Bell: Eagles coach Chip Kelly has a growing image problem as ex-players sound off

Chip Kelly has a big problem.

It's called perception.

When a third former member of Kelly's Philadelphia Eagles publicly calls out the coach and suspects that race or culture plays a role in how the team is run, it is more than a sour grapes coincidence.

It’s personal.

Cornerback Brandon Boykin, traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers over the weekend, was the latest to diss Kelly, telling Comcast SportsNet that the third-year coach is “uncomfortable around grown men of our culture.”

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This follows remarks previously coming from ex-Eagles Pro Bowl running back LeSean McCoy and assistant Tra Thomas. After being traded to the Buffalo Bills in the spring, McCoy lamented that Kelly got rid of “all the good black players.”

Thomas, a former Eagles tackle under Andy Reid who spent the past two seasons on the coaching staff, told FOX in March that some players felt a “hint of racism” existed within the organization.

Boykin — at 5-10, he apparently doesn’t fit Kelly’s prototype for big, rangy corners — backtracked a bit after arriving in Pittsburgh. But his initial message should not be dismissed. Boykin didn’t call Kelly a racist, and no details of specific examples — in words or deeds — have surfaced to support that claim.

But clearly, Kelly, who acknowledged that he’s bothered by the characterizations that keep popping up, is facing scrutiny that goes a lot deeper than the questionable football moves that he has executed while amassing so much power at NovaCare Complex.

Like it or not, Kelly’s track record includes keeping wideout Riley Cooper after the white receiver was captured on videotape in the summer of 2013 uttering the N-word during an incident at a concert.

"The reality is we have 90 guys and you're going to have to cut to 53," Kelly said after being pressed on Boykin’s comments. "So 37 guys are going to be disappointed and obviously I would imagine all 37 of those guys have a different opinion than we have as a staff, but that's what you have to do."

Sorry, Chip, but that explanation regarding your roster management doesn’t really address the larger question, and a stronger response might have done much for your reputation.

Then again, maybe the lack of an impassioned response underscores what Boykin alluded to in clarifying his remarks after the firestorm spread — namely, that Kelly can’t relate to some of his players.

Since jumping from the Oregon campus for his first NFL job in 2013, Kelly has built on his reputation for being a sharp, cutting-edge coach. But for as intelligent as he’s widely portrayed, he comes off as rather tone deaf when he dismisses another serious allegation as a routine roster move. Sure, every team in the NFL makes personnel decisions on the path to a 53-man roster, but it’s rare for the discarded to make it so personal.

“When you’re a player, you want to be able to relate to your coach outside of football,” Boykin told NFL Network. “There were times when he just wouldn’t talk to people. You walk down the hallway, he wouldn’t say anything to you.”

Throughout his career, Kelly has dealt with many African-American players and players of various ethnic backgrounds. His moves this season included parting ways with Evan Mathis and Todd Herremens, two accomplished offensive lineman who happen to be white. Mathis was cut in a contract dispute a year after the stunning release of Pro Bowl receiver DeSean Jackson, an African American, for what Kelly characterized as a football decision. After dumping McCoy, Kelly brought running backs DeMarco Murray and Ryan Mathews into the fold and paid one of the largest contracts of free agency this year to cornerback Byron Maxwell. All three are black.

So it would be silly to view all of Kelly's moves through a racial prism. And several current Eagles, including quarterback Mark Sanchez and safety Malcolm Jenkins, strongly endorse Kelly and his manner of operating.

See, so many different worldviews can exists in an NFL locker room.

But it would be naïve, too, to suggest that strong social skills and the ability to connect with players from many different backgrounds and cultures are not vital ingredients for success as an NFL coach — not to mention as a leader of the men that you’re trying to inspire to run through walls. When Boykin mentioned getting the best out of players, it spoke to a fundamental tenet of successful coaching.

Kelly won’t be the last coach considered a control freak, and he’s not the first one who operates with a my-way-or-the-highway doctrine that rubs some pro players far differently than it may hit home with younger college players who typically are more inclined to buy into a program.

It’s the nuances of having two-way respect on the NFL level that looms over Kelly. Maybe winning will cure everything. He hasn’t won a playoff game, but he’s posted consecutive 10-6 regular-season marks. He can prove the doubters wrong by winning big with his type of players.

Yet the scrutiny has been turned up a notch — with all eyes on the methods of the man in charge.

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Follow NFL columnist Jarrett Bell on Twitter @JarrettBell

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