Rich Hofmann, Daily News Sports Columnist
Up off of the floor, then. A splash of cold water on the face and away we go. Chip Kelly is the new coach of the Eagles. The Gus Bus has left town, replaced by what Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie believes will be the laser-quick offense of the future.
You know it took a big bag of money to pry Kelly away from the clutches of the University of Phil Knight. So this is where the Eagles-are-cheap narrative goes to die an overdue, deserved death.
You know, too, that the Eagles are not settling here, and that they did not bungle their search, and that pretty much everything said and written in the last week about this process has been conversation in search of reality. Well, this is the reality: the guy they wanted all along -- or at least one of the guys, along with Penn State coach Bill O’Brien -- is now theirs.
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Rich Hofmann, Daily News Sports Columnist
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Rich Hofmann, Daily News Sports Columnist
His office? Your office?
“His office,” Jeffrey Lurie said. “When Andy and I talked, especially about these kinds of things, it was usually in his office. I just thought you showed respect by doing it that way.”
It was coming up on 9 o’clock on Monday morning. That is when the Eagles’ owner took the walk down the hall, the walk that he had been dreading. Out the door, down the hall, into a common area and then over to the football side of the NovaCare Complex. Maybe the walk took 15 seconds. Maybe a little bit more.
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Rich Hofmann, Daily News Sports Columnist
Cullen Jenkins could just shake his head and say, "He took all of the heat for all of our failures on the field."
And so it went, on the day Eagles fired coach Andy Reid.
The press was allowed into the NovaCare Complex at 11 am, an hour after Reid addressed the team following his firing. Several players said the team gave Reid a standing ovation when he was finished talking. Then, the ritual collection of belongings in trash bags began. Most of the players were gone by the time reporters entered the locker room.
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Rich Hofmann, Daily News Sports Columnist
According to an Eagles team official, here is the rough timeline of what has happened so far on this momentous Monday morning at the NovaCare Complex:
Reid and team owner Jeffrey Lurie met between 8:30 and 9:00. It was at this meeting, the official said, that Lurie informed Reid that he was fired.
Reid addressed the team at 10 am at a regularly-scheduled team meeting, to tell them of his release. The official and several players described the meeting as "emotional." Safety Kurt Coleman and running back LeSean McCoy both said that the players gave Reid a standing ovation when he was finished talking.
Rich Hofmann, Daily News Sports Columnist
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- For years, I had this vision of how Andy Reid would walk away. I carried it until pretty recently, until about 2010. The way I figured it, the final camera shot would go like this: Reid finishing the press conference after the Super Bowl, finding his wife, Tammy, in the crowd of reporters -- she always goes to his post-game press conferences -- and walking away with one arm around her and the Lombardi Trophy in the other.
It was cinematic and Hollywood, yes -- but didn’t the law of averages have to work for Reid at some point? Didn’t it? That was the theory, anyway. In the last 2 years, though, the vision changed. We all know the reasons -- Michael Vick, a couple of bad drafts, a failure to replace Jim Johnson at defensive coordinator despite repeated attempts. And while it was easy to see it ending badly, it was hard to predict the last day.
Sunday was the last day.
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Rich Hofmann, Daily News Sports Columnist
The Eagles are only a laugh track short of a situation comedy right now. At one point on Thursday night, they lost fumbles on three consecutive plays and four plays out of five -- and I, for one, can never forgive myself for having typed the words “Bryce Brown” and “Steve Van Buren” in the same sentence a couple of weeks ago.
Besides the fumbles, they also managed to draw a penalty for something no one had ever heard of -- calling disconcerting signals while lining up to defend against a field goal. Just before the snap, perhaps someone yelled, “Boo!”
Oh, wait -- that was the crowd. Anyway, all of that, plus the normal weekly ration of ineptitude, added up to this final score: Bengals 34, Eagles 13.
Even if the Eagles win out, will Andy Reid return to Philly? Will Andrew Bynum ever play for the Sixers? Daily News columnist Rich Hofmann weighs in on these issues and the Phillies' recent trades in a video chat with CineSport's Brian Clark.
Video: What is the most desirable trait for the next Eagles head coach? Who will be the next Eagles' player or coach to go? CineSport's Noah Coslov & the Philadelphia Daily News' Rich Hofmann discuss.
