The conventional wisdom in local media on Thursday was that Eagles coach Chip Kelly was out the door. By Friday afternoon, Howie Roseman had lost his general manager’s title and coach Chip Kelly had become the Birds’ supreme commander
By Theodore N. Beitchman
I don’t want to say I told you so, but I did.
Three days ago on this site I wrote:
“(Howie) Roseman may feel like the winner on this 2015 New Year’s day, but he is destined to lose just like Banner did. And remember, Banner and Lurie were chums from childhood.”
Read the entire article:
http://fastphillysports.com/lurie-will-ultimately-side-kelly-howie-boy/
What you readers may be asking yourselves is why the rest of what passes for the media in this town were so convinced that Kelly had lost out, he was on thin ice and he was headed out the door, just like the 49ers’ Jim Harbaugh.
That was what bubbleheaded Sam Donnellon of the Daily News wrote on Friday in a Daily News column. Really, does any editor ever read his stuff or does it get published unexpurgated?
Without quoting anyone by name or off the record or not for attribution, Skippy was making the case that Harbaugh leaving the Niners was a trend and that Kelly — perhaps because, like Harbaugh, he also coached in the Pac 12 so it must be in the left coast water — would flee the tyranny of Howie Boy.
Read what Donnellon scribbled:
“ … we still don’t know how Kelly will ultimately translate as an NFL head coach: Whether he will win enough to solidify his reputation but not enough to keep him from fleeing back to college, the way Nick Saban, Steve Spurrier and now Jim Harbaugh have, to name just a few.”
Skippy is right. No one knows how Kelly will translate long-term in the NFL, though short-term he is 20-12 in two seasons, way better than Saban and Spurrier did.
With respect to a comparison to Harbaugh’s situation in San Francisco, there are two big differences:
• Harbaugh had the reputation as a hard-case with the players — a thundering asshole, really — and they tuned him out; and
• The Niners have a real general manager, not a trumped office boy like Roseman. Before he became GM four years ago, Trent Baalke made his bones as the team’s player personnel director; four years as the Redskins’ college scouting coordinator; three seasons as a scout for the Jets; a defensive coach at South Dakota State and athletic director at Shanley High in Fargo, N. D.
Oh, and he was voted 2011 NFL executive of the year by the Pro Football Writers of America.
By comparison, Kelly is revered by his players and Roseman is just an office boy and he couldn’t possibly have the same clout with Lurie as Baalke has with Niners CEO Jed York.
It’s not surprising that Donnellon would make such a ridiculous comparison. He has been pawning himself off as a Kelly Whisperer for two years, reading his body language to come to stupid conclusions.
What is surprising is that so many people — including the level-headed Rhea Hughes and solid-as-a-rock Ray Didinger, who were agreeing with Skippy as late as 6:30 on Friday on CSN — bought into the meme.
Donnellon is a joke as an analyst and a typist not a writer.
In the future, he should do some reporting before he commits journalism.
