The Chip Kelly/DeMarco Murray Lovers' Spat Continues
USA Today Sports Images, where we get most of our headline images, has ONE picture of DeMarco Murray from yesterday’s game, and it’s from warmups. Donovan McNabb sent his first post-jail tweet about Murray’s lack of play– only played eight snaps yesterday. Even if you were one of the people calling for Murray’s benching weeks ago, eight snaps is fifth-string territory. With all of this going on, one thing is becoming more and more clear: Chip and DeMarco just don’t like each other.
Teams have been successful (I’m sure) with players and coaches who didn’t get alone, but this one isn’t one of them. That is a fair thing to talk about. You won’t get a straight answer from Chip, but the questions have to be asked… even if they venture into the topic of Murray’s sideline headwear. On Angelo Cataldi’s morning show, Chip was asked how, in God’s name, would you even be able to put DeMarco in the game when he has a hat on. HOW, CHIP? HOW?
“How would you be able to rotate him if he’s sitting on the sideline with a ski cap on?” Cataldi asked.
“I mean, it’s very easy to say, ‘You’re in the game, put your helmet on,’” Kelly responded after a long pause.
For his part, Murray explained his attire to Jeff McLane after the game.
“It was a little chilly out,” Murray said.
There’s something here worth talking about, but Murray’s hat isn’t one of them. If Chip/Duce really wanted to put Murray in, but decided against it because he was wearing a hat, there’s a much larger issue of understanding how long it takes to put a helmet on.
Kyle: I disagree here. When you’re part of an interchangeable running back corps, not having your helmet on during offensive drives is both a logistical problem and an attitude problem.