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There are a number of reasons why the Philadelphia Eagles fired Chip Kelly on Tuesday evening. One of them reportedly had to do with his refusal to relinquish personnel power. Another one involved him losing the support of his players. But it's not just the players who stopped supporting Kelly, according to multiple reports. The former Eagles coach lost support in entire organization.
Chip Kelly had virtually no allies at the NovaCare and then lost Jeffrey Lurie. Was tolerated when he won. Endeared himself to no one.
— Jeff McLane (@Jeff_McLane) December 30, 2015
Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports has even more details on Kelly's downfall:
So what else went wrong? Well, Kelly was losing people throughout the building, sources said, even outside of football operations. His autocratic tendencies got the best of him. His allies were few and far between. The idea that DeMarco Murray somehow led this charge is preposterous, I'm told, but in fact Lurie had begun having serious reservations a few weeks ago, when he began reaching out to confidants about how to proceed and began doing research on the pool of potential candidates elsewhere. He started to doubt whether Kelly The Innovative Coach was quite smart enough to overcome Kelly The Personnel Demagogue. Everything having to be Kelly's way -- moving events around to fit his schedule, things having to accommodate him -- grew troublesome.
Lurie didn't go into his meeting with Kelly with the intention of firing him, I'm told. More, it was to take his temperature and continue to feel him out and gather information that would lead to his ultimate decision on what to do with his organization in 2016. Obviously, things went sideways and what Kelly had to say didn't mesh with the owner's vision, and Lurie became convinced that for as radical as a Week 17 firing might be perceived, it was time to do it. The fact that Kelly didn't seem inclined to scratch and claw to remain in his perch, sources said, did him no favors as well.
Winning is a deodorant. It whitewashes everything. Kelly's personality and methods wouldn't have been drawn into question if the team was successful. But the Eagles were bad this year, and Kelly was largely to blame. The organization lost faith in him and Lurie decided it was time to move on.