Chip willing to give players another chance

AMONG THE popular theories accompanying Chip Kelly's release of DeSean Jackson in March, most popular was the premise it was done to establish some type of moral beachhead: That alleged gang involvement, petulance and insubordination induced the NFL coach, a year removed from college, to release a Pro Bowl receiver coming off his best season statistically.

Such theories say more about how we view our favorite NFL football team than how Kelly, or most any other successful NFL football coach coaches them. Already, in less than one calendar year, Kelly's players have berated concert cops with racial epithets, are reportedly awaiting suspension for the use of a banned substance and just the other day, been put in the pokey for allegedly scuffling with a cop outside of an Arizona bar while intoxicated.

With each of these events comes the usual call for the release of the player by some, and a review of Kelly's past as a head coach at the University of Oregon, too. The Eagles, or their defenders, will point out as well that they have one of the league's better track records in this regard, among the lowest player arrest totals since 2000.

It's all based on the premise that fans care how their team members represent themselves and will express their displeasure with such bad or boorish behavior via their wallets. If we learned nothing else from the quickness by which public outrage over the signing of Michael Vick turned into public consumption of a replica jersey, it should be that is not always or even often true, that victory is easily mistaken for virtue.

As football coaches go, Kelly is more human than most. His history, dating back to the University of New Hampshire and most certainly including his days as an assistant and head coach at Oregon is of someone who will take a chance on the troubled but talented, force feed some tough love when needed, and offer second and sometimes third chances before wiping his hands together and moving on.

LeGarrette Blount was suspended indefinitely after punching a Boise State player in Kelly's 2009 Oregon head-coaching debut. Blount was reinstated after eight games. Before the next season began, Kelly suspended star quarterback Jeremiah Masoli for all of 2010 after he pleaded guilty to second-degree burglary and handed another star, LaMichael James, a one-game suspension after he pleaded down to a misdemeanor charge of harassment in a domestic-violence dispute with his former girlfriend.

"This is not what our football program is all about," Kelly said then.

Masoli was eventually released after further traffic and marijuana violations, but James stayed clean and went on to a stellar and well-behaved career. Kelly had a few other cases along these lines over the 4 years and his modus operandi was always to provide second chances, and sometimes even third and fourth ones. His justice crossed through all types of talent levels, and his willingness to tough-love mentor troubled players to reach their potential seemed to extend past his desire to tap into their talents, and to win.

So if Keelan Johnson, the Eagles backup safety who was arrested Monday, is cut, it will have nothing to do with that. And if he stays, it will have nothing to do with forgiveness, either. It makes for a good story, the perennial talk about character guys and such, but the Vince Lombardi Trophy is filled with teams willing to swap that out for unsavory men who could flat-out play.

Which brings me to Tony Dungy, the former coach and current television analyst who is seen by many as pro football's high priest. Tony, you may recall, gave his blessing to a post-prison second chance for Vick but recently panned the idea of drafting Michael Sam because, "I wouldn't want to deal with all of it . . . It's not going to be totally smooth . . . things will happen."

Like, uh, protests outside of practice facilities and games - that sort of thing? Strained relationships with dog-owning and dog-loving teammates perhaps?

Tony is 58. I am 55. Just as it takes us a little longer to figure out Apple's latest nuance, we are a little slower than our offspring to embrace and absorb the social changes of our time. Turns out I have always had gay friends, but I only know this because the times have allowed them to live a more honest and fulfilling life. I also see it as progress that some of our children's friends, like Sam, have chosen to begin such an honest life sooner.

It smacks of character, to use that overused football word. And I would urge Dungy and the other slow processors in my age bracket to work as hard to get up to speed with that thought as they do with their laptop's latest operating system.

To be clear though: Michael Sam's character does not assure a long NFL career just as Tim Tebow's character did not. He will make it in the NFL if the Rams were right that he was undervalued, either because of his tweener size (for his position), or because the other NFL hierarchies thought the way Dungy did.

But a distraction? Maybe a little at first, but nothing like it was for Vick. Today's NFL players have grown up in a different operating system than Dungy and I have.

As have, thankfully, an increasing number of their fans.

On Twitter: @samdonnellon

Columns: ph.ly/Donnellon