LeSean McCoy says Chip Kelly seemed ‘uncomfortable with Black players’

Chip Kelly’s tenure as head coach and general manager of the Eagles was fraught — full of regrettable moves and tension between Kelly, the players, and even Howie Roseman — and ended with Kelly getting fired before the end of his third season in charge.

On their new podcast, The 25/10 Show, LeSean McCoy and DeSean Jackson, two players who went onto success elsewhere after seeing their Eagles careers end under his watch, told their stories from Kelly’s time with the organization, and why they think Kelly’s tenure, which got out to a fast start, was ultimately a failure.

Both Jackson and McCoy felt Kelly, who arrived from the University of Oregon, didn’t respect the players. McCoy recounted former quarterback Michael Vick, who also said in 2019 that Kelly made him cry, telling McCoy he cried more dealing with Kelly than he did while in prison. He also noted how Kelly would send others to do his messaging for him.

“I’ve never had a coach where they were scared, not even scared, just uncomfortable with Black players,” McCoy said. “ … There’d be times when he’d send Duce Staley to tell me something, and I’d ask, ‘Why you saying that? This is not in your words.’ And he’d be like, ‘Well Chip said …,’ and I’d go ask Chip about it and he’d never say it to me.”

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Kelly, now the offensive coordinator at Ohio State after six seasons as UCLA’s head coach, instituted a number of rules that seemed too strict for professional athletes, including requiring players to wear white socks and making them arrive at games on a team bus instead of in their own cars.

McCoy also told the story of former Eagles cornerback Roc Carmichael, who Kelly told to cut his hair.

“Chip calls him into the office, he’s going to talk to him because he’s not a big player, and he calls him into his office,” McCoy said. “This kid is a good kid, smart, dark-as-night Black kid. [His] hair’s always nappy, that’s his look. [Kelly] tells him in the meeting, ‘I want you to be more presentable.’ [Carmichael] says, ‘What do you mean, be more presentable?’ ‘I want you to cut your hair, man. Get a haircut like Shady’s haircut.’

“He’s telling that man to cut his hair — this is the pros. This ain’t college. He’s uncomfortable working with Black players. That’s a prime example.”

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Carmichael confirmed the story on X Thursday.

McCoy said even Kelly’s reaction to former wide receiver Riley Cooper being caught using a racial slur on camera in 2013 — Cooper was fined and kept away from the team for a short period of time — felt disingenuous. Players at the time also complained that it didn’t go far enough.

“He hid that whole thing from us,” McCoy said.

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After Kelly was fired in 2015, the Eagles hired Doug Pederson, reinstated Howie Roseman as de facto general manager (after Kelly had been given personnel power), and went on to win the franchise’s first Super Bowl.

Although McCoy and Jackson left the Eagles during Kelly’s tenure in their primes — with McCoy getting traded to Buffalo and Jackson being released — both players eventually returned. McCoy signed a one-day contract to retire with the team that drafted him, while Jackson donned the midnight green again, signing with the Eagles in 2019 and playing two more seasons in Philadelphia. Like McCoy, he retired as an Eagle in the fall.

Kelly and Ohio State did not respond to a request for comment from The Inquirer at the time of publication.