We like to analyze flip-flops, and wonder if they make people flighty, liars, attention-grabbers or fearful or something. Chip Kelly might well be all of those, though I lean against “liar.’’
Sure, he told Oregon last week that he was turning down the offer from the Philadelphia Eagles, and staying. And on Wednesday he was announced as the new Eagles coach. But Kelly meant what he said last week, as well as what he said Wednesday.
He’d always wanted to be in the NFL, and always said he’d listen to offers. His offer at Tampa Bay last year didn’t include enough control, so he went back to Oregon. This year, with so many NFL openings, you had to assume he would jump.
When Kelly stayed at Oregon last week, he didn’t make any false pleas about his love of the college game, or of Oregon. In fact, he really didn’t say anything. Neither did Oregon, which suggested that they still figured he might take some NFL job.
It’s unknown if the Eagles altered their offer, adding more control, or if Kelly just thought about it for a week and decided he had made a mistake.
But when your head goes up into the clouds, the way his did when NFL teams came calling, sometimes it’s hard to go back to work. After he turned down the Eagles, he had to come back to recruiting, the part of the job few coaches enjoy, and some resent.
On top of that, Oregon already knows it violated NCAA rules under Kelly, making payments to a Texas street agent, Will Lyles, whose job was to get recruits to go to Oregon. It was a storyline reported heavily by Yahoo! Sports, among others.
Oregon self-investigated, and then told the NCAA what it thought had happened, and suggested what it considered an appropriate punishment. The NCAA disagreed, and decided to move forward with the investigation.
Did Kelly just run from the NCAA? That was not likely the biggest reason, or he would have taken the job in the first place. But it had to matter. Oregon could be banned from the postseason next season.
Pete Carroll has changed everything for college coaches. His success with the Seattle Seahawks, after he left USC to run from NCAA sanctions, showed so many things. For the NFL, it showed that college coaches can do the job in the NFL. Jim Harbaugh showed the same thing, which is why so many NFL teams have been after college coaches the past few weeks.
For college coaches, Carroll also showed that the NFL can be the great get-out-of jail-free card. For so long, college coaches had to worry that breaking the rules could leave them out of work, albeit with a lot of money. Now, you can break rules to win, and use that success to go to the NFL.
Life decisions are rarely made on one thing alone. Some coaches just see the NFL as the pinnacle of the profession. In Kelly’s case, his mindset is just as hyper and as his offenses.
Surely he wants to see if his ideas on offense will work in the NFL. The league’s focus has been changing, which is why the new head-coaching hires have all been offensive guys.
"Chip Kelly will be an outstanding head coach for the Eagles,’’ Philadelphia owner Jeffrey Lurie said in a statement. “He has a brilliant football mind. He motivates his team with his actions as well as his words. He will be a great leader for us and will bring a fresh, energetic approach to our team.’’
NFL offenses are more up-tempo now, allowing quarterbacks to run and looking a little more like college offenses. That’s what makes Kelly so appealing.
But I don’t think that will last, actually, as quarterbacks take too much of a beating and defensive coordinators figure it out. They’ll get there.
Kelly’s tempo will provide a wrinkle to coordinators for a while. The problem is, his up-tempo style in practice, mixed with his thin skin and giant ego, will be a disaster when dealing with NFL stars.
He’ll need a quarterback with the Eagles, and already people are wondering if that means Michael Vick will be back. Don’t count on it. He costs too much (would be guaranteed $15 million to stay with the Eagles in this current contract), and already took too much of a beating under Andy Reid’s system.
Still, I’m not predicting big things for Kelly in the NFL. I’m not even predicting he’ll be there for three years. Plenty of big college jobs will be open by 2015, and when pro reality hits Kelly, college reality will start looking good again.
During this holiday season the Little Angels Foundation (LAF) was approached with the story of 9-year-old Dalton Dingus of Salyersville, Ky. Dalton, who was diagnosed with stage four cystic fibrosis, was sent home from the hospital in early November because the doctors could no longer care for him. He was given 10 days to live with the best estimates science could give to the parents of a dying child. Dalton wanted one small Christmas wish answered, a dying wish. He didn’t ask for money, toys, or any gifts for that matter; Dalton’s dying wish was for Christmas cards. He wanted his name put into the Guinness Book of World Records for receiving the most Christmas cards. The mark prior to his quest was 35,000 cards.
At first Dalton’s mother Jessica reached out on Facebook and cards started coming in from neighbors and neighboring states. Dalton’s message caught on with the local news, and started to spread like wildfire throughout the country. In just one month, Dalton was receiving mail trucks worth of letters, gifts and Christmas cards on a daily basis. His story hit the national news scene by Christmas, and then the cards began pouring into the local post office and at volumes they could not keep up with.
Dalton at the age of 9 dreamed big, he dreamed for the record books! Dalton set his heart on the mark or 35,000 Christmas cards. At last count Dalton received more than 700,000 cards.
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