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Chip Kelly on Philosophy, Mariota, and World History
By Jim Adair
Published:
Chip Kelly spoke — quite saucily — to the media for over an hour this morning without saying hardly anything. But he did use the word “philosophically” about 1,000 times in trolling the gathered media talking about this coming draft:
“Philosophically, I want to keep all of our draft picks. I think you build your team through the draft. So if you gut yourself for one year and for one guy, philosophically, I don’t think that’s the right thing to do.”
And yet, Sal Pal, still in the process of slinging shit around the room like a drunken monkey who just ate some bad creme brulee, pressed on about Mariota. Here’s how the exchange went, according to Eliot Shorr-Parks:
Still, Kelly admitted that there were exceptions to every rule, which led to this back-and-forth with a reporter when he was asked if there was a price the head coach would pay for Mariota.
“What’s it cost?,” Kelly said. “Give me a number?”
“Two first-round picks,” the reporter replied.
“Where am I going?,” Kelly said, “From where to where?”
“To No. 6,” said the reporter.
“Never gets you there,” Kelly said. “It took two first round picks to go from No. 6 to No. 2 two years ago.”
As for if there was any price he would commit right now to paying for Mariota, Kelly offered up an unlikely scenario.
“If he goes to 12,” Kelly said, “and it is going to cost us a conditional seventh-round pick?”
Chip admitted, however, that even though he is philosophically against trading draft picks, there are always exceptions to philosophical thought, like that time in 1492 when… ah… just some guy sailed the ocean blue:
“People used to think the world was flat until that guy took a boat and didn’t fall off the earth.”
Close enough.
When he's not writing about sports here or ranting about them on Twitter, Jim is probably watching X-Files on Netflix or drinking a beer somewhere. Jim has nothing against hockey, it's just not his style. He once met Duce Staley at a Sixers game.