The Misunderstanding of Chip Kelly

Much has been made of Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly’s penchant for parting ways with talented football players in order to create his kind of culture in the locker room.  DeSean Jackson was the first and many followed this past offseason as Kelly gained total control of personnel over Howie Roseman.  The trade of running back LeSean McCoy, the release of all-pro guard Evan Mathis and most recently the trade of cornerback Brandon Boykin raised eyebrows across the National Football League.

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Wide receiver Riley Cooper is still with the team two years after uttering a racial slur in public.  As a result, the public has questioned Kelly’s ability to handle egos.  McCoy and Boykin both made comments following their departures from the team that insinuated Kelly does not work well with the black players on his team.

In today’s world, it’s easy for someone who has made decisions as bold as Kelly’s to be misunderstood.  That is what has happened here as the third-year coach decided to put the team through a roster makeover in the offseason and the motives behind his moves were blown out of proportion. 

Chip Kelly’s job is to win football games for the Eagles.  Who cares if he does not relate well with certain players on the team? That’s not what he’s getting paid to do.  Granted, culture has certainly driven some of his moves but if he feels that creating a certain culture is necessary to win then what’s the big deal?  While his decisions have people questioning if Kelly is a racist, there are football reasons behind many of his moves as well.

Let’s start with the trade of McCoy to the Buffalo Bills for inside linebacker Kiko Alonso.  After taking heat for not getting anything for Jackson in 2014, Kelly moved McCoy and his hefty cap hit to Buffalo for a 24-year old inside linebacker who appears to be fully healthy after missing all of 2014 with a torn anterior cruciate ligament.  Alonso had an impressive rookie season in 2013 and with two years left on his rookie contract serves as a cheap option for production on defense. 

To replace McCoy, Kelly signed former Dallas Cowboy DeMarco Murray.  Murray’s downhill, straight ahead running style is different than McCoy’s who tended to dance and look for big plays at times when nothing was there. In Kelly’s fast-paced offense, a back like Murray who’s going to take what’s there and gain yards as often as possible is very important to keep the chains moving.  So with the McCoy trade, Kelly got a young and cheap inside linebacker who figures to be a key contributor on defense in Alonso and replaced McCoy with a better scheme fit in Murray.

Trading Brandon Boykin was a classic case of getting something for someone who isn’t in your long-term plans.  Boykin is in line for a new contract following the 2015 season.  There’s a strong possibility that contract would not be another one with the Eagles had the nickel corner remained on the roster in 2015.  The Eagles brought in an influx of defensive backs as Kelly continued to remake the team in the spring.  They signed Byron Maxwell and Walter Thurmond.  E.J. Biggers and Jaylen Watkins will compete for spots on the roster in camp. They drafted Eric Rowe, JaCorey Shepherd and Randall Evans. Nolan Carroll is returning for his second season with the Eagles with a chance to start opposite Byron Maxwell as the team’s other cornerback.  Boykin was hopeful to be given a chance to move outside and start but with the way the Eagles approached the offseason it’s clear they wanted to move in a different direction and so they gave Boykin a chance to start outside on a Pittsburgh Steelers team in desperate need of cornerbacks. 

The Eagles got a 5^th round draft pick back for Boykin but it could be a 4^th round selection if Boykin plays 60% of Pittsburgh’s defensive snaps in 2015.  So it seems like a win-win.  Boykin should get a chance to play outside in Pittsburgh and if all goes well the Eagles will get a 4^th-round draft pick back for him which is decent value in return for someone who you weren’t planning on keeping around beyond this upcoming season anyway.

At the end of the day, Chip Kelly is a football coach that is trying to win games.  Say what you want about any preferential treatment that may or may not exist, this looks like the best roster Kelly has to work with in his three years with the Eagles and he was the one who assembled it.  Winning solves everything and if everything goes according to planned, no one will care about how well Chip Kelly relates with his players.

Photo: http://nfl.univision.com/philadelphia-eagles/article/2015-07-27/chip-kelly-vida-privada-eagles-2015-nfl?refPath=/deportes/noticias/

Induction Weekend taking on new meaning

If you know me well, or just happened to read my blog around this time last year, you know that I have been going to National Baseball Hall of Fame Induction Weekend in Cooperstown, New York every year since 2009.  Baseball was the first sport I started watching.  Induction weekend gives me three days to escape from the humidity of Cherry Hill, New Jersey during the summer and walk up and down breezy Main Street in Cooperstown and pass by legends of the game signing autographs.

This was my view outside the hall
upon arriving last year.

I’ll always have a profound respect for the hall of famers that played before my time.  I’m a stats guy and like to think I can reel off a lot of their numbers.  If I catch an MLB Network tribute at the right time I enjoy taking in highlights of these players.  Every year I make a baseball quiz for induction weekend.  Many of the same greats appear on it year after year but as the answers to different questions, which serves as a testament to the kind of careers these guys had. 

