FanPost

The myth of Chip Kelly being a racist (he’s not)

I wrote a few (thousand) words about Chip Kelly recently and included an overview of his time in Philly, on the field. To understand why Kelly wasn’t ultimately successful means one has to recall the state of the organization before he came onboard (poor performance in 2011-2012, terrible drafting in 2010-2011) and the management structure in Philadelphia (the hiring, and firing, of Tom Gamble) leaving former GM Howie Roseman to play Petyr Baelish to Chip Kelly’s Ned Stark.

Off the field, there are a few story lines as well. The biggest, by far, is the "Is Kelly a racist" narrative? It wasn’t addressed in that post because it requires a bit more detail than time allowed. The longer answer requires an understanding of the two main drivers of this point of view.

#1 Riley Cooper

The biggest support for this (false) narrative, is wide receiver Riley Cooper. Cooper is a white WR, drafted by Andy Reid/Howie Roseman in the 5th round of the 2010 draft. He had modest production in 2010, 2011 and 2012 during Reid’s final 3 years as coach in Philly. Chip Kelly was hired on January 16, 2013. Just a few months later, in July 2013, a video surfaced of Cooper using derogatory comments about African-American bouncers at a concert who refused Cooper entry to a music concert. This was an early test for Coach Kelly. There were some calls to release Cooper, to fine him, to suspend him. Ultimately, the Eagles fined him and sent him to sensitivity training. The starting quarterback (and African-American) Michael Vick, himself no stranger to controversy, heroically put his arms around Cooper and forgave him and welcomed him back to the team. Vick would later say that sticking up for Cooper was "best thing I've done as a professional athlete." The Eagles once tossed a life raft to Vick and now Vick returned the favor.

Cooper went on to have his career year in 2013. In the offseason, February 2014, Cooper was signed to a 5-year extension. (In March 2014, the Eagles released WR DeSean Jackson) If Cooper continued to excel in 2014 and 2015, then the narrative about Kelly might be considerably different. But Cooper has been awful the past 2 season and "according to Pro Football Focus, Riley Cooper was the worst wide receiver in the NFL in 2014". His 2015 was also terrible. You can find plenty of praise for Cooper as a good run blocker but WR ultimately need to "receive" the football and Cooper’s skills have diminished. Side note: Cooper’s contract has gotten to a spot where cutting him makes financial sense and the Eagles are expected to part ways to save $4.5M.

If Cooper’s 2013 was poor, he wouldn’t have gotten the contract. But, since his 2013 was good and since the Eagles were soon to release DeSean Jackson (and since Jeremy Maclin, also African-American, was to be a free agent at the end of 2014), Cooper got his contract. From a football sense (if you were going to cut Jackson and if you feared losing Maclin in a year), the contract in February 2014 made sense despite the controversy from the prior July. At the 2014 NFL draft, the Eagles used their 2nd and 3rd round picks on WR (Jordan Matthews and Josh Huff, both African-Americans) and likely felt that they had to have some stability (Cooper) at WR.

The perception of Kelly with respect to Cooper is: "Kelly kept that racist Cooper while he got rid of great African-American WR such as DeSean and Maclin." The reality is, Kelly replaced DeSean and Maclin with other black WR such as Mathews, Huff and, in 2015, using a 1st round pick on Nelson Agholor who was born in Nigeria.

There are many instances of professional athletes saying horrible things. Kobe Bryant used slurs on the court, resulting in $100,000 in fines. Ditto for Rajon Rondo’s recent usage directly at a referee. Even DeSean Jackson had to walk back from making inappropriate slurs. There’s no excuse for it. But it does happen. Partly due to Cooper’s production decline and partly due to other personnel decisions, this criticism has stuck with Cooper, and Chip Kelly.

#2 "Chip Kelly got rid of all the black players" – former Eagles RB LeSean McCoy

The other narrative that evolved was that Kelly "got rid of all the black players -- the good ones" as former Eagles running back LeSean McCoy put it last March. A former coach, Tra Thomas, chimed in as well citing Stephen A Smith for good measure. The narrative builds. The pot stirs. These allegations don’t appear to hold up, however. Kelly wants the best players and he wants players that buy-in and fit his physical specifications. There have been write-ups about the types of players Kelly likes:

"But Kelly would like to have defensive ends that measure at least 6' 6" and he wants stout nose tackles. The most important characteristic? Knees with a circumference of at least 18 inches—an identifier of guys who are built solidly in the lower body and thus, the Eagles believe, less susceptible to injuries. At outside linebacker he wants long-armed players who, above all else, can set the edge in the running game; the ability to rush the passer from this position is very much secondary. And Kelly wants to man his secondary with tall, long cornerbacks because he runs a scheme similar to that of the Seahawks’ physical Cover Three."

