The next franchise quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles will be Marcus Mariota. Some things are just meant to be.

Now I know what you’re thinking. Every word written by the Philadelphia media in the past month, including the opinion of this website’s excellent football writer, has dismissed the notion that the Heisman Trophy winner and Oregon superstar could end up back with his former college coach, Chip Kelly.

All of these people are wrong, and all for the same reason – flawed logic. 

The naysayers have said it’s just too expensive to move from No. 20 in the draft to No. 1 or 2. They have pointed out how many other needs the Eagles have, how promising Nick Foles was in 2013, and how uncertain Mariota’s success is in the NFL.

What they are ignoring is the depth of Kelly’s admiration for Mariota and – above all –the coach’s ability to think creatively. Kelly’s greatest chance for success is with Mariota, a strong, accurate thrower, a smart, quick thinker and a class act in a sports world filled with crass acts. It would be totally against Kelly’s nature not to pursue Mariota.

Kelly gushes over only one player, and it isn’t a current member of the Eagles. It’s Marcus Mariota. The coach even said on my WIP radio show last month that Mariota would succeed at any profession he selected, even those outside football.

You have to ask yourself this question: Is it just a coincidence that Kelly pulled his power play over personnel – a move that deprived Howie Roseman of all drafting input – just two weeks before Mariota declared for the draft? No, it isn’t.

The coach also knows how essential the right quarterback is to his unique offense. What he has learned in his two NFL seasons is that Michael Vick was too old to run it well, Foles too slow and Mark Sanchez too easily confused. Mariota is none of those. He already knows the system. By far, his best chance for success is running Kelly’s offense.

As for the price that the Eagles will have to pay, please note Kelly’s recent comment about how much NFL teams overvalue first-round picks. He said “half of them don’t make it anyway,” and that, at least so far, includes his own dreadful choice of linebacker Marcus Smith last April. There are no sure things in the draft – unless you’re Chip Kelly drafting Marcus Mariota.

Next, you have to ask yourself this question: Is it just a coincidence that Kelly pulled his power play over personnel – a move that deprived Howie Roseman of all drafting input – just two weeks before Mariota declared for the draft? 

No, it isn’t. Kelly knew exactly what he was doing, and why.

The big flaw in the naysayers’ logic is that they are applying conventional thinking to an unconventional coach. You can’t move from No. 20 to No. 1? How many times has Kelly been told he couldn’t do something and then did it? Remember, this is the same man who last year released a Pro Bowler, DeSean Jackson, in his prime. 

Chip Kelly plays by his own rules.

Outside of the city limits, there are many knowledgeable people who are equally adamant about Kelly acquiring Mariota. Former Eagles quarterback Randall Cunningham said last week that the coach should do “whatever it takes” to reunite with Mariota. Another ex-Eagles QB, Joe Pisarcik, has a son, Jake, who blocked for Mariota at Oregon this season, and Joe said he would make the move, too.

Many in the Oregon media think a reunion between Kelly and Mariota is inevitable because they share the same football philosophy, the same commitment to success and the same desire to do it together. People who really know Kelly and Mariota can see the future. They can see the obvious truth.

The next franchise quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles will be Marcus Mariota. Some things are just meant to be.

In our lifetime, there has been no more vivid example of the corruption of college sports than the way Penn State has handled the Jerry Sandusky scandal. From the decades of denial over the depravity on campus to the hero worship of Joe Paterno, the human decency of an honored institution has been sacrificed in the name of big-time football.

And even the passage of time has offered no perspective. Last week, the Nittany Lions won back the 111 victories Paterno achieved while enabling a pedophile to run amok in his facilities, and got some money back from the NCAA, as well. Next will be a return of the Joe Paterno statue, followed, no doubt, by the expunging of any record of Sandusky’s 30 years of child molestation.

The only records that count at Penn State – and at most big-time college-sports programs, for that matter – are the ones that led to championships, to the immortality of the heroes who attained greatness. Why else would Paterno remain such a god after the horrific negligence he admitted to before his death three years ago?

What this all comes down to is really very simple: What’s more important, preventing the sexual abuse of children or the career record of Joe Paterno? And an even better question is, how can anyone retain the status of hero when he looked the other way for so long while Sandusky was raping young boys?

Penn State has attempted over the years to pay lip service to the victims, but the school’s efforts to clear Paterno – and, in the process, its reputation – have been far more public and much more aggressive. The trustees still don’t get it, and they never will. Once a child is molested, there is no other issue, no chance for redemption.

The courts have established that Jerry Sandusky is a very sick man, having imprisoned him for the rest of his pathetic life. He has left behind a school with a different kind of sickness, an obsession for football that has destroyed its ability to distinguish between what’s important, and what isn’t.

The one quality the Phillies have mastered since their World Series parade in 2008 is consistency. Under president Dave Montgomery (now Pat Gillick) and GM Ruben Amaro, the team has been consistent in its stupidity.

For example, Amaro said last week that “in a perfect world,” Maikel Franco will start the 2015 season in the minor leagues. Franco is only 22, has been scorching the Dominican Winter League (.290, nine homers, 38 RBIs in 52 games) and projects as the heir apparent to Ryan Howard at first base.

But not now, thanks to Amaro, whose insane contract with Howard will cost the Phils an additional $60 million over the next two-plus seasons and has rendered him untradeable. Now, it’s always possible Amaro can find a sucker who will take at least a piece of that horrendous deal in the hope of reviving Howard’s career, but the odds are against it.

After Amaro admitted Howard would be better off finishing his career elsewhere, the GM said last week there may be no choice but to keep him and his 190 strikeouts in the lineup.

Try to follow the logic here, if you dare. Gillick is on record saying the Phils will not contend this season, but the team still plans to block its most promising young player from getting the experience he needs because Amaro can’t figure out what to do with a declining former star whom the organization wishes weren’t even here.

Here’s a crazy thought: Release Howard. He has no value to other teams at $60 million, nor to the Phillies at any price.

In that “perfect world” our GM was talking about, Maikel Franco would be the Phillies starting first baseman in 2015 – and Ruben Amaro would be working somewhere else.

•    The Super Bowl this year will pit one of the biggest cheaters in professional sports history, Bill Belichick, against a running back who won’t speak (Marshawn Lynch) and a cornerback who won’t shut up (Richard Sherman). OK, I give up. Who are we supposed to root for, the Patriots or the Seahawks?

•    Joel Embiid, the biggest building block so far in the Sixers reconstruction plan, has ballooned from 250 to 300 pounds while rehabilitating his surgically repaired foot, and he was sent home recently after a verbal altercation with conditioning coach James Davis. A 20-year-old without the motivation to stay in shape? That sound you hear right now is alarms going off.

•    Former Eagle DeSean Jackson went on Fox Sports Live last week and declared that Jameis Winston is a better quarterback than Marcus Mariota. Wow. Coming from a deep thinker like Jackson, that’s the kind of jarring revelation that could send shock waves through every NFL draft room.

•    After a lifeless 4-0 loss to Vancouver last week, Flyers coach Craig Berube said his team stopped competing with the score 1-0 in the first period. Can you imagine how that information sounded to a fan who paid $100 for a ticket to witness his team quit? There were 19,571 fans at that game. Every one of them deserves a refund.

•    The Seattle Mariners will induct into their Hall of Fame ex-Phillies pitcher and broadcaster Jamie Moyer this season. There is no truth to the rumor that they’re doing it only because he’s such an amazing speaker.