pic via (@coach_frost)

pic via (@coach_frost)

It’s no surprise that Philly.com’s first truly web-first article (that I can think of) is written by a Harvard grad who works for a bioscience association.

What’s surprising is that it’s about Chip Kelly.

Mark Saltveit, who wrote online about the Oregon Ducks and the book The Tao of Chip Kelly (and, let’s face it, created a one-man cottage industry around Chip), wrote this utterly fascinating piece about Kelly for Philly.com today. It’s fully formatted for the web and looks great. It reads well, too. Saltveit had no access to Kelly (or, really, anyone close to him), but over the years he’s done a ton of research on Kelly, his life, and coaching philosophy, and it shows.

My favorite excerpt:

Kelly also visited Washington State coach Mike Leach – known for helping develop the “Air Raid” spread offense – for a couple of days down in Key West. On the Andy Staples podcast, Leach said that Kelly tracked him down at the famous bar Captain Tony’s, celebrated by Jimmy Buffett in the song “Last Mango in Paris,” and they ran into NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. Of course they did. But even with the renowned racer in the mix, the focus stayed on football.

As a Jimmy Buffett and Eagles fan, that paragraph was sort of like porn for me. I could take or leave the Dale Earnhardt Jr. part.

Saltveit (SALT! SALT! SALT!) is fairly biased towards Kelly, but you come away from it feeling justified in your belief that he’s a genuinely good – if not quirky – dude who loves football and is a meticulous planner, such as when:

Chip and his friends ran with the bulls? They walked the course the night before, and – I kid you not – studied film of previous runnings to prepare.

Figures.

It will take you 20-30-minutes to read this thing, so plan accordingly. I suggest sitting back with a nice cold one tonight and reading on your couch or preferred seating object.

Kudos to Philly.com for putting something together that was actually formatted for the modern web.

Go read.