No worries about the recent NCAA sanctions against the Chippah and his former collegiate team… it means nothing to the professional status of Kelly's role with the Eagles.
The former Oregon head coach was hit with an 18-month "show cause" penalty by the NCAA on Wednesday, meaning that if he were to return to the college game within the next two years, the school hiring him would have to explain to the NCAA why they should be allowed to do so.
"The NCAA investigation and subsequent ruling had no impact on my decision to leave Oregon for Philadelphia," Kelly said in a statement. "I have also maintained throughout that I had every intention to cooperate with the NCAA’s investigation, which I did."
It's all a meaningless pile of legal drivel.
The NCAA is complaining that Kelly failed to oversee a paid recruiting service at Oregon. The paid recruiter sent a prospect to Oregon who was then signed to a scholarship…yet the prospect was a relative of the recruiter.
[GASP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]
Oh my, this is Terrible!!
We will NOT stand for even a whiff of nepotism in the NCAA.
But the NFL could care less.
Kelly was "punished" by the NCAA for his role in using a "recruiting service provider who became a personal representative of the university’s athletics interests, to assist the school with the recruitment of multiple prospective student-athletes." That's the legal explanation of what went down.
Oregon will be on probation for three seasons and will lose one scholarship.
I'm sure Kelly is not happy about this blotch on his Oregon legacy, but it is such an obviously minor violation or oversight in the bigger picture, I'm having trouble even visualizing how Kelly could possibly care that much about it.
Some will speculate that it could happen, but the chances of the NFL stepping in and taking action against Kelly are slim to none. The two prior examples of a player or coach getting punished in the pros for what they did in college- Terrelle Pryor and Jim Tressel- were different situations. Pryor was punished for trying to get around the NFL eligibility rules. Tressel was punished by the Indianapolis Colts, not by the league. Needless to say, the chances of the Eagles' punishing Kelly are non-existent.
The NCAA sanctions against Oregon are very real, but in effect they are minimal.
While Kelly denies that the sanctions had anything to do with his coming to Philadelphia, it's hard to believe it didn't at least play a little role—at least that's what columnist Eliot Shorr-Parks of NJ.com believes. "The loss of just one scholarship is not a huge blow, but if Kelly was still at Oregon the sanctions could have been different."— Shorr-Parks.
Regardless, Kelly knew something was coming. Throw in the fact that he appeared to flip flop twice— once with Tampa last year, once earlier this year— before taking the Eagles job, and it's hard to imagine the sanctions had nothing to do with his decision to jump to the NFL.
Here is Chip Kelly's full statement:
“Now that the NCAA has concluded their investigation and penalized the University of Oregon and its football program, I want to apologize to the University of Oregon, all of its current and former players and their fans. I accept my share of responsibility for the actions that led to the penalties.
"As I have I stated before, the NCAA investigation and subsequent ruling had no impact on my decision to leave Oregon for Philadelphia. I have also maintained throughout that I had every intention to cooperate with the NCAA’s investigation, which I did.
"I do expect the University of Oregon and its football program to continue to thrive at a high level. They are a talented and resilient group of coaches and players and I’m sure they will attempt to put today’s news behind them very quickly and move forward as they prepare for the 2013 season.”
Translation— I am long gone. I am finished with you. I've got bigger fish to fry. Bye!
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
