NHL Is Back & What’s Up With Kelly
I was going to write a post on the Yankees situation but obviously with the news overnight I will put that off for sometime this week. Let's start out with the news that the NHL & NHLPA have come to a tentative agreement which would ensure a 48 game season for this year. There is no bigger hockey fan than me. I love the game. It may be my favorite sport. However, while I'm happy they are going to play, for some reason my enthusiasm is dampened.
In my opinion, Commissioner Gary Bettman is an absolute failure. There is no doubt in my mind that he and the owners believed that they would break the union. Unfortunately, they ran into someone who is just as forceful (or stubborn) as they are and that person is Donald Fehr. Fehr is an expert in professional sports labor negotiations. He had plenty of experience representing the Major League Baseball Players Association. In the end, Bettman realized that he had to compromise to keep his job because another lost season would mean the end of his 20 year reign. In my opinion, this whole debacle should be cause for his dismissal but I'm sure it won't.
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It seems that Friday reports of Chip Kelly being the Cleveland Browns next head coach were grossly overstated. It seems that Kelly is mulling over an offer from the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles, who supposedly were focusing their attention elsewhere, met with Kelly for nine hours yesterday while the Browns and their attorneys sat and waited.
I'm beginning to wonder if Kelly and his agent haven't used the Browns to get a better deal from the Eagles or get something more from the University of Oregon. Quite frankly, if the Eagles keep Michael Vick then Kelly has his Quack Attack QB. Even if they don't have Vick, I would rather have Nick Foles than Brandon Weeden or Colt McCoy. Not to mention Jeremy Macklin, LeSean McCoy and Brent Celek. It has been reported by Chris Mortensen that Kelly knows that he will need another QB if he goes to Cleveland.
That leaves the Browns holding the bag. It will be interesting to see what the Dynamic Duo of Haslam & Banner will do if Kelly signs with Philadelphia. If they want to make a big splash they need to go to Jon Gruden and back up the same Brinks Truck they had for Kelly and give him what he wants. Otherwise, hire Ken Whisenhunt and lets move on. The next 24 hours will be interesting
Kelly To Browns & Why I’m Concerned
There were reports throughout the evening that Chip Kelly was going to be the new head coach of the Cleveland Browns. Bills fans here in Western New York were disappointed as they were hoping that their team would get him. Then late last night, Chris Mortensen reported that Kelly was going to meet with the Bills and then on Saturday meet with the Eagles. This after meeting seven hours with the Browns, including dinner.
While Philadelphia and Buffalo were continuing to interview other candidates, the Browns still seem to be the favorites to get the offensive guru from Oregon. I have been trying to get excited about this move. I was thinking about how there would be an improvement in the red zone as the Browns wouldn't be settling for field goals anymore. I wanted to be excited because everyone else was telling me I should be excited but for some reason I couldn't.
Kelly has never coached in the NFL. There are restrictions on the number of players you can have on the roster. You can't go out and recruit players for a specific system or position, you need to be able to draft them. You need to be able to manage a salary cap. You have to deal with teams week in and week out who have as many talented players as you do. But what really makes me nervous is whether or not the current roster will fit Chip Kelly's offense. And the key to running an offense is at quarterback and I'm not sure if the Browns have the right one for the Quack Attack.
There are those that say that Kelly is smart enough to know that he is not going to carbon copy his Oregon offense in Cleveland. They point to the adaptation of the Oregon offense in New England with Bill Belichik. Brandon Weeden did operate out of a shotgun style spread offense at Oklahoma State. Could that be the direction Kelly takes?? None of us know. But my concern is that if there is the need for another quarterback we are at square one again and that's something I'm not sure any Browns fan can deal with. We've been dealing with it since 1999.
So, unless the Eagles or Bills can rock Chip Kelly's world, it looks like he's headed to Cleveland and I'll be holding my breathe. I've been excited before only to be let down and for some reason I just have a bad feeling about this hire. Here's hoping I'm wrong.
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