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The Devil is in the Details - Chip Kelly's greatest impact


We're starting to hear the stories. Players are becoming injured - some season ending. And recent memory has me recalling how the eagles have struggled with the injury demon in recent years. Last year was so bad, our offensive line ended up with 2nd and 3rd platoon guys getting the majority of playing time. Is it any wonder that we struggled so?
Along comes Chip Kelly, with personal monitoring devices, smoothies concocted for each individual player. Chip institutes sports science. And the fans and the media get a nice chuckle at the thought. We need a winning attitude and we get nutritional shakes.
But hold those thoughts for just a minute. Let's assume that Chip is a man of his word, and that he isn't inventing anything new, and that he isn't changing things without a good reason. He seems to have a plan. Can it be that Chip Kelly is onto something here? We have been at it, and with the random factor eliminated, our guys appear to be healthier now than other teams. Is there some truth to this? Can Sports science help eliminate sports injuries?
The answer is yes. According to the Ironman Sports Medicine Institue, a number of factors contribute to sports injury: Fatigue (remember Kelly is monitoring players sleep), nutrition (remember Kelly is providing nutritional supplements), Hydration (drinking lots of water is encouraged) , Psychological fatigue (playing music is attributed to relieving psychological fatigue and stress).
So perhaps the devil is in the details. Perhaps Chip Kelly has something with this innovation. Only the players will know for sure, and our overall injury reports can confirm. Chip Kelly has been quoted as saying: "The best ability is durability". If the eagles remain relatively intact this year, while other teams are forced to field players from deep in their depth charts, we have a much greater chance of success. And these are the facts that the pundits like to ignore. Thankfully, our coach is on top of them.