~HEHE GREAT FUCKING ARTICLE! ,but how the fuck do u allow a snake in the grass(howie ,fucking name how many GOOD NFL People have left philly OR don't wanna come ?) still fucking 'poisoning/toxic' this org ! hows that happen ? Huh better watch out Mr. Lurie 1st time in my lifetime the iggles weren't on up here ( Harrisburg) & i really didn't give a shit ;o ....The word accountability has been thrown around a lot lately in Philadelphia Oops
The word accountability has
been thrown around a lot lately in Philadelphia. Malcolm Jenkins spoke
about it earlier this month. "The one area on our team that we really
don't do a good job with is holding guys accountable for what they do on
the field." Malcolm went on to speak about it more in depth. "It's just
my own opinion," Jenkins said. "From a coaching style, I was brought up
a little bit different, where most mistakes that teammates make or
players make are brought up in more of a team setting. The approach here
is more in the individual [position meeting] rooms, and it's by design
and that's on purpose. Jenkins is right, how can anyone be held
accountable as a team when their coach decides its not important enough
to meet as a team to correct mistakes.
Isn't it easier for a team
to understand and own their mistakes collectively when they look each
other in the eye and talk as opposed to passing the buck in individual
group meetings where not everyone knows whats being said? Wouldn't you
agree that's frustrating, not being allowed to get on the same page as a
whole group? Defensive lineman blaming linebackers, line backers
blaming secondary, secondary blaming line backers and so on. I'm not
saying that is exactly what happened, but judging from Malcolm Jenkins
frustration it very well could be. But this is a guy(Kelly) who wouldn't
even hold himself accountable let alone be accountable in any shape or
form in front of his team.. Accountability is something Kelly never
owned.
Chip Kelly, prior to this
season explicitly expressed to Mr. Lurie he needed control of personnel
operations for him to take this team to the next level. Mr. Lurie
reluctantly agreed, and said that he wanted to hold Chip accountable by
doing so. Lurie removed Roseman from the talent evaluation process so
there could be no one else to blame or accept reward besides Kelly. This
was obviously something Lurie was weary of but considering Kelly's
prior success, he caved in and gambled, because sometimes in life
gambles pay off and Kelly was such a polarizing figure with past
success, it might just work.
So what happens? A series of
questionable free agent signings involving big money contracts occur,
he lets yet another staple of the Eagles offense Jeremy Maclin walk out
the door, and signs quite a few injury prone players including trading
for an unproven commodity, injury prone quarterback Sam Bradford. If
Kelly pushed 100 dollars to the middle of the table initially, he made
his wager 1000 dollars by the time the draft was over. A lot of question
marks more than answers were made but surprisingly enough, the Eagles
were among early Super Bowl favorites, expectations were sky high. We
tend to forget that as the season went on and began to justify our early
struggles as growing pains.
So when the season started
to unravel in December and it was obvious Kelly's gambles weren't paying
off did Kelly own his mistakes? No absolutely not, unless of course you
bought the lip service he gave after the games to the Philly press. Did
Kelly ever admit once there was a lack of talent or that the players he
brought in weren't working? Even when Murray was benched he never
really hinted it was because he was struggling in his system, just that
match ups favored other players. Or that his high tempo offense wasn't
working, that defenses found ways to counter what once made them so
good? No, not one ounce of accountability, just a failure of execution.
But why would he, the only
people he made accountable were the ones that made him feel threatened
and in turn he made scapegoats out of them flogging them in the media as
a way to stifle any future critique making everyone including his staff
on edge. He held people accountable by teaching them a lesson in
public. Dragging Desean Jackson through the mud for an entire off season
for not buying in, allowing nasty aspersions to be cast upon him
without ever once speaking up to deny or defend him when he could of at
any point. He allowed it to happen claiming team policy on players under
contract as the reason not to speak to about it justifying his silence.
How about trading Lesean McCoy without a single notice to him prior
then claiming it was the Bills fault for not allowing Kelly enough time
to contact McCoy about the trade. Again, not accepting responsibility,
at least he later admitted it was mishandled but not before damaging the
emotional stability of one of his star players and only because of the
negative backlash Kelly was receiving in national media did he
halfheartedly attempt to make amends.
Is it any surprise then at
the end of the year, Kelly denies having sole control over the personnel
department? Throwing it all on Marynowitz? Why wouldn't Kelly just say
yes, ultimately I'm responsible for everything that goes on in this club
whether its on the field or in the front office? It's because Kelly's
incapable of owning up, he had no problem telling the press that Marcus
Smith was Roseman's doing. But this is nothing new. This is the same guy
that when under the threat of penalty for sanctions against Oregon,
flees college for the NFL leaving Oregon to deal with any repercussions
while enjoying a nice new multi-million dollar contract with the Eagles.
