And so ends the Philadelphia experiment. Football “mastermind” Chip Kelly has been fired by the Eagles with one game remaining in the regular season. Their next game, much like the sixteen other ones they played this season, has now been rendered meaningless.
I’m not here to give you a run down on exactly what happened with the Kelly firing. You can find far more Philadelphonic breakdowns of Coach Chip’s dismissal from my favorite Philly homers, Dubsism and SportsAttitudes.
The bottom line is that Kelly didn’t live up to the expectations ownership had set for him. And they were lofty, perhaps unjustifiably so.
I honestly thought they’d give him another season but losing home games to the Arizona Cardinals, who clinched their division on Philly’s turf, and then again to division rival Washington Redskins, knowing all along that winning their final two games would get them into the playoffs, was too much for Jeff Lurie to overlook.
Buh-bye!
Kelly will land on his feet somewhere. Rumors have already started to swirl. Meanwhile, the entire city of Philadelphia rejoices as if Rocky Balboa had just knocked Apollo Creed to the canvas.
Philly now begins their search for a new coach meaning Sam Bradford will once again have to start from scratch. Either way, you won’t find too many people feeling sorry for the perennially overrated Eagles who’s only real claim to fame is a bad sports movie starring Marky Mark Wahlberg.
As usual, when something newsworthy happens in the league, Twitter jumps on the bandwagon.
Here are some of the more creative Tweets that sent Coach Kelly trending to the top of the charts as he began cleaning out his desk and wondering where his next paycheck would come from.
Congrats on your promotion Chip Kelly – Steve Harvey
Chip Kelly gets rid of all of Philly’s talented players and this is the thanks he gets
Chip Kelly was three and out just like most of his drives
Before this season, it seemed way more likely that Jay Gruden would be fired and Chip Kelly would be in the playoffs. The opposite happened.
For personal reasons I’ve got Chip Kelly replacing Jeff Fisher as coach of Los Angeles Rams in 2016
*Chip Kelly texts Oregon*
“You up? I miss you.”
Faux John Madden @FauxJohnMadden
Chip Kelly even gets fired quickly. The man is all about speed.
To be fair to Chip Kelly, every coach in the NFC East that didn’t win the division should’ve been fired
Chip Kelly getting $13M to go away. Not entirely sure he’s the loser here.
Chip Kelly should go on a road trip to clear his head after this, but for him a long drive is like 38 yards.
Chip Kelly and RGIII were both supposed to change the game. The game stayed the same.
All this Chip Kelly news has distracted us from the real story, Peyton Manning is still innocent
Let’s be real. If Chip Kelly and Marcus Mariota reunite in Tennessee, they’ll be an elite team and easily make the College Football Playoff.
Any Dolphins fans clamoring for Chip Kelly after all this says a lot more about the state of the Dolphins than it does about Chip Kelly.
Tennessee would be a terrible landing spot for Chip Kelly; mostly because there are no Pro Bowl players for him to trade away.
DJ Saul T. Nutz @dcmadness202
Andy Reid is in the playoffs.
Jeremy Maclin is in the playoffs.
DeSean Jackson is in the playoffs.
Chip Kelly is in the classifieds.
Chip Kelly fired, Bill Cosby arrested…it took 300+ years but it looks like Pennsylvania is finally starting to turn things around.
Insight on the Eagles’ issues as provided by Kelly’s most faithful followers, should make for an interesting read. Then again , when I look at the woes of the Sixers I think there too there , things ought to make for an interesting read as to insight on the franchise’s year-long problems dating back at least three years. Enough said !
At least you didn’t call me “your favorite Philly homo.”
Who?
It’s like the Wicked Witch died. Merry Christmas, Philly. We can stop the bleeding and start the rebuild now without more damage being done by the “arrogant one.” Ah yes, K-Day came as a surprise to me only because it wasn’t next Monday. He was an obvious disaster as a GM and as a head coach y’all might want to work backwards from his last game and see how his W-L record was. Didn’t win often towards the end of 2014 through now…as he slowly ruined morale and then quickly turned over the roster. He’s needs to be back in college…someplace with a low media membership…where he can be who he is…a guy who answers to no one and has all the answers. One of the happiest days for me as an Eagles fan. One might say the grass isn’t any greener making a change? How could it not be? Yet, this is also a sad day for Jeff Lurie because he made the business decision to give Kelly total control. That was an all-time epic fail and will cost this team years to correct…maybe several.
Mine didn’t make the cut. Like Chip. Dang.
The Sixers are a joke, Al.
How many top draft picks does it take to make a team relevant?
Apparently more in the Sixers’ case.
Dub…
Is there something you’re trying to tell us?
Bleed…
No worries, man.
He coaches an NFL team. That’s the National Football League. It’s where USC guys go to play when they leave campus.
You’ll be hearing all about it this off-season as you’ll probably land a team. Again.
Burnsy…
I hate to recall our conversations at the beginning of the season, remember when I told ya’ I didn’t believe in this team or what Kelly could do with it?
Simply too many invariables and unknowns.
And yes, I bet it was the best Christmas gift most Philly fans could ask for.
Your only question is…. now what?
KP…
I must have missed it.
Please enlighten us.
Those 2015 comments were about my 10-6 prediction, not a referendum on Chip. I questioned the hire on my site in Jan 2013 and never let up on him. When you’re in the NFC East you should get five-six wins there and then go 5-5/4-6 thereafter. Hell, I had Sanchez finishing the year at QB! I was wrong on that one also. But I never, ever bought into Chip or wanted him here. As for what’s next I honestly don’t know. I’m just so happy Chris. It made my Holiday.
Your thoughts on Duce Staley, Burnsy?
What’s he been doing since retiring?
I can only assume RBs coach?
Chris, he was Chip Kelly’s “right hand man” on all things running back and at many a press conference from mid-season on said Duce was the man to talk to about the RB rotation. Initially this season Kelly said no plays were called or designed for Murray, Mathews or Sproles. Rather, they believed whatever play was called any one of the backs could handle it (that shows how weird it was here). As the season started to go sideways that story became…talk to Duce about who is in the game when. I think when Chip was fired Duce became the first person to be interviewed for the job for two reasons. Sadly, one was just to fulfill the Rooney Rule. But that being said Lurie indicated he wanted to talk to not only players but coaches about what the hell happened in 2015. Whomever gets the HC job may be “strongly encouraged” to interview Duce about staying on in some capacity. Obviously the city thinks very highly of him. Right now it looks like Lurie would love to talk to NO HC Sean Peyton and BAL HC John Harbaugh. John was here a decade as an assistant and Sean actually was the Eagles QB coach in 1997-98 under Ray Rhodes. Another name to watch is KC OC Doug Pederson, who was on Reid’s staff here from 2009-2012.
Still not sure that makes sense, though, unless Kelly was heavy-handed in his coaching. You know better than I.
If Duce was the RB coach, then why was the running game in such shambles?