It’s true they traded away McCoy (2013 NFL rushing champ), but he signed Murray (2014 NFL rushing champ) to replace him. (Both are black). It’s true he cut DeSean Jackson (when no team offered to trade for him) and ultimately allowed Jeremy Maclin to sign elsewhere, but in 2014 and 2015 he has spent 1st (Agholor), 2nd (Matthews) and 3rd (Huff) picks on black WR. DeSean and Maclin are among the highest paid WR in the NFL and Kelly wanted to get younger and cheaper.

Kelly also made the unpopular move to trade away (white) quarterback Nick Foles but there wasn’t any ESPN or talk radio chatter about getting rid of good white players. As an aside, Foles’ replacement in Philadelphia is 1/16th Cherokee and an inspiration to Native Americans.

This narrative was further enhanced later in 2015 when the Eagles traded away slot cornerback Brandon Boykin to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a draft choice. Given how atrocious the Eagles secondary was in 2013 and 2014, there were often clamors for the competent Boykin to be used on the outside. Kelly didn’t agree with that assessment and given Boykin’s small size (5’9"), he sent Boykin to the Steelers. Boykin, stung by the trade, texted with local media that Kelly was "uncomfortable around grown men of our culture". Coming just months after McCoy’s comments, this narrative grew to "black culture" and "young culture" and "urban culture" and you could insert any number of other types of culture. It fed into the narrative and there was always "the Riley Cooper thing" lurking.

Did anything come to fruition or change?

Soon after Boykin made his comments, he back tracked considerably. In September 2015, Boykin said:

"You may have heard about the comments I made on my way out of Philly — comments that got taken a bit out of context," Boykin writes. "I have no ill will towards Chip, and definitely none towards the Eagles. Chip’s job is to build the best football team he can build — a team with players that fit his system and his vision to be competitive on the field — and I wasn’t a part of that vision. There’s not much more to it than that. That’s the NFL."

For what it’s worth, the Eagles trade with the Steelers was for a 2016 5th round pick but could be upgraded to a 4th round pick if Boykin played 60% or more snaps in 2015. Boykin didn’t come close to that level in Pittsburgh (much like his playtime in Philly) and the Eagles will get just the 5th round pick. Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is African-American.

As for McCoy, he was injured throughout the year and had a down year, with less than 900 yards rushing and only 3 rushing TD’s. Interestingly, back in spring 2015 when he was traded, he conducted an interview whereby he was asked about his age and effectiveness heading into 2015. This is the Q & A:

You're 26 now, and there's a thought in the NFL that running backs fall off a cliff at 27. Are you going to fall off a cliff this year?
Nah. I'm gonna show them this year. There's guys like Frank Gore who are still playing very well. DeMarco Murray is older than me. Arian Foster, Jamaal Charles, Marshawn Lynch -- all the best backs are older than me. So I don't believe that.

As it turned out, in 2015 Foster, Marshawn, Charles, Murray, Gore and McCoy all either fell off a cliff or suffered down years for various reasons.

In January 2016, McCoy surprisingly spoke well of Chip Kelly saying "The one thing I will say about Chip is that he wants to win. He's very, very intelligent."

Summary:


Is Chip Kelly a racist? No. It appears not. There is no evidence although there is plenty of room for people such as Stephen A Smith to make a living opining about it when, allegedly, Eagles players just randomly come across Smith in Philadelphia and start talking. Kelly has moved on from expensive black WR to cheaper black WR and from an expensive black RB (McCoy) to another expensive black WR (Murray). He has moved on from formerly successful white football players too, such as QB Nick Foles and Guards such as Evan Mathis (in a heated contract dispute that would have had plenty of different undertones if Mathis was black).

As Kelly has often said: "I don't look at the color of any player. I just look at how do they fit on our team."

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Niners Nation's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Niners Nation's writers or editors.