BREAKING: Chip Kelly Fired As Eagles Head Coach

PHILADELPHIA, PA - The struggling Philadelphia Eagles have fired head coach Chip Kelly, the franchise announced Tuesday night.

“We appreciate all the contributions that Chip Kelly made and wish him every success going forward,” said Eagles chairman and CEO Jeffrey Lurie in a prepared statement.

Coach Pat Shurmur will be interim head coach for Sunday’s game against the New York Giants.

A press conference will be held Wednesday, December 30, at the NovaCare Complex at noon. Lurie will be in attendance.

Kelly recently bought a home in Haddonfield, New Jersey, indicating that he expected Philadelphia to be his home for the foreseeable future.

The head coach assumed general manager duties over the past offseason, and made a flurry of controversial moves which did not pan out the way the Eagles hoped.

The Eagles, 6-9, will battle the Giants for second place in the NFC East. The loser will finish third.

Both teams are out of the running for the playoffs, but the game still has importance: the loser will travel to London during the 2016-17 season to play the St. Louis Rams, the third place finisher in the NFC West.

NFL schedulers determined earlier in the year that the matchup would take place between the third place teams in each division.

Ed Marynowitz, vice president of player personnel, was also released, the Eagles said.

Tom Donahoe, senior football advisor for the Eagles since 2012, will assume the role of senior director of player personnel.

Donahoe is the former GM of the Buffalo Bills and director of football operations for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Image via Commons: “Chip Kelly Smile” by Abdoozy - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0