Ad Disclosure
Report: Chip Kelly Is In “DANGER OF LOSING THE LOCKER ROOM”
By Jim Adair
Published:
There are always many reports throughout someone’s coaching career, but none seem to signal a bigger problem than the dreaded “he’s losing the locker room” report. In baseball, specifically, that’s often the last sign that a dude is gonna get canned [editor’s note: Jayson Werth explains in great detail to his fired manager]. In football, you actually don’t seem to hear it too often, especially not this early in the season, but it’s coming in hot about Chip Kelly.
ESPN’s Ashley Fox said on SportsCenter (transcript via BGN):
“I’m hearing some rumblings that Kelly could be in danger of losing the locker room. After all three of their losses, he has really put the blame for the losses on the players. After they lost to Washington on Sunday, he said ‘It’s not my scheme that’s failing, it’s the execution of the scheme.’ … which means it’s the player’s fault, and not [Kelly’s] fault …
Andy Reid used to famously say: ‘I need to put my players in the position to make the plays.’ And that got to be very boring in Philadelphia, but that was a way to protect the players and Chip Kelly has taken the alternate stance, which doesn’t go over very well.”
While what Fox says about Kelly is true – his “execution” talk does shift the blame off of himself and onto the players [editor’s note: his biggest misstep so far, me thinks] – BGN is quick to point out that “it’s not my scheme that’s failing, it’s the execution of the scheme” is far from an exact quote, and at best it’s just implied. Could Chip be losing the locker room? Sure. DeMarco Murray, Nelson Agholor, and others have spoken out to the media questioning the gameplan, and that’s not something that typically happens on a team that is strong and cohesive behind closed doors. But just taking the implications of some things Chip said (and it’s not like his arrogance is a new development), isn’t the strongest evidence. Add in the fact that most of the guys who are here are “Chip’s guys,” and I think he’s got a little more rope than some other guys around the league. Has Jim Caldwell tied his knot yet?
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.