Eagles

Chip Kelly Was Some Bullshit Yesterday

By Kyle Scott

Published: Nov 24th, 2015 · 12:10 PM EST

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There are countless quotes and articles coming out with curious comments and anecdotes which, combined, paint a picture we have seen far too often in this godforsaken city. I’ll get to a few more later, but one thing that stood out to me yesterday was the hypocrisy of Chip Kelly.

I’m a Chip guy, and I will stand by my piece last week noting that the Eagles’ biggest problem is that they are not built to win and lack a franchise quarterback – an opinion that has been trumpeted over the last few days by Reuben Frank, David Murphy and Eliot Shorr-Parks – but that doesn’t mean Chip is beyond criticism. Worse than their lack of skill is the fact that the Eagles are being outcoached, lack effort, take dumb penalties, point fingers at each other, and look like a football team coming unspooled from the cohesive unit they appeared to be during Chip’s first two years here. Chip may be losing the room, that favorite of sports tropes which genuinely spells doom for a given squad. And there’s a disconnect between when he goes on the radio and says he doesn’t need to yell at players because they’re adults – “They’re grown men. They know exactly what’s going on. That’s Harry High School stuff. That doesn’t flow and that doesn’t work and that’s not what people talk about it.” – and the structure he imposes on those same adults.

You can’t have it both ways.

Tim McManus today described the Eagles’ rituals with which we’ve all become accustomed. They’re the same mandates that rubbed LeSean McCoy, DeSean Jaccson and Cary Williams, among others, the wrong way. So, you certainly can’t claim on one hand the need to abstain from hand-holding while, on the other, dictate what players eat, when they go to bed, and how they train. It doesn’t jive jibe. It rings hollow. And you certainly can’t dismiss the need for some good ol’ high school shouting when your high-priced free agent, one of the most senior of all the veterans, needs to be told to finish plays:

There’s a disconnect here. Either the players aren’t playing for the coach, or the coach is not coaching for the players. Either way, something needs to change. Maybe Chip Collegiate shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss Harry High School.