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The promising Chip Kelly era in Philadelphia wound up being a major disappointment, but LeSean McCoy seemed to hint that the dynamic between players and the coach was a factor.
Kelly joined the Eagles in 2013 and was set to bring in a new era of football with one of the most dynamic offenses the league had ever seen.
However, he only lasted three years with the Birds, before spending one season with the 49ers and then going back to college.
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Eagles head coach Chip Kelly before the Buffalo Bills game on Dec. 13, 2015, at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. (Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
The Eagles were Kelly’s first NFL gig after he had been the head coach at the University of Oregon for four seasons. But McCoy, the team’s star running back at the time, doesn’t think it was necessarily the NFL pressure that got to Kelly.
In a podcast episode titled “The Truth About Chip Kelly,” McCoy and his cohost, and former teammate, DeSean Jackson, eviscerated their former coach and how he handled certain players.
“I’ve never met a coach that was uncomfortable with dealing with Black players…” McCoy said.
One instance McCoy made note of was how his running backs coach, Duce Staley, would be the one offering Kelly’s advice, rather than McCoy getting it straight from the source.
Running back LeSean McCoy of the Eagles talks to head coach Chip Kelly on the sidelines during the Jacksonville Jaguars game on Sept. 7, 2014, at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. (Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
“I’m thinking, ‘These aren’t even your words,’ so I would say [to Staley], ‘Where’d you get that at? Why are you telling me this?’ because me and him had a great relationship. [Staley said], ‘Well, Chip wants you to do this and that…’ He would never say it.”
McCoy also said White players felt similarly and also referenced a time when Kelly told a Black player to cut his hair to “look more presentable.”
He also said Kelly kept Black players away from Riley Cooper shortly after the receiver went viral for using the N-word at a concert.
Head coach Chip Kelly of the Eagles after the end of the first half of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers game at Lincoln Financial Field on Nov. 22, 2015, in Philadelphia. (Rich Schultz/Getty Images)
“I had a good relationship with Coop,” McCoy said. “[I thought], ‘Ain’t no way he’s racist…’ but I wanted to talk to him. Chip made it so nobody could even speak to him, no one could even talk to him. And I’m thinking like, ‘How does that even happen? You say all this and that, and you just say ‘sorry’ and you leave and not ever talk about it?’ [Kelly] hid that whole thing from us.”
They also ripped Kelly for releasing Jackson after the best season of his career following speculation he was involved in gang activity, which Jackson denied; traded McCoy for Kiko Alonso, an Oregon alum; and let Jeremy Maclin walk after he led the team in catches and yards in 2014.
Fox News reached out to Ohio State, where Kelly currently coaches, for a comment, but has not received a response.
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