Report: Bill Belichick 'Reached Out' To Chip Kelly To Join Patriots Between Head Coaching Jobs
BOSTON (CBS) -- As Jeff Howe told 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher & Rich, Chip Kelly-to-the-Patriots is probably "not happening." But another report suggests that, a year ago, there was at least a small chance of Kelly donning the Flying Elvis.
A new story by Yahoo Sports! NFL columnist Charles Robinson argues that Kelly's job as San Francisco 49ers head coach was doomed from the start and the coach was joining an organization in disarray. The bulk of the column covers Kelly's rocky relationship with 49ers owner Jed York and GM Trent Baalke, suggesting that Kelly's overconfidence in his ability to quickly turn around the 49ers franchise contributed to both his decision to join the team and to his early ouster.
However, a nugget within the article reveals that Bill Belichick was one of multiple "friends" of Kelly who "invited him to spend some time with their organizations as he regrouped." The Eagles fired Chip Kelly at the end of the 2015 regular season and the 49ers hired him just two weeks later, meaning that Belichick's reported invitation to Kelly came during the early rounds of the 2015 NFL Playoffs.
This doesn't mean that Kelly has a chance to be the next Patriots offensive coordinator - or even that Belichick truly reached out to him and offered him a job in the first place - but it's interesting nonetheless that the idea of Kelly coming to New England is not entirely out of the realm of possibility.