No one knows exactly when the NFL turned into the Hudson Terrace with its coaches, but Philadelphia Eagles coach Chip Kelly has presumably cleaned out his office less than a calendar year after getting a promotion (in terms of responsibility) after two 10-6 seasons to start his NFL career.
The firing was stunning both in timing and in brevity. Eagles owner Jeff Lurie clearly wasn’t willing to see if this ship could stop taking on water, not even one full year after the Chipster convinced him it was a good idea to hand over not only the coaching stuff, but the personnel stuff into his willing arms.
With one week left in the NFL season, this is like your girlfriend coming to you a week before your birthday and saying, “look, I wanted to be nice and put it off through your birthday party, but seriously, even another week with you is going to make me want to eat tacks.”
So Kelly is a free man only three years after he was going to “change the NFL” with his style of play. In a way, he did, but it was more from his time at Oregon than in the NFL, where coaches (including Bill Belichick, the geyser from whom all coaching trends flow) would visit to learn the nuances of the hyper-fast no-huddle system he used.
Those coaches brought what was already a popularity-gaining fast pace to the NFL, which naturally worked a whole lot better with guys who were good at throwing the football.
Kelly was a pretty good cook when it came to that sort of thing, but the problem was that even with a blank check and a ride to Whole Foods, he stunk at picking the groceries to the point where the lettuce and flank steaks (Desean Jackson, LeSean McCoy) started complaining about not being brought home.
At any rate, the big thing with Chip will be, “WHICH COLLEGE IS HE GOING TO NOW?!?!?!”
Who gets the big prize, like the prettiest girl in the sorority coming home from Fall Break suddenly saying she was free of her old hometown flame?
Odds are, no one immediately, not at least without a really oily firing.
The big jobs in college football that were open no longer are. When the rumors that Chip and USC talked were kicked around the yard, Chip obviously felt he’d be around in Philly and wanted to stay. USC moved on. Other large jobs, like Georgia and Miami, also have made their hires, so this had to be a shock to everyone. Usually, when there’s a big fish about to swim, folks know ahead of time.
Kelly should go to college, but again, unless a big time program decides to part ways with a coach it has already committed to for next season, it’s hard to see where he lands. The land of college football isn’t lily white, but that would be a lowbrow move.
If Kelly wants to coach again soon, odds are it’ll be an NFL team (like the Tennessee Titans) that would kick the tires on him and his funky ways. Make no mistake: Kelly wasn’t fired because he didn’t win a ton. He was fired because he didn’t win enough to justify all the other crazy stuff, like the manic control over players that he picked and weren’t very good in his system. It wasn’t just about a lack of a fit, either. Johnny GM on the couch even thought the recent Eagles players shouldn’t have been brought in.
Micromanaging is a risky way to do business. It’s hard to find people that take to it — they so easily get put off by it. People typically don’t live in the United States because they love themselves some Fascism, so why would they want to work in that environment?
The harder you are to deal with, the less rope you have when things go wrong. The easier you are to deal with, the more people are willing to look the other way and let you clean up your pile in the corner.
If you fail, you’re going to be asked to relinquish some of the candy on your desk, and the smart play is to say ‘okay.’ If you succeed, you get more candy.
Kelly will resurface in college before it’s all said and done. He’s a college coach, suited to an environment where total control over the roster, the day-to-day operation, and the on-field product works through one person if he’s the right guy.
It’s easier telling a teenager or young 20-something what he needs to eat or how he needs to sleep versus grown men annually making millions in paper money.
College and Chip Kelly will always be bedfellows, even when the two are sleeping in different hotels, one hellbent about moving on without the other. He’s made for the college game, though, whenever the time may come.
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