In Chip Kelly, Eagles hired a winner

AMONG THE meaningless sentences spoken and written in sports, those that end with the phrase " . . . remains to be seen,'' are the most worthless.

The winner of the 2014 Super Bowl remains to be seen. The fate of the 2013 Phillies remains to be seen. The rise of the sun tomorrow remains to be seen.

I mean . . . duh.

I cannot assure you that Chip Kelly will be a resounding success as an NFL head coach. But I can do better than "remains to be seen." I can take a look at his past and predict his future, and I can dispel a few misperceptions about him that have made his hire seem more risky than it really is.

I believe Kelly will be a great NFL head coach. I like how he thinks even more than I like what he thinks. I like the quick pace of how he speaks. Some people speak quickly out of nervous energy, but that's not this. When Kelly speaks quickly, he does so in complex sentences, and in complete ideas. His sentences are often crammed with information or insight.

Just for fun, call up Andy Reid's first news conference as Kansas City's coach on YouTube in one browser and Kelly's in another. Play them simultaneously.

Then guess which one doesn't use up timeouts on first down.

To me, Kelly's quickness and candor reflect a man not too worried about telling you too much. I like how comfortable in his own skin he appears. He truly reminds me of John Harbaugh in that regard. Both men not only seem to know the entire game well, they convey an easy, almost joyous confidence discussing it.

The difference is that, unlike the Midwest-raised Harbaugh, Chip's a wiseass. His tightest friends in New Hampshire say that he can be a brutal chops buster, and that he can take it pretty good, too. I think there will be times when he snaps at a question or ridicules it, the way Bill Parcells did back in his coaching days. I've never had a problem with guys like that. From a reporter's standpoint, the best answers sometimes come from the worst questions. Abuse me all you want if it helps my story. I'll take that any day over, "We'll see,'' or "I'm not going to go there.'' I'm comfortable in my skin, too.

At 49, Kelly is not young, although the cherub face and single-mindedness of how he coaches sometimes make him seem so. He has been a student and a teacher spending his own money at times over the years to absorb new information, and to share his coaching philosophy with peers. Living in modest apartments for most of his adult life, dating but never marrying - maybe you consider him an odd Duck (get it?) but I kind of like it.

It has enabled him to coach football for football's sake, enabled him to turn down lucrative offers that he thought would have been less challenging and/or fun. The offer to be a quality control coach with the Giants early last decade would have doubled Kelly's salary the first year and tripled it the second. When you're living in an efficiency, dining on grilled cheese and chips, that can be quite tempting.

Even if you're not, it's quite tempting.

He didn't, because it did not allow him to coach the way he wanted to coach - hands on, involved. He likes the Jimmies and Joes as much as the X's and O's. He likes pouring over film, and coaching them up and all that stuff, sure, but what sets him apart is that he likes to think outside of the NFL box, likes his inventions, likes to ask "Why not?'' a lot.

Football, truly, is his life.

He will not go down in flames if the spread offense is a bust. His history is full of such adjustments, such as when a slew of injuries and defections forced him to use lead-footed and lightly regarded Ricky Santos, fourth on the depth chart when spring practice ended. Santos ended up taking New Hampshire into the playoffs his first season and won the Walter Payton award the following season as Division I-AA's best player.

At Oregon, Kelly ran the spread and won big with a list of quarterbacks who did nothing for NFL scouts. Names such as Dennis Dixon, Jeremiah Masoli, Darron Thomas and Marcus Mariota. Each became adept at making quick decisions, something Kelly believes he can do for Michael Vick, as well.

And if he can't, he will adjust. He will make do in the short run with Nick Foles, or whomever else he brings in here. Given his history, he may even succeed nominally, win eight, nine, 10 games with a professional version of Santos. That's the kind of mind I think he has.

Last month, during the news conference announcing his hire, Kelly said this: "There's perception and then there's reality. The perception is we run our quarterback all the time and this is what we do. The reality is that's not the case . . .

"Part of what we do offensively has always been understanding what personnel is and then how do we maximize that, and what are their best traits. If you're going to ask someone to do something that they're not capable of doing then obviously that's a recipe for disaster . . . A lot of coaches have great ideas, but we're not playing the game. The players are playing the game. It's about putting them in position where they can be successful. Our offense is always going to be tailored to who's playing.''

On Twitter: @samdonnellon