You can preach it, Chip, but I don’t think anyone’s listening.
As part of the NCAA sanctions levied against Oregon today, the former Ducks coach received an 18-month show-cause penalty that effectively makes him unemployable at the NCAA level until the end of 2014. That’s not a problem for Kelly, who is now the coach of the Philadelphia Eagles and would need a catastrophic tenure Philly and/or an incurable itch to return to the college game for the penalty to even apply.
Though Kelly is gone, he did issue the following brief statement on today’s decision by the Committee on Infractions:
“I want to apologize to the University of Oregon, all of its current & former players & their fans,” Kelly said. “I accept my share of responsibility for the actions that led to the penalties.”
Additionally, Kelly once again shot down any notion that the NCAA findings had anything to do with his decision to leave Eugene.
“The NCAA investigation and subsequent ruling had no impact on my decision to leave Oregon,” Kelly said via ESPN’s Joe Schad.
In April, I wrote that Kelly departing for the NFL without the NCAA in the forefront of his mind wasn’t too farfetched. Based on the reaction from many (all?) of you, I was, shall we say, “in the minority” with that line of thought.