The Chip Kelly is a bad guy story has nestled in over the last few days as players and others line up to paint him as a surly malcontent incapable of banal human interaction. But this statement he put out…

“I’m grateful to Jeffrey Lurie for allowing me to coach his Philadelphia Eagles for the past three seasons. I deeply regret that we did not bring this great city and its fans the championship they deserve. I was blessed to work with a gifted and hard-working coaching staff every day, and they will succeed wherever they go.

Finally, my players mean the world to me. I will miss them very much and I will be rooting for them to achieve their dreams. Life is all about responding to challenges and seizing opportunities.”

… and Angelo Cataldi’s recapping of a private call he had with Chip on Wednesday, at the request of Chip, paint a different picture.

Here’s how Cataldi described the call:

“I gotta say it was the most gracious conversation I could ever remember having with anyone I ever talked about or dealt with in sports in my life,” Cataldi said on Thursday’s 94WIP Morning Show. “He could not had have been nicer. He was very complimentary on the conversations we had over the years. He was very philosophical about what had happened to him, very confident of his future. And I couldn’t believe it because I had just done a show saying that he doesn’t know how to deal with people and he had dealt with me in a way that no one had ever done. Rhea [Hughes], all the years.”

“I was flummoxed,” Cataldi said describing how he felt upon realizing Kelly wanted to talk to him privately. “Chip Kelly wants to talk to me, not on the show. Chip Kelly and I had talked every Monday at 8:00 a.m. after games and maybe two or three other times when I delivered pies. We had no conversation, we had no relationships beyond the professional world.

“Right away my thought was, I have to read a sponsorship because every time I’ve talked to him it’s been sponsored,” Cataldi joked.

…

Did the conversation make Cataldi feel any sense of guilt for criticizing Kelly?

“No I don’t, I really don’t [feel guilty],” Cataldi said. “I’ve always been able to separate like the graciousness of an individual from how to asses their performance. But I gotta say it was shocking to me and very appreciated. It was really a cool thing to hear, one time I can say when I leave this job that a coach called me after getting fired and actually thanked me for being fair to him and reasonable.

“[Kelly] said, ‘I found you to be very professional.’”

Well would you look at that. I’ve never met Chip, nor have I spoken to him, but all signs are that Chip, the person, the guy who stayed grounded to his friends in New Hampshire, who seems mostly disinterested in wealth, who is sort of a cultural savant, who thanks Patriots fans for prank calling him, who RSVPs to stranger wedding invites, seemingly crafts statements like the one he released or calls radio hosts like Cataldi not because some PR person told him to, but because he wants to. Like, I’m fully convinced he wrote that statement himself. For one, it wasn’t particularly well-written, and was rather informal. PR pros craft statements that are much more eloquent – I want to express my gratitude to the Philadelphia Eagles organization and owner Jeffrey Lurie, etc. – and don’t use somewhat sappy phrases like “achieve their dreams.”

And I just assumed the headline on the call to Cataldi was a Joe Conklin bit. Nope. Chip called Angelo so they could regale about their public sparring matches much the same way Michael Sheen’s David Frost and Frank Langella’s Richard Nixon made peace following their series of contentious interview dramatizations over a pair of Italian leather shoes. I suppose if Angelo presented Chip with a gift it would’ve been a pie, but the kinship remains the same. This whole thing makes me sad. I’m sad that Chip’s gone. There, I said it: I’m sad that Chip Kelly is no longer the Eagles’ head coach.

Audio of Angelo describing the call here.