Chip Kelly Firing Updates

Chip Kelly has been fired, so has Ed Marynowitz– his personal personnel guy. All updates coming in this post.

UPDATE 1: I had heard for some time from an anonymous insider that Chip Kelly and Jeffrey Lurie basically had a mutual agreement to part ways at the end of the season. We brushed it aside, but judging by how quickly and unexpectedly this came about, perhaps there was something to that. The refrain you’re hearing – mostly conjecture – is more about Chip’s unhappiness than Lurie’s. That tells you this may have been more than a blindside firing.

UPDATE 2:

UPDATE 3: Eliot Shorr-Parks notes that players didn’t know it was coming (no surprise). I wonder who was thrilled and who wasn’t.

UPDATE 4: Recently cut Emmanuel Acho (bless you) coming over the top with a haymaker:

UPDATE 5: I’m genuinely surprised, and disappointed. Chip’s offseason wasn’t good, and stripping his GM powers was somewhat expected. But this is a clear sign that he completely lost his team. We thought that may have been the case– this proves it. Still, I’m convinced Chip is a brilliant football mind. Maybe he’s better suited for college. I don’ know. But I fear this turns into Belichick-in-Cleveland… with Chip going to the Titans and making Super Bowl babies with Mariota.

UPDATE 6: Chip Kelly is the number one trend worldwide right now:

UPDATE 7: Well here’s a twist– moving his desk back up from Storage B. Jeff McLane says it is his understanding that Howie Roseman will return to leading personnel.

UPDATE 8: Chip Kelly had a reported five-year, $32.5 million deal. Based on that, he would be owed $13 million over the next two seasons. But the wording that he was “released” makes you wonder if this was indeed the mutual deal since Chip will undoubtedly quickly get a job elsewhere. “Released” from contract?

UPDATE 9: Sal Pal on coaching targets on ESPN: “That would be speculation at this point… let’s play some speculation.” He also assumed that Howie Roseman’s role won’t change. That seems contradictory to McLane’s report.

UPDATE 10: Also from Sal Pal, who has never been wrong before:

UPDATE 11: Sal Pal is speculating like a wild man on national TV right now. Talking about empty seats, people in the aisles, upset owners.

UPDATE 12: Mr. Barchard with more sourcing powers than Sal:

UPDATE 13: With that firing – having a new coach – the Eagles can no longer by forced to be on Hard Knocks next year.

UPDATE 14: Julian Vandervelde, cut like 600 times by the Eagles, with a sense of humor:

UPDATE 15: Eliot Shorr-Parks with more from surprised players:

Players found out about the news from Twitter, reporters and other teammates.

The players that were reached by NJ Advance Media spoke on condition of anonymity until all of the details of the move had been released.

“Pissed,” one player said of the news.

Did he have any idea it was coming?

“None whatsoever” another player said when reached.

The decision to release Kelly comes with one game to go in Kelly’s third season. The Eagles were a disappointing 6-9 with one game to go, and Kelly was 26-21 overall in just under three seasons as the head coach.

“It’s a business,” one player said of the news.

Interesting… but when do players find out first? This seems typical.

UPDATE 16: Jeffrey Lurie Wikipedia page has gone off the rails:

H/T to (@amberlauren1084)

Gangster maybe. But I think this leans more toward mutual than firing. Just a hunch.

UPDATE 17: It took CSN one hour and 9 minutes to call Ed Rendell for emergency commentary. That is all.

UPDATE 18: Howard Eskin reports that Lurie had been soliciting players’ opinions. Wonder if he asked DeMarco Murray.

UPDATE 19:

26-21.

UPDATE 20: Just realized my Nest cam was running when I found out the news.

UPDATE 21: Adam Schefter says “both sides couldn’t wait” on ESPN. #mutual “I had somebody tell me at Thanksgiving that Chip Kelly was unhappy enough with his situation [and was so over it] and wouldn’t be surprised if he went back to New Hampshire to coach high school football because he loves coaching so much.” #fortheloveofthegame

UPDATE 22: Les Bowen went to Chip Kelly’s house(!):

I feel like Les had the route mapped out and ran dry runs throughout the holidays.

It would appear that Les Bowen went directly from a viewing to Chip Kelly’s front door. Some symbolism here.

UPDATE 23: CSN has finally wrangled Ray Diddy. Ed Rendell can go back to moisturizing his salami nipples. #sawhimonthebeachonce

UPDATE 24: Chip Kelly bringing out the punt team down 400 in the fourth quarter the other night may have been the white flag.

UPDATE 25: I’m officially endorsing a Paterno-like vigil on Chip Kelly’s lawn tonight. Just for fun.

UPDATE 26: Gah:

UPDATE 27: Cover of Daily News:

UPDATE 28: Chip called it:

UPDATE 29: Jay Glazer spoke to Kelly:

Just talked to Chip Kelly, disappointed how it ended but knows it’s a results-oriented biz. Insists he wants to remain in the NFL, not college. Was pulled into mtg w owner, said he didn’t fight the decision.

I’m sure he didn’t.

