The Philadelphia Eagles will face the Indianapolis Colts Sunday, August 16th at Lincoln Financial Field for what should be an exciting debut preseaon game for a team that has had a significant number of moving parts throughout the offseason.
However, it is not the fact that the Eagles will have an estimated 10 new starters that is dominating recent headlines. It is not the development of first and second year players that continues to linger in the press.
The question that had too many fans, analysts, and players talking during the offseason was whether or not head coach Chip Kelly should be considered a racist for his actions now that former Eagles players are speaking their minds about him. It is a question that was initially introduced when running back LeSean McCoy was shipped to Buffalo and was later contemplated very heavily.
There have now been three former players that have spoken out about Kelly’s leadership style in the locker room and none of them had much good to say. It is also important to note that, although these players spoke out about racial relations with their coach, none the players who were either released or traded from the Eagles this past offseason definitively stated that Kelly is a racist or has racial issues. In fact, most of these players went out of their way to say that Kelly was NOT a racist in any way.
Brandon Boykin’s comments following his trade were particularly scathing though when he stated how he believed that Kelly seemed “uncomfortable around grown men of our culture” and how “he can’t relate-.”
It was clear when Boykin said this that he was referring to black players. These are words no one has used to describe other coaches around the league, and they are words that upper management are definitely raising an eyebrow at now that people have the idea in their heads. But it’s time to address not the elephant of race in the room, but the hippo that seems to have been covered by the elephant’s sheer size (excuse the analogy).
Kelly is literally one of the most misunderstood figures in today’s league. The inner workings of his mind baffle so many people that it somehow became news that he was married in the 90’s and another person in the world actually held a close relationship with him.
Considering these ideas and the fact that Kelly has pronounced himself a “private person,” it isn’t surprising that a player couldn’t necessarily understand the complete picture of his mind either. This means that questioning whether Kelly is a racist is not only the wrong way to go, but it is irresponsible unless his decision making begins to make no sense without racial context and that is not the case.
In fact, Kelly’s responses for every ‘negative’ event that has taken place during his time has had a clear cut reason.
Riley Cooper stays on the team? — good young player that made a stupid mistake while drunk at a concert;
Desean Jackson being cut? — “Big people beat up little people”
Lesean McCoy being traded? — FootballPhilosophy differences; wanted a different runner in his scheme
Brandon Boykin being traded? — (See Desean Jackson above); also cited cornerback depth
These explanations do not explain away why these players have the opinions that they have, and because of this, it is my opinion that Coach Kelly is not a racist; he is a dictator that wants the skills of an all-pro football player without the personality that is bound to come with such a person.
Not what you were expecting me to say? Allow me to convince you.
Remember how huge the story about the power struggle between Coach Kelly and Howie Roseman was? Kelly wanted complete control of the roster and personnel decisions and Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie was all but against giving him a chance to build his ideal team — even if it meant trading away the Eagles franchise rushing leader.
This is when we saw how important it was to Kelly to have complete control of every aspect of his team. When Kelly decided that Cooper could be forgiven, Jackson had to go, and Lesean McCoy was not the running back of the future, it was everyone’s lack of understanding of the coach that sent people grasping at straws for whatever could possibly be a viable answer to his mysterious ways. –Enter racial remarks here–
Still, if race is only a cover for an answer that hasn’t been considered yet, then other factors have to be taken into account. What do Desean Jackson, Lesean McCoy, and Brandon Boykin all have in common?
An out-spoken personality.
Now the question becomes simple; what kind of personality does Kelly want in his locker room at the expense of league talents like Desean Jackson and Lesean McCoy?
And this, my friends, is the correct question to ask and none other than ESPN host Skip Bayless answered it best.
Jordan Matthews, Demeco Ryans, Malcolm Jenkins, Connor Barwin, Demarco Murray, Tim Tebow, and even Riley Cooper all have one personality trait in common that attracts the interest of Kelly regardless of whether they are good players or not.
These guys are what Skip Bayless called “coachable cogs.” Basically, players that are high character, low maintenance pieces that would have no interest in anything but the betterment of the team. They keep a low word count with politically correct responses in the face of most questions, and work hard at whatever Coach Kelly needs them to without questioning the validity or reason he may have for doing so. Should Kelly be condemned and judged because he prefers not to have strong, outspoken personalities on his team regardless of how productive they are?
And to be clear, Jackson and McCoy definitely worked hard and had amazingly unique characters, but if Kelly doesn’t feel they are the right pieces in his scheme or his locker room, should he keep them anyway?
Chip Kelly is not a racist. Even if he did have a problem relating to players like Boykin said, HE HAS EVERY RIGHT to go out and find players that he doesn’t have problems relating to.
As a coach, Kelly has a responsibility to build a locker room culture that he believes will succeed at the highest level. If he believes that he can win with “coachable cogs” running his Eagles machine (so to speak), then we have no choice but to comment on what he is doing and see if his approach to locker room culture produces W’s in a tough league.
So to everyone and anyone who thinks there is more to this man than meets the eye, the question of whether or not Kelly is racist is definitely a good question. On the other hand, it seems to be the incorrect question to ask.
At the end of the day, only one thing gets rid of negative attention and glooming questions from the media in this league. Only one thing galvanizes a team and helps to put management concerns on the back-burner for a while. That one thing is exactly why Coach Kelly made major changes to HIS roster in the first place and that one thing is to win football games.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
