We live in a world where our African American citizens have to endure so many racist incidents. Many have to actually pick and choose their battles and have to restrain themselves from reacting to every single racist incident as much as they would like to. Having said that, it annoys me when I see some African Americans whine about things they don't know for sure is racist or not. LeSean McCoy and Stephen A. Smith will hopefully regret their unfair comments about Chip Kelly.
I personally do not think Stephen A Smith and LeSean are reprehensible human beings like Rush Limbaugh is. But just like Rush unfairly characterized the respect McNabb got from writers as pandering instead of as true respect, McCoy and Stephen A Smith characterize Chip Kelly as the kind of person who would shape his football team mainly on getting rid of black players who are "too black". Eagles seem to suffer from a lot of race based controversies (remember the Mcnabb vs TO arguments which had an undertone of TO being too real aka too black and McNabb somehow wasn't).
“The relationship was never really great. I feel like I always respected him as a coach. I think that's the way he runs his team. He wants the full control,” McCoy told ESPN.com. “You see how fast he got rid of all the good players. Especially all the good black players. He got rid of them the fastest. That's the truth. There's a reason. ... It's hard to explain with him. But there's a reason he got rid of all the black players — the good ones — like that.”
“Oh, man. People have heard it. I mean ... Stephen A. Smith has talked about it,” he told ESPN.com. “Other players have talked about it. But that's one of the things where you don't even care no more. I'm on a new team, ready to play. So it's nothing to do with Chip. I have no hatred toward him, nothing to say negative about him. When he got (to Philly), I didn't know what to expect. When he let DeSean go last year, I was like: ‘C'mon. DeSean Jackson?’ So it is what it is
yeah, I know he kept Riley Cooper the guy who used the N word at a concert. But then didn't he get rid of the white QB Nick Foles? How many teams would get rid of an accomplished QB, not matter how injury plagued he is for another injury plagued QB? It seems like Chip Kelly may be more of a control freak than a racist and probably wanted to move away from the Andy Reid era more decisively. Now, I am one of those who thinks Chip Kelly may have turned over too many good players but that is a football related difference of opinion.
Hell, Belichick has a lot more white players on his team and they won a SB. And no one is accusing him of being racist(now a cheater? , that's another diary where people can get all heated about!!!). Maybe Belichick was just smart enough to think just as black QBs were underappreciated as late as the early 2000s, there can be some hidden gems among white players who may not wow the scouts at the combine but can just flat out play to the system. Hell, my favorite team, the Steelers, had the equivalent of a fantastic arbitrage in the early 70s when the MVP of their scouting department, Bill Nunn Sr. got them so many excellent African American college players in middle rounds of the draft. So let's say Chip Kelly did indeed go looking for some white players who may be ignored by the typical scouting system, that still doesn't mean he is a racist. But Chip Kelly hasn't even done that. He replaced Lesean with Demarco Murray. He brought in Sam Bradford a white QB to replace Foles another white QB. I don't think Demarco is some "oreo"(not that there is anything wrong with that) that would please Chip Kelly's sense of "white guy " cultural etiquette. If you look at the draft, there are a lot of black players drafted by the Eagles. Hell, Chip had lagarrette Blount in his college program until the unfortunate fight in the bowl game.
I think Lesean , if he really had some kind of inkling, should have kept this kind of conversation under wraps and just discuss it with his friends in the NFL who can keep secrets. All this does is turn off moderate whites who could be sympathetic to blacks when guys like Rush Limbaugh open their big fat mouths.
And I think Stephen A Smith should have been more cognizant of the effect such speculation can have in this racial climate when unarmed black guys getting shot are struggling to get enough sympathy. THe majority of whites are not bad. But such talk will only instill a defensive mechanism in those in the middle who won't pay heed to the real cases of racism.(For the record, in the beginning, I used to enjoy Stephen A Smith putting Skip Bayliss in his place until Smith himself wore out his welcome).
For those curious about Stephen A Smith's words, here is a link.