UPDATE 30: Jeff McLane sheds more light:

Most #Eagles players found out about Chip Kelly’s firing from various outlets. There is a full team meeting scheduled for tomorrow. Hearing that Jeffrey Lurie had a meeting with Chip Kelly today that didn’t go well. A decision was then made to fire him in the afternoon. Jeffrey Lurie apparently spoke to a few players before making the decision, although several I’ve contacted so far said they weren’t one.

This would jive with Sal Pal’s report that Chip balked when Lurie brought up stripping his GM powers.

UPDATE 31: Les Bowen is hearing this wasn’t a case of Chip wanting to leave. Reports now on both sides of that fence.

UPDATE 32: This guy – a college paper editor at Seton Hall – claims to be outside Chip’s house, too:

Someone get Johnny Airport to the… well, airport.

UPDATE 33: Glazer sheds more light and says Chip told him he just wants to coach and does not want to be a personnel guy. This seems at odds with report that he balked when Lurie broached that subject with him in a meeting today.

UPDATE 34:

If true, Lurie has no one to blame but himself for his decision this summer. He knew what he was getting.

UPDATE 35: Live look at Chip Kelly’s house from (@ItsWhatMathers):

UPDATE 36: Nest cam got audio. When you find out the Chip Kelly news while eating a delicious pulled pork sandwich after your kid finally falls asleep [turn up the volume]:

The Blog Life.

UPDATE 37: Both Rob Maaddii and Ian Rappppppppppppppopopopopoport report that Lurie didn’t ask Chip to give up personnel control and just straight-up fired him after meeting went awry. This is contrary to, you guessed, Sal Pal’s report. Never fails.

UPDATE 38: Jason La Canfora writes about the meeting, and indeed indicates that Chip didn’t exactly fight for his job:

Lurie didn’t go into his meeting with Kelly with the intention of firing him, I’m told. More, it was to take his temperature and continue to feel him out and gather information that would lead to his ultimate decision on what to do with his organization in 2016. Obviously, things went sideways and what Kelly had to say didn’t mesh with the owner’s vision, and Lurie became convinced that for as radical as a Week 17 firing might be perceived, it was time to do it. The fact that Kelly didn’t seem inclined to scratch and claw to remain in his perch, sources said, did him no favors as well.

UPDATE 39: Another common theme– Chip was a shy asshole around NovaCare and he wasn’t good at dealing with people:

UPDATE 40: This Art Modell bit from 1996 about Bill Belichick scares the shit out of me. It sounds awfully familiar:

WHAT COLOR IS THE SKY IN YOUR WORLD?

Baltimore owner Art Modell said he might still be in Cleveland had he not hired Bill Belichick as coach in 1991.

“I was sold a bill of goods on Belichick,” Modell said. “To Bill, everything was like the Normandy invasion. I couldn’t talk to him during practice because he was coaching.

“I really believe that much of the disdain and abuse I received was because of the feelings the media and the public had for Bill. Every day I thought it would change, that he would be more pleasant to people. He never did and it hurt all of us terribly.”

It’s fun to pretend, isn’t it Art?

Replace “Bill” with “Chip” and “Belichick” with “Kelly”… and then proceed to scare-vomit into your own shirt. Credit Bill Barnwell (@billbarnwell) on that find.

UPDATE 41: Les Bowen writes about his Kubrick-ish encounter on Chip Kelly’s threshold:

THE FAMILIAR figure, phone pressed to his ear, briefly appeared a room away, through the double-glazed glass of the front door. He quickly ducked out of sight when the reporter obeyed the neatly lettered note covering the nonworking doorbell on the spacious front porch of Chip Kelly’s Haddonfield home, and knocked.

A yellow labish-looking dog trotted through the tiled hallway up to the door and barked. A second knock brought Jill Cohen, Kelly’s companion since their days working at the University of Oregon. She was smiling and gracious as she opened the door and said the coach whose firing the Eagles had announced by email about 45 minutes earlier didn’t want to say anything Tuesday night.

A few moments of small talk ensued – the dog’s name turned out to be Henry – but Kelly didn’t reconsider, and the reporter thanked Cohen and walked back to his car.

I genuinely wonder if Bowen was wearing the mask Tom Cruise wore in Eyes Wide Shut.

UPDATE 42: Perhaps a fitting update number for the race issue:

UPDATE 43: Stephen A. Smith calls Chip Kelly a flat-out liar:

UPDATE 44: Derrick Gunn, host of Gunn On One, texted with players:

In fact, several players CSN’s Derrick Gunn communicated with Tuesday night said, “It’s about time.”

“I’ve been texting back and forth with players and other people,” Gunn said Tuesday night on Comcast SportsNet. “Some players said, ‘I’m shocked, I didn’t see this coming.’ Several players have said — current players — have said, ‘It’s about time.’

“That’s all you need to know — ‘It’s about time.’ (He) lost them.”

UPDATE 45: No surprise here, but Stephen A. Smith is beating the Riley Cooper thing to death on ESPN.

UPDATE 46: Adam Schefter implies that the Eagles are indeed still on the hook to pay Chip if he doesn’t get a job elsewhere.

UPDATE 47: Jeffrey Lurie will hold his press conference at 12:30. We’ll shut down this post when that happens. The updates are slowing anyway.

UPDATE 48: The Eagles walking out to practice is like a scene from a post-apocalyptic snuff film:

UPDATE 49: Most awareness Billy Davis has shown all season: