Chip Kelly profile reveals complicated life off field, including former marriage
When it comes to football, Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly is known to be bit of a maverick. Since inheriting the Eagles' roster in 2013, Kelly has made wholesale changes in almost every key role. He has said goodbye to several franchise faces who refused to buy into his style, regardless of what kind of impact they made on the field.
When it comes to everything else about Kelly outside of football, most people don't know very much at all. The Washington Post published an in-depth profile on Kelly's life outside of football on Friday, and the piece gave us a little more insight into who Kelly is off the field.
Kent Babb of The Post got in contact with Kelly's ex-wife of seven years and former Oregon Duck coaches and players to get an idea of what makes this man tick. They revealed out some pretty surprising stories and facts about Kelly.
Former Oregon coach Mike Bellotti worked with Kelly closely, but the only thing he could reveal about Kelly off the field is that the man hates green vegetables and loves beer. He didn't claim to know much else about Kelly.
The relationship between a defensive coordinator and a head coach who runs the offense is often tight knit. That was not the case for Kelly and Oregon defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti. According to Aliotti, the two never spoke about their families at all throughout their time coaching together.
The majority of the in-depth piece focused on his relationship with Jennifer Jenkins. To almost everyone's surprise, Jenkins was married to Kelly for seven whole years before the pair divorced in 1999. Seven years, and we haven't heard a peep about it until now.
As Babb wrote, "his family has been ordered to keep quiet in public about Kelly, and Mike Zamarchi, the coach's longtime buddy, says Kelly's friends are 'sworn to silence.' Players, too, are kept at a distance, and so are fellow coaches."
A New York Times article in 2011 revealed, erroneously, that Kelly had never been married. According to Babb, Jenkins revealed that "it used to hurt, she says, as if seven years of her life had been washed away. But now she finds the humor in it. After enough strangers told Jenkins they didn't believe her, she began carrying a wedding photograph on her iPhone."
You can find the entire in-depth profile here.
(h/t Washington Post)