From the Desk of Eagles Outsider Barry Bowe

Would you believe that Chip Kelly:

• Ran with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain?
• Was married once?
• Was engaged another time?
• Has a girlfriend?

Ladies and gentlemen, you better believe it because it’s all true.

When interviewed during the first week of camp, Chip said he thought it was bizarre that anyone would care about his private life.

(Knocking on Chip’s head – like Biff knocking on George McFly’s head in Back to the Future)

Hello? Hello? Chip? Anybody home?

Dear Chip:

Dear Chip: You’re the head coach of the the highest-profile sports franchise in town. Like Carlos Santana’s big hit from 1971, Eagles fans want to know Everybody’s Everything about everyone involved with the Eagles – especially its quixotic and enigmatic coach.

You recently said this:

“I have a very bland, quiet life. There’s not a lot there. And I’m not hiding anything, either.”

Not hiding anything?

Pardon my French – but that’s balderdash. You’re hiding everything.

During your first two years in town, the word was that you were a life-long bachelor who was married to the game of football. Between you and me, that raised my eyebrows. More French – Was it possible that the head coach of the friggin Eagles was gay?

Mammalu

Mammalu Logo

Two weeks ago, thanks to a Washington Post article written by Kent Babb, we found out that not only were you married at one time, but we also learned that you were married for seven years. Now we know that your former bride Jennifer Jenkins lives in the District of Columbia area where she’s a businesswoman branding herself as Mammalu.

Way back on Thanksgiving Day in 1989, a mutual friend introduced you to Jennifer Jenkins. She was a senior at the University of New Hampshire and you were 25 years old at the time. And here’s something else you’ve been hiding – no one seems to know what in hell you were doing at that time.

On all accounts, you attended New Hampshire and played football as a defensive back from 1981 thru 1984 – but you didn’t graduate until 1990. What in hell were you doing between 1984 and 1990? Were you in the Peace Corps? Witness Protection?

Mark Saltveit is a comedian and writer who’s written two books about you:

• The Tao of Chip Kelly
• Controlled Chaos: Chip Kelly’s Football Revolution

Yet, Mark Saltveit can’t account for those six years between the time you played your final game at New Hampshire and the time when you graduated six years later. What’s more, despite writing those two books about you, Saltveit had no idea that you’d been married to Jennifer Jenkins.

In an article written for philly.com during your first year in town, Saltveit wrote this:

“Kelly has never married, and there are lots of articles that talk about him being ‘married to football,’ which in turn has led to tons of ignorant Internet chatter about whether he’s gay, or needs to ‘blow off some steam,’ or maybe just needs to find the love of a good woman (such as the person asking). Stop. This is all ridiculous.”

Ridiculous?

I’ll tell you what’s ridiculous. For crying out loud it’s ridiculous that the guy who wrote two books about you didn’t know you’d been married for seven years. And as it works out, I wasn’t the only with notions about the possibility that you were gay.

So as it works out, you met Jennifer Jenkins during that six-year haze and started dating her. She described you as a shy man who was passionate about football. She said you were one of four brothers and that your father was a trial lawyer. Yet, despite your shyness, she knew at once that you were ambitious and intelligent.

You two kept dating even after you began your collegiate coaching career as an assistant defensive and special teams coach at Columbia in New York City.

Two years later, when you returned to New Hampshire as the running backs coach, you and Jennifer got married and remained married for seven years. However, neither one of you volunteers much information about the period when you were married – or why you eventually divorced.

But – as far as we know – there were no children.

Today, Jennifer Jenkins operates Mammalu Remedies – a company that produces Sick Sacks and Feel Better products.

Fiancée

One thing that Mark Saltveit did know, however, was that on July 24, 2008, you announced your engagement to Karen “Kobi” Biagini. Your fiancée was a New Hampshire grad who works as a merchandiser for Nike.

But for some undisclosed reason your relationship fizzled soon after you became head coach at Oregon.

Girlfriend

Back during spring training in March, prior to the beginning of this baseball season, we also learned that you were friends with California Angels star Mike Trout. We learned that because you were photographed in the stands at one of his exhibition games – but you weren’t alone.

You were photographed sitting with your girlfriend. Her name is Jill Cohen and she’s a 30-something employee of the University of Oregon athletic department. Her title is director of donor relations and events.

Running with the Bulls

In July of 2012 – when you were still head coach at Oregon – you sprung for a junket to Spain for a few of your cronies and yourself. Your motivation was participating in the running of the bulls in Pamplona.

The running of the bulls is an annual tradition dating back to the 14th century. The adrenalin-inducing run lasts for 956 terror-filled yards through four streets in the old part of the city with a horde of ferocious bulls chasing you. It’s dangerous and the bulls have been known to gore several runners every year.

Some people can’t understand the fascination with participating in such a dangerous run, but I can. It was one of two things on my bucket list twenty years ago – the other being attending the Canne Film Festival. But alas and alack, I failed to accomplish either.

So my hats off to you, Chip Kelly, you did fulfill that quest.

We have a photo that Scott Frost posted on Twitter. Back then, he was your receivers coach at Oregon. Now he’s been moved up to Offensive Coordinator.

I tweeted him last week in an attempt to learn the identity of the third person in the photo, but he’s yet to respond to me – no surprise there.

Not Only NFL Coach

In researching this piece, I learned that Chip Kelly isn’t the only NFL coach who ran with the bulls.

During July of 2013 – when he lost all that weight – Rex Ryan ran with the bulls. He was coaching the New York Jets back then but, as most of you know, he’s now the honcho of the Buffalo Bills.

Aside from being our official Eagles Outsider, Barry Bowe is the author of:

• Born to Be Wild
• 1964 – The Year the Phillies Blew the Pennant
• 12 Best Eagles QBs
• Soon-to-be-published sexy, police procedural Caribbean Queen