Nevermind the drafting of Nelson Agholor in the first-round of the 2015 NFL Draft, or the signing of DeMarco Murray in free agency, or the fact that their six-man draft class consisted of just one white player.
No, despite all that, Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly seems to be wielding his new-found player-personnel power and making team-building based almost exclusively on an unspoken racial bias.
At least, that's how former Eagles running back and current Buffalo Bill LeSean McCoy sees it.
"The relationship was never really great," McCoy said recently, per ESPN. "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. 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."
McCoy, when pressed further on the matter, said that other players have disclosed similar feelings to him.
"Oh, man. People have heard it. I mean ... Stephen A. Smith has talked about it. 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 Philadelphia], 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."
It's entirely fair for McCoy to question Kelly's coaching tactics when it comes to control and a willingness to deal with the oftentimes-gargantuan personalities that come with elite-level talent, but to suggest that his decisions as a GM are racially motivated is beyond silly - it's imbecilic and completely factually incorrect.
As noted above, the team's first-round pick, Nelson Agholor is a black man. The team's prized free agent, Murray, along with cornerbacks Byron Maxwell and Walter Thurmond, Ryan Mathews and Brad Jones, are all black men. Recently resigned outside linebacker Brandon Graham? Black man. Last year's first-round pick, Marcus Smith II? Black man.
Heck, Kelly even traded away a white quarterback in Nick Foles this offseason - of course, he got Sam Bradford, another white quarterback, in return, but if anything this simply shows that no matter a player's race, it's their fit on Kelly's team and in his offense that truly determines whether they remain an Eagle for the long-term.
Sure, DeSean Jackson was jettisoned just a year before McCoy was traded and the team was forced to watched Jeremy Maclin walk away to the Kansas City Chiefs in free agency, but concerns over Jackson's off-field habits and commitment to Kelly's program preceded his exit and, as McCoy himself admits, his relationship with the notoriously intense Kelly was "never really great."
The only possible player who could fit McCoy's narrative is Maclin - a phenomenal talent who, by all accounts, fit perfectly in Kelly's "culture" - but it wasn't an issue with race that led to Maclin's departure - it was the $11 million-a-season price tag Maclin was able to command from his former head coach, Andy Reid, on the NFL's open market.
In the end, McCoy comes off like a man with a major ego still coming to grips with his unceremonious dumping. It's understandable, to an extent.
So are some sour grapes.
Insinuating that someone is racist because they didn't want to continue working with you, however, is not.
