February 19, 2016
Last month, Fox Sports 1’s Colin Cowherd said that Philly fans aren’t cerebral enough to understand Chip Kelly. While there is undeniably truth to the idea that the Eagles fan base overvalues old school philosophies – the Buddy Ryan worship is way over the top, for example – maybe they just happened to notice that Kelly was a disaster as both GM and coach in 2015.
Cowherd could be right, though. Maybe it does take an enlightened football fan to truly understand the innovation of throwing big money at veteran running backs and cutting starting linemen while also not replacing them.
This week, Cowherd’s show released a sketch parodying Eagles fans. In the video, he claims that they ran Andy Reid (who only coached here for 14 years) out of town. It had nothing to do with a 12-20 record over his final two seasons, I guess:
.@ColinCowherd got into a fight on the set of a Philly cable show. #TheHerdhttps://t.co/uhadaqgtbs
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) February 19, 2016
Laughing at Philadelphia can be a lot fun. In fact, there is a great television show on FX that has been doing just that for a decade. You just have to get it right.
Kelly very well may recapture the magic in San Francisco, and he certainly turned the Eagles around in a hurry. But if Cowherd can’t see why the Eagles failed in 2015, he’s playing the role of the stubborn fan that he is trying to satirize.
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
