Bill Belichick disappointed over Eagles’ firing of Chip Kelly
New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick is unhappy with the Philadelphia Eagles firing of Chip Kelly, reports Phil Perry of CSNNE.com.
After almost three seasons as Philadelphia’s head coach, Kelly was released from his contract Tuesday.
“Yeah, I would say it’s actually disappointing,” Belichick said. “Chip Kelly to me is a really good football coach. He does a great job. I think he’s done a good job with that team.”
Belichick went on to add that it is difficult to develop a great team in a short amount of time.
“But pretty much everybody’s on a one-year contract in this league. I don’t know how you build a program in one year,” Belichick said.
Belichick reiterated that it takes time for a new coach to implement his program and create a winning team.
“You’re going to have to go through a lot of tough situations. Tough games, tough losses, tough stretches in the season, whatever it happens to be. To build that up over time, it doesn't happen in training camp,” Belichick said. “It takes some time to go through that. I don’t think there’s any shortcut to it.”
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The Patriots’ coach is also confident that the NFL has not seen the last of Kelly.
“Chip’s a great coach. He’ll end up somewhere, and he’ll do a great job there,” Belichick said.
The Eagles are 6–9 after falling to the Washington Redskins last Saturday. In his time as head coach, Kelly accumulated a record of 26–21.
The Eagles will close out their season against the New York Giants (6–9) on Sunday. Pat Shurmur will serve as interim head coach.
- Xandria James
