I am thinking back to one day in January, as I was starting
my car and waiting for it to warm up in the cold of the winter’s day, which was
by then darkening into evening. I tuned
in to the news radio station and heard the announcement that the Eagles now had
a new coach. Since the sports talk
stations were buzzing about Seahawks defensive coordinator Gus Bradley the
previous evening, I assumed I was about to hear his name. He had just completed an eight hour interview
with the Eagles, and all reports were that they were near a deal. So it took me by surprise to hear Chip Kelly’s
name being announced as the new Eagles coach instead of Bradley, and it took a
few seconds to really grasp it. And then
I was left wondering what happened in the last 24 hours that had proven all the
sources wrong.
To me and most Philadelphia sports fans, Chip Kelly was a
thing of the recent past. It appeared at
first that he was close to a deal with the Browns, and then it appeared he was
close to a deal with the Eagles. Then
after that it appeared he would return to his position as head coach of the
Oregon Ducks and pass on the NFL for at least one more season. It seemed final, and that the Eagles and
Browns had moved on. But then suddenly
he was introduced as the Eagles head coach.
Chip Kelly would be the Eagles head coach after all, and this time it
was a done deal.
Maybe it wasn’t so sudden.
The reports I was hearing as the story developed indicated that Eagles
owner Jeffrey Lurie and Kelly made some kind of a secret agreement that would
allow Kelly to return to Oregon and brief his players on what was about to
happen, while all the time managing to keep it from leaking to the press. I wasn’t listening to the radio during the day
of the announcement, but I have a feeling someone tipped off the sports media
that Kelly was in Philadelphia, and that the sports talk stations were buzzing
with anticipation and speculation that he was indeed the Eagles new coach. It may not have been a total surprise to them
at the time of the announcement. But even if that was going on, long time
Eagles play-by-play announcer Merill Reese stated that he was as surprised as
everyone else that it was Kelly who would take over as coach.
Once that was out of the way, I moved on to other
things. It was January, and while the
season was still going for some NFL teams, as far as the Eagles were concerned,
it was effectively over in November. Football
will not be a concern for me until August.
But, if nothing else, it was an interesting turn of events that ushered
in the new era for the team.
