a finalist for the Walter Payton Award. Bruce Sayler voted him No. 1 for the Heisman Trophy because he can see that Tommy is the real deal.

No matter how the championship game goes on Jan. 6 against North Dakota State, Tommy has proven over and over that he is the real deal.

Everyone in Butte knows it. People around the Treasure State see it. Fans around the FCS know it. Soon, I bet, fans around the NFL are going to see it, too.

Don’t take my word for it, however. Just ask Ed Kelly.

He will tell you that you would have to be a fool to ever bet against Tommy Mellott.

 — Bill Foley, who is not the smartest person to ever put on a football uniform, can be reached at foles74@gmail.com. Follow him at twitter.com/Foles74 or Bluesky at @foles74.bsky.social. Listen to him on the ButteCast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.