Nick Piccone
Sure, we have our Culture wins football and I’m not governed by the fear of what other people say mottos to tattoo on our chest, arms, back, or legs, but please leave room for more because Chip Kelly has come prepared with yet another educational philosophy that will probably make you Tebow take a knee and think.
“I hear, and I forget. I see, and I remember. I do, and I understand.”
Damn it, Chip. Football coaches aren’t supposed to be that deep. I can’t handle it. But if you read that quote again, maybe a few times, it really hammers home Chip’s coaching philosophy, which could probably exist anywhere in any facet of the world. In school, at your job, on the train, in your car, on a plane, in your dreams – it doesn’t matter where you are or what you’re doing, this Chip Kelly Message will help you through.
Or something. Matt Mullin of PhillyVoice.com explains:
“The injury rate in the National Football League is 100 percent,” Kelly said in March. “It just depends on what the severity is.”
That’s part of the reason Kelly and the Eagles are so obsessed with sports science. They’re trying to minimize the injury risk of their players. But they also know that eliminating them completely is impossible, and unlike many other teams, they’re putting in safeguards to preserve their season should an impact player go down. It’s the same reason they like consistent height and weight among the players at each position.
On Thursday, Kelly was asked about Davis’ comments and expanded on how their number of practice reps differs from other teams:
‘I think one of the misconceptions [is the amount of reps our ones get]. Our ones get the same amount of reps as every other teams’ ones across the league. It’s just the way we format our training sessions, our twos and threes get more reps than everybody else.’
“In a lot of places the ones get 12 reps, the twos get six reps and the threes may get two. For us, it’s even across the board. So we are just rotating in sets of four. Right now, in a team period the ones will get 12 reps, the twos will get 12 reps and the threes will get 12 reps.”
So as you can see, the Eagles, unlike most teams, are just as concerned with getting guys who may barely play up to speed as they are with the starters. Because in Chip’s mind — at least according to his newly revealed “educational philosophy” — you don’t fully learn anything by watching others do it, and you learn even less by simply being told what to do.
Makes perfect sense. Something unusual in the grand scheme of the NFL, but something so simple that it just makes sense. Cue the outrage of the media people who don’t like something different and want the same cookie cutter stories to cover each season.