Tra Thomas says some players feel like there’s a hint of racism on the Eagles

Yesterday Stephen A. Smith appeared on ESPN's First Take show and strongly implied, but not did not actually say, that Chip Kelly is racist. He appeared on ESPN's show again on Tuesday to let everyone know he stands by his comments.

More interestingly, however, Smith referenced an appearance by former Eagles player and assistant coach Tra Thomas recently made on FOX Good Day. Here's the video of the segement:

FOX 29 News Philadelphia | WTXF-TV

And via Crossing Broad, here's some of the transcript. Bold emphasis is mine:

"One of the things that you’re seeing right now, and these are the things that you have heard from the locker room from different players is that … they feel like there is a hint of racism. I personally … when you put that tag on someone, you gotta be careful with that, but there are some of the players that kind feel like that’s what it is. Especially when there was a report that came out last year that the Eagles were one of the whitest teams in the NFL. So you start to see the culture of the team change extremely quickly, when Coach Kelly takes over."

But he has seven black coaches, doesn’t he?

"Yeah you have seven assistant black coaches but only one black coach is over the segment. The other guys are assistants to the assistant coaches. Duce Staley is the only guy that’s head over his segment who is gonna be in charge of his group. The other guys are just assistants to an assistant coach."

Thomas spent time on the Eagles coaching staff the past two years before his contract expired following the 2014 season. The team did not renew his deal. Thomas said he was a little surprised the Eagles did not opt to keep him.