*NFL running back LeSean McCoy on Wednesday got testy when the media brought up Chip Kelly, the Philadelphia Eagles coach who inexplicably traded him to the Buffalo Bills for linebacker Kiko Alonso in March, just months after McCoy became the Eagles’ all-time leading rusher after his sixth season with the team.
Kelly then signed DeMarco Murray, the NFL’s leading rusher who was with Dallas, to a five-year, $40 million contract.
Asked about the idea of Kelly shaking his hand when he returns to Philly’s Lincoln Financial Field Sunday against the Eagles, McCoy could barely contain his disgust.
“Listen, man, Chip can’t shake s–t at all. Nothing. He knows this,” McCoy told a large group of reporters at his locker. “That’s why [he] said it. I know him. He’s very intelligent. I can read between the lines. Like I said, I have nothing against him, no hatred. We’re not enemies. I won’t say anything wrong to him. But there’s nothing for us to talk about, at all. Simple as that.”
Watch his entire response below:
McCoy hasn’t spoken to Kelly since the trade and said he has never received an explanation.
For what it’s worth, Kelly at his press conference Thursday said he understands why McCoy is upset, and also admitted that his trade to Buffalo was poorly handled:
Q: [McCoy] said yesterday that he does not want to shake your hand. As a coach who’s devoted a lot of time to a player, does that bother you?
KELLY: That’s his choice, and I understand it. And how he was traded wasn’t handled right, and I’ve said that before. I did not get an opportunity to talk to him. It’s a lesson that we should never do. To be honest with you, is that we were told the trade wasn’t initiated and wouldn’t be initiated until the next morning so there were no phone calls to be made. And all of the sudden, I’m driving to an event and he’s been traded. I felt bad that I didn’t get a chance to talk to him. I called him, he didn’t answer my phone call. I know he was pissed, and he should be pissed, but rightly so.
Every player that’s ever left this team, I’ve talked to them personally myself. Everyone that’s in town, we talk to them individually here in our office. I talk to them, the coordinator talks to them, the position coach talks to them. We have a way that we do it that I think is the right way to do it and it wasn’t exercised in that case. And I understand why he’s bothered. He was an all-time leading running back here. I felt like he was disrespected, and it was wrong. And because I was part of it, it’s on me.
When we traded for Sam [Bradford] and Nick [Foles] with Jeff Fisher, it was a great situation. Jeff and me were both on the phone together and said ‘Alright, when are you going to make the call? Let’s call now. When we’re done our phone calls with our players, text each other.’ He texted me he was done, I texted him I was done, I then called Sam, he then called Nick. And that’s the way it should have been done. It wasn’t handled that way with LeSean and I understand why he’s not happy about it and he should not be happy about it. I would apologize for that because it didn’t happen the right way.
But on our standpoint, we thought the trade wasn’t going to be initiated until the next morning so there was no phone call to be made until the league approves the trade. I understand where he’s coming from, and if he doesn’t want to shake my hand, I understand that. But I will always shake his hand. If he extends his hand to me, I would always shake his hand. I have great respect for him as a player. Everything we asked him to do here, he did. He was an outstanding football player for two years here. The only reason he wasn’t [brought back] is because the money was too high. He’s still a really good football player in this league. I don’t know if I can say anything else besides that, but I do have great respect for LeSean. I think he’s a heck of a football player and we’re going to have our hands full when we play him this week.”
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