Chip Kelly’s a Liar

When I woke up Friday morning, I had no idea what I was going to write about for today. But a quick trip to Twitter led me to a tweet by Sheil Kapadia.

Sheil writes about the Eagles on Birds 24/7 for PhillyMag.com. He’s well-researched, conscientious, and serious about his writing. I’ve met Sheil and communicate with him once in a while.

The part of Chip Kelly’s quote about “every” Eagles player being talked about on the trade block caught my attention. Chip was stretching the truth. So I replied to Sheil.

I was being sarcastic, but Sheil thought I’d heard something – which led to a quick swap of tweets.

To which, I ended our conversation with:

So I’d found something to write about – that subject being that Chip was suddenly establishing himself as someone who stretched the truth to suit his purposes.

The way I see it, Chip Kelly admires Bill Belichick and fancies himself as being Bill Belichick. Between 2001 and 2014, Belichick took the New England Patriots to the Super Bowl six times – and won four.

On the other hand, Chip Kelly coached Oregon for four years and has now coached the Eagles for two seasons. But at no time during those six seasons of being a head coach has Chip Kelly won a championship. With the Eagles, he did win the NFC East in 2013 and took the Eagles to the Playoffs – but the Eagles lost 26-24 to the Saints.

So when it comes to accomplishments, Chip Kelly’s not in the same league with Bill Belichick. He’s got a long way to go – yet he’s demanding to be treated as if he already were Belichick.

In New England, Patriots owner Bob Kraft operates his team without a titular general manager – thus allowing his head coach to also serve as the team’s de facto GM. So, in essence, Bill Belichick is both head coach and GM of the Patriots.

Conversely, Eagles’ owner Jeff Lurie has employed both a head coach and a GM during the 16 years he owned the team. Harry Gamble and Joe Banner were Lurie’s GMs for the first eleven seasons and Howie Roseman has been the team’s GM since the 2010 season. But over the two years that Chip Kelly’s been coaching the Eagles, some sort of rift developed between Kelly and Roseman and a power struggle developed behind the scenes.

The struggle heated up on New Year’s Eve, when in a move that caught Eagles fans by surprise, Howie Roseman fired personnel man Tom Gamble – who was referred to as Chip Kelly’ right-hand man. The unexpected firing greatly displeased Chip Kelly and exacerbated the discord.

Two days later, in another surprise move, Jeff Lurie removed Roseman as the team’s GM and “promoted” him to executive vice president of football operations – thus allowing Chip Kelly to become the de facto GM of the Eagles. Just like that, Chip Kelly was emulating his role model Bill Belichick. Not only was Chip in charge of coaching the players, but he was also suddenly in charge of picking the players.

Better than two months transpired without anyone from the Eagles coming forward to comment or explain the situation. Speculation and conjecture were running rampant. So when the Eagles finally held a press conference on Wednesday to announce the trade of Nick Foles to the Rams in exchange for Sam Bradford, reporters took the opportunity to backtrack in time and ask questions.

What was the nature of the discord with Howie Roseman?

Chip said there’d never been any hostility between them.

Then why had Chip demanded full control of the Eagles?

“I didn’t think I needed control of personnel,” Chip responded. “That’s a decision the owner made.”

Both answers by Chip were incongruous with what happened. To make them sound true, I had to conjure a picture of Jeff Lurie sitting around his mansion on New Year’s Day, watching the Mummer’s Parade on TV, and noshing on bagels and lox. Then right in the middle of sips of egg nog, a thought struck him like a bolt of lightning.

I say, Jeff said to his wife Tina Lai in my version of what must’ve happened, I believe I’m going to give Chip full control of the Eagles. After all, he missed the Playoffs this year and his ego probably needs some well-deserved stroking. Even though Chip has no experience in personnel matters and coaching in the NFL is a full-time job, I’m sure Chip can handle both situations flawlessly.

Come on, Chip, we know what happened. You’re lying through your teeth.

But that wasn’t the end of the mistruths on Wednesday.

There was also the one alluded to earlier in my tweets with Sheil Kapadia. No way every Eagles player had been involved in trade discussions – Shady McCoy and Nick Foles to be sure, a few more perhaps, but not all. That’s stretching the truth.

There was also the one where Chip said that, just that morning, prior to the press conference, he was offered a first-round pick for Sam Bradford. But, he swore, Sam Bradford was his quarterback of the future.

Chip, how could an under-achieving quarterback with a history of debilitating injuries and a price-tag of $13-million be your quarterback of the future?

Here’s the truth. You’re in over your head. Coaching an NFL team is a full-time job – as is being GM of an NFL team. It’s difficult enough for two men – experienced in each category – to be successful. But it’s nearly impossible for one man – still learning the ropes of coaching in the NFL and with limited experience in personnel matters – to perform both duties successfully.

And I’m not blowing smoke.