Holiday Party Mishap May Have Contributed To Kelly's Firing

The firing of Philadelphia Eagles coach Chip Kelly may not have as much to do with football performance as Eagles fans would like to believe.

The controversial ex-Eagles coach allegedly “messed up” the franchise owner’s holiday party, sealing his fate.

Owner Jeffrey Luria has a special holiday party every winter, and this year it was scheduled on a day that conflicted with Kelly’s operations, CBS Sports reports:

For instance, Lurie has always taken considerable pride in the team’s holiday party, going to great expense to throw the large gathering, with it becoming something of a prized tradition with him. According to numerous sources with knowledge of the situation, Kelly basically refused to attend it this year on its normal Monday night, and ultimately Lurie had to move it to a Friday afternoon onsite to facilitate Kelly’s schedule. Kelly argued Monday night would disrupt the coach’s planning for the week -- a fair enough claim -- but Lurie apologized to the organization for the haphazard way the party was conducted this year and told others it would not happen in that fashion ever again.

The CBS Sports report, entitled “Chip Kelly’s people skills a large part of his undoing in Philadelphia,” goes on to allege that many employees involved with the organization were not happy with the way Kelly was running things.

Very little in the report, however, suggests that this frustration with Kelly’s management had anything to do with on the field performance, contrary to sentiment of the fanbase, which has been gossiping about replacing Kelly due to the team’s 7-9 performance this season.

Kelly was fired on December 29, with a week still remaining in the season. At the time, Lurie explained the odd timing by saying he wanted to give himself a week’s head start on looking for a replacement.

Since taking over as the Eagles coach three years ago, Kelly has mounted two winning seasons, playing to two years of 10-6 ball before this year’s 7-9 season.

The report did not indicate how important aspects such as holiday party cooperation would be in the selection of the next head coach.