The biggest fear we had was
Kelly would just come here for three years until the violations would be
over and return to college football. I'm half convinced he knew the
moves he made were a gamble but did it anyways because if it didn't work
out he could walk right back to college and get pretty much any job he
wanted. Win win for Kelly, if he failed, how could you make him
accountable really? Fire him and he still collects his 6 million a year
for two years. Worth a shot if it paid off and only makes Kelly more
into the romantic figure and legend that I believe he started to think
of himself as. Chip Kelly was writing his own movie script starring
himself.
But there's one other person
that failed to be accountable and still fails to be accountable in this
ordeal. Jeffrey Lurie admitted he is more hands on in this organization
than people may think. He knew of the friction between Roseman and
Kelly and the rest of the front office, so is it far fetched to believe
that Lurie did have a pulse of what was going on in the locker room? I
watched the press conference Lurie gave yesterday and came away with the
impression Lurie often talks to players, engages in all facets of the
team, and generally has a pulse for whatever is going on. So I have to
believe Lurie was aware of the growing resentment that players were
accruing against Kelly in the locker room. Cary Williams, Lesean McCoy,
Desean Jackson, Brandon Boykin all unloaded their frustrations against
Kelly as they departed the team. Did Andy Reid have any players that
criticized his methods and personality when they left the team the way
they did with Kelly?
Even Bill Belichick gets
admiration from players he lets go and he comes off as having a stone
cold personality. Did we ignore it because they were all African
American players and this was in a way all related to Riley Cooper or
did we not care in general because as long as we were winning it didn't
matter and we would take our coaches side no matter what. I have to
blame Lurie here a bit because he didn't hold Chip accountable for a lot
of the things that were starting to occur. If he did know his silence
made him guilty because he allowed it to remain as long as we won ball
games. The fan in him keeping the business man at bay.
But that's all history now.
He fired Chip Kelly out of nowhere or so it seemed to the outside
observer. There is one thing Lurie is correct about when he fired Chip.
He said this is not a one year evaluation, but the next part he gets
wrong. This is a 3 year culmination is what he should of said, not a 3
year evaluation. Problems and friction on this team started during the
2nd year of Kelly's stint and it gradually ballooned and snow balled
until it got to the point where a major bubble was waiting to burst. The
front office were at each others necks and the players in the locker
room were giving up on Kelly, and Lurie the guy who allowed, not
supported, but allowed Kelly to continue down this path knew it had
reached a critical point and was partially guilty for allowing it to
reach the level it did.
You see when your a owner
like Stephen Ross of the Dolphins and you have no idea of whats going on
in your locker room then it's shocking when allegations of bullying
occur in your locker room. Do you think 90 year old Mrs. Ford has any
clue whats going on in the locker room? Answer me this question, Did
Lurie seemed shocked at all during his press conference or any time
after at any news that has come to light? The difference here is Mr.
Lurie was very hands with his team and I believe the reason he felt
relieved when he fired Chip is because he blames himself for allowing
everything that transpired to occur. Was Lurie shocked at any of the
resentment players have been coming forward with? His silence shows me
he was aware already. Mr Lurie describes himself as just as big of a fan
as he is an owner and in this situation he let the fan clout the
judgement of the business owner.
You ever see a older man
with a bad heart going through an extremely rough time in his life and
the moment it gets better he has a heart attack? Do you know what
doctors say is the cause? A culmination of stress caused by whatever
strife is going on in your life. When you carry the burden of stress and
guilt for so long when its over you have a sudden rush of relief, which
in turn can cause a heart attack if you have a bad heart. I've seen it
first hand. I don't think many people really understand what Mr. Lurie
meant when he said he felt relief more than anything when he fired
Kelly. It was because of the guilt he carried for so long, knowing a
situation was getting out of hand but trying to manage it all in the
name of winning.
This next part of this
journey is very important for Mr. Lurie specifically. And not just
because he fired such a polarizing coach when he did or because were
starting over. It's important because for the first time in 3 years
Jeffrey Lurie needs to hold himself accountable. He spoke of how Don
Smolenski, Howie Roseman, and himself would head the coaching search.
But I don't believe this can be as much as a collaborative approach as
it would be under normal circumstances. This is a where Lurie needs to
make up for allowing a culture of fear and silence to exist where
players felt more like prisoners than they did partners. How does one
get team work through dictatorship? Lurie owes this next hire to the
players in this locker room and you can sense he knows that because he
is making it a point of firing Kelly a week earlier than its customary
for teams for the sake of geting the players input on what they want in
the next coach.. Does that make sense why Lurie fired Kelly a week
early? The guilt got to the point where it was hard to continue as is
and he needed to make a move that sent a message to his players.
This is why he gave Chip
no options of retaining his job. It had gone long past that point. If
you have any reason to disagree with the argument I've laid out think of
the word relief for a moment and the timing of this fire. It's
important. Last time around Howie pushed for the Chip hire, this time
around Mr Lurie, if you want to be accountable yourself and don't want a
repeat of what just occurred for the last three years this must be your
choice because you were just as much to blame as Kelly. Philadelphia is
holding you accountable after this, and its what our players deserve
from you as well as the fans.
No comments:
Post a Comment