Rickey Henderson is one that I especially enjoy watching old clips of.  He was a member of the first class I saw inducted in 2009 and I love watching a speedster wreak havoc on the base paths, like Dee Gordon in today’s game, and so as I discovered the greatness of Rickey Henderson it didn’t take me long to start thinking about how much I would have loved to have seen him play in his prime. So while I can tell you he stole 1406 bases in his career, had a few seasons where he stole over 100 bags, and always had a high on-base percentage, I’ll never have those memories of his career where I can say “I remember where I was when he did that.”

As I enter my 7^th induction weekend, the trip begins to carry a new meaning for me.  The group I go up with remains the same and the annual traditions never change, but the inductees do.  Last year was when I first really got to experience an induction weekend where I began to have good recollections of the players’ careers.  Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux were two of members of the class of 2014.  Growing up a Phillies fan, I have memories of the two of these pitchers leading a Braves staff that was dominant for most of my childhood.  The Braves were the top dogs in the NL East for years and I would always pencil them in as division champs every April before the season started.  With vague memories of how well Greg Maddux fielded the position as a pitcher or the workmanlike performances Glavine turned in on his way to winning over 300 games, the induction weekend experience was enhanced.

This year it’s Craig Biggio, Randy Johnson, John Smoltz, and Pedro Martinez.  After mentioning Glavine and Maddux I might as well pick up with Smoltz.  To me, while Smoltz was terrific as a starter for Atlanta, he’ll always be that dominant closer who slammed the door for the Braves night in and night out.  If the Phillies were ever lucky enough to rally in the 9^th against him, I was sure to enjoy it.  Biggio takes on an ironman status of sorts for me.  I can remember him as a very durable player who played a few different positions throughout his career on his way to becoming a member of the 3,000-hit club.  Johnson was that big tall lefty who no hitter had a chance against.  But despite being a starter his entire career, his heroic performance recording a win in relief in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series is something that stands out for me.  Lastly is Martinez who at the height of his career was right in the middle of arguably the best rivalry in sports.  When the Red Sox and Yankees were on television, I was watching.  There’s the iconic image of him pushing Yankees pitching coach Don Zimmer to the ground in the 2003 ALCS in a benches clearing brawl I can recall.

So with another induction weekend right around the corner, it’s nice to be able to have a new perspective to three of my favorite days of the year.  Now it’s more than spitting out statistics of the inductees.  I have moments of their careers that stand out to me.  After I had been going up year after year and players I saw play were becoming eligible for induction by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, I was eagerly anticipating the time when I could say “I remember when he did that.”  Well, here we are.

Sixers were right in picking Joel Embiid

The Sixers rebuild continues to produce more questions than answers.  There was no doubt that the franchise needed a change of direction in May 2013 when Sam Hinkie took over as general manager following the Andrew Bynum fiasco.  But after just 37 wins in two seasons, the question that no one seems to be able to answer is when the team will move forward and become a winner.  This weekend seemed to only push things back more.

                                                         USA Today Sports Images

Sixers beat writer Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer was the first to report that center Joel Embiid will have a second surgery on his right foot to repair a stress fracture in the navicular bone and will miss the 2015-16 season.  Embiid sat all of 2014-15 rehabilitating from his first surgery on the foot which he injured a week prior to the 2014 NBA Draft. 

The Sixers selected Embiid with the third pick in last year’s draft.  The seven-footer was expected to go first to the Cleveland Cavaliers prior to the foot injury.  However, with the injury happening a week before the draft, Cleveland opted for Embiid’s college teammate at Kansas, Andrew Wiggins.  Entering the draft, Embiid drew comparisons to Hakeem Olajuwon with his ability to drastically impact the game on both ends of the floor.  His skillset screamed superstar in the making.  That’s exactly what the Sixers had lacked since the Allen Iverson era had ended. 

The Sixers weren’t looking to return to mediocrity.  Hinkie thinks big.  Selecting Embiid was the kind of high-risk high reward type of decision that is becoming definitive of the Sixers efforts to resurrect the franchise.  Unfortunately for Hinkie and company, the high-risk end of the pick is getting the better of the high reward.

But that does not mean this was the wrong decision.  Those who criticize the pick will merely say “Anyone who can play!” instead of taking the gamble.  But there was no one else at 3 that could have the kind of potential to be a superstar.  That’s what the first step of the rebuild is all about.  Identifying a franchise player that the organization can move forward with for once after years of having just an average roster.  Had Hinkie opted for Aaron Gordon or Dante Exum the same skeptics would have smashed him for not knowing how to identify franchise-changing talent.  Julius Randle got hurt in the first game of the year and missed the rest of the season.

So what was the alternative? The Sixers weren’t looking for someone that would have rerouted them back towards mediocrity.  Credit Hinkie for stockpiling draft picks and giving himself the insurance of having multiple lottery tickets to cash in on.  He selected another center, Jahlil Okafor this year at number three.  Maybe Okafor becomes the franchise now.  But last year with Wiggins and Duke wing Jabari Parker off the board, Hinkie needed someone that could be his franchise face.  Embiid was his only option.

