Chip Kelly, On The Night McCoy Was Traded
CHERRY HILL (CBS) --- Chip Kelly sure knows how to avoid being asked about Howie Roseman.
Tuesday night, Eagles Head Coach Chip Kelly was the Keynote Speaker at the Katz Jewish Community Center's Awards Dinner in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Only a handful of media members were on hand, hoping to get an explanation for what has been happening at One NovaCare Way since the last time Kelly addressed the media on December 29th, 2014. Kelly was supposed to talk about the importance of leadership and volunteerism, but by the time he took the stage no one cared about either of those things.
The event began at 5:30pm with dinner and a silent auction. Awards were to be given out at 6:00pm with Kelly speaking at 6:30 and a brief Q&A with audience members was to follow. However, when I arrived at 5:30, a member of the event's staff told me that Kelly wouldn't be speaking until 7:45pm and the Q&A session was now "up in the air."
As the event started, everyone was asked to take their seats. Then it happened.
At 6:33pm a tweet from Adam Schefter sent shockwaves through the room.
At that exact moment, the night's MC, former Eagles' Linebacker Gary Cobb asked everyone to rise for the National Anthem. Media members did their best to honor America while still trying to digest what they just read.
Within seconds of sitting back down, everyone started looking at their phones and signaling for their neighbor to look here. The murmurs of "he traded Shady" were being heard around the room.
Cobb took to the stage again to introduce the night's first speaker, but everyone was glued to their phone.
A gentleman spoke about the importance of the night or something (I don't know I was glued to my phone as well), but I did walk up to Cobb while he was off stage, to see if he saw the news. He did. There was no ignoring the story and Cobb decided to have some fun with it.
"Hey, when Chip gets here, please be polite", Cobb said to a crowd that enjoyed the joke.
When Kelly did arrive, he was seated in the corner of the room closed to the exit. Kids walked by him in their McCoy jerseys which only added to the awkwardness. One-by-one, media members approached and were turned way. One member of the Eagles staff told me, "[Chip's] not speaking tonight. He's here for the event. No media time."
Kelly took the stage at exactly 7:45pm to a warm ovation. As expected, he didn't say anything about the report of McCoy being trading. Instead, he stuck to the script telling anecdotes about leadership and volunteerism. It would have actually been considered a nice speech, had people not been distracted by the giant elephant in the room.
Kelly spoke for 15 minutes and even included a reference to Nick Foles' 7-Touchdown game against the Raiders in 2013. Kelly then walked off the stage, through a group of reporters and toward the exit, where I was standing. I asked him for a comment on the McCoy story, but he looked at me and said, "How ya doin'?" Then he walked right out the door before I could respond with, "well."
As for the night's Q&A, that was "up in the air," I later found out the Eagles pulled the plug on it, just hours before the event.
The coach that was a media darling during his first 12 months in the position has been anything but, since. His first year, he spoke when he was hired. Then again at the senior bowl. Then again at the combine. Then again at the owners meetings. Now after his Divisional Championship in 2013 and playoff loss, he only speaks in the offseason when he is mandated by the league to do so.
Kelly is scheduled to speak at the NFL Owners Meetings that begin March 22nd in Phoenix. He is mandated by the league to speak at that event, but with Kelly, you just never know.
