Chip Kelly was fired as the Philadelphia Eagles head coach last Tuesday, after the Eagles’ disappointing 6-9 record under him in his third season with the team.
There have been many reports and reasons as to why Kelly was given the boot, but a specific article by Jason La Canfora highlights some things about Kelly’s personality, and his interactions with people that are certainly alarming.
From La Canfora:
“Lurie disliked the culture his building had taken on, with Kelly unable to relate to most people on a human level and all interactions generally leading back to football. Even routine levels of small talk seemed impossible, and the owner began to question that ability of his coach to relate to or understand not only his players, but critical support staff as well.”
La Canfora also says that coaches that Kelly himself picked were growing tired of his awful social skills. Kelly’s social skills were so depleted, he would apparently use exec Ed Marynowitz to relay messages to the scouting department and others in football operations
There was also mention of the Eagles holiday party, which owner Jeffrey Lurie apparently takes a ton of pride in, something that La Canfora described as “something of a prized tradition” for Lurie. According to sources, Kelly basically refused to attend it this year on its traditional Monday night, and forced Lurie to move it to a Friday afternoon onsite to be in line with Kelly’s schedule.
Probably the most telling thing of all, and what most people expected based on what was being portrayed in the media was the following:
“The decision to fire him before the end of the season was read as the owner taking his building back after ceding so much control to the head coach.”
It will be interesting to see moving forward if anything else comes from this situation, along with where Kelly will land next. If Kelly is also able to land another NFL gig, the power conceded to him will be an interesting factor, considering how things went in Philadelphia.