Photo: http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-basketball/25221461/76ers-draft-needs-will-sam-hinkie-finally-take-his-guard-of-the-future

Dustin Johnson and the fatal three putt

Golf can be such a cruel game.  While this sounds like a cliché sports fan utter all the time whether it’s just watching a PGA event or having fun playing a round, Dustin Johnson certainly proved this to be true yesterday.  At the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay it looked like 21-year old Jordan Spieth was going to secure the year’s second major with a three shot lead after 16 holes.

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Before you could blink, Spieth made a double bogey at 17 followed by a Johnson birdie and the two were tied heading to the 18^th tee. If you didn’t know this much by now, you probably at least know how it ended. Spieth made a birdie on the par five 18^th and Johnson had to counter to force a full-round playoff which would have been today. Johnson got on the green in two and had a 15-foot eagle putt to win his first major championship.  At the very worst he’ll get a playoff right? Not so fast. Johnson’s eagle putt sailed long leaving him with some work to do for birdie from about five feet out.  After missing the birdie putt, Johnson tapped in for par and Jordan Spieth was the U.S. Open Champion.

Not exactly the way you wanted to see a major end.  Even Spieth was shocked at Johnson’s three putt. Not to take anything away from the youngster who’s playing well above his age, as he is halfway to the grand slam, but all the focus is on Johnson letting it slip away on this day after.

Granted, Johnson didn’t play his best round of golf on Sunday, especially when it came to putting.  The 18^th was not the only time Johnson missed a short putt.  But while it’s easy to look at is as a sports fan and say he choked and didn’t deserve to win, it’s hard not to feel for Johnson.  He’s been through a lot in his career. He was suspended for six months from the PGA Tour in 2012 for a failed drug test.  He was disqualified from the PGA Championship in 2010 for grounding his club while on the cusp of victory.  He has finished in the top ten at majors seven times.  But he has never walked away victorious.

Yet, perhaps this would be the time when he got to exercise the demons.  Dustin Johnson had a walk up the 18^th fairway at Chambers Bay knowing he would have a putt to win.  Five minutes later, it’s another disappointing finish at a major for the Coastal Carolina product.  As I said, golf is cruel sometimes.

So where does Johnson go from here?  The first comparison I thought of shortly after the dust had settled was Adam Scott.  The supremely talented Australian had his first major seemingly in the bag, but let the 2012 Open Championship slip away making four straight bogies to end his final round as Ernie Els stole the Claret Jug by a stroke.  Scott bounced back to win the 2013 Masters in a playoff over Angel Cabrera to soften the blow from the Open.  Perhaps that will be Dustin Johnson.  He certainly has the talent to win a major and it’s just a question of if he can seal the deal.  Or perhaps yesterday will prove to be a defining moment of Johnson’s career.  Stay tuned.

Photo: http://golfweek.com/photos/2015/jun/21/62464/

The Triple Crown: An accomplishment regardless of audience

 As Larry Collmus said on Saturday evening as it became evident, “American Pharoah is finally the one!” and just like that 37 years of waiting for a horse to win the sport’s triple crown was all over.  But a lot of the immediate reaction just 48 hours later has not necessarily been about the accomplishment itself but more so, something along the lines of “Do you care?”

                                                           Patrick Smith/Getty Images
Victor Espinoza crosses the finish line at the Preakness
aboard American Pharoah after a rainy day at Pimlico,

The answer to that question should be a yes from all sports fans.  Perhaps horse racing isn’t as popular as it was in the 70s when Secretariat, Seattle Slew, and Affirmed all took home the sport’s most prestigious award but in no way should that diminish American Pharoah ending the drought. For 37 years, a horse not winning the triple crown was exactly what drew people in.  All eyes were on the Kentucky Derby winner heading into the Preakness and in some cases the Belmont yet it never quite happened until Saturday.  Now that it has it’s not a big deal and no one really cared to begin with?

After watching attempts from Smarty Jones, Big Brown, and California Chrome fall short, and seeing I’ll Have Another get scratched from the Belmont, I can say I was happy I was able to see this happen.  It seemed like year after year we would get teased with the possibility, but ultimately it wouldn’t be enough.  It’s the same narrative every year.  Most of the other horses don’t run in all three races.  The Belmont is the last race and is the longest one so how can a horse who already won the first two legs hold up for the third jewel of the crown when lots of the other horses are fresh? For once, these doubts were brushed aside.

This is the pinnacle of the sport. So yes, if you’re a sports fan, you should care.  All you had to do to care was watch three 2-3 minute races over the span of five weeks to realize what happened and respect it.

Some argue that the mystique of the drought is what drew some in and now that Bob Baffert, Victor Espinoza and the rest of American Pharaoh’s team have ended it, there’s not as much excitement surrounding the sport.  Maybe that will prove to be true.  However, that’s a conversation to have at this time next year when we’re going through the triple crown races again and we can see who cares and who doesn’t now that everyone has already seen the sport’s greatest accomplishment become a reality.  But for now, why not enjoy history?  After all, it might be another 37 years until we see it again.

Photo: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/05/17/american_pharoah_is_one_step_from_triple_crown_after_preakness_victory.html