Brandon Boykin is the latest former Eagle to suggest that the coach who traded him, Chip Kelly, was motivated by racism.
In a text message to Comcast SportsNet’s Derrick Gunn, Boykin said Kelly is “uncomfortable around grown men of our culture.”
Boykin suggested that he agrees with former Eagles running back LeSean McCoy, who said after he was traded to the Bills that Kelly was getting rid of all the good black players.
“He can’t relate and that makes him uncomfortable,” Boykin said. “He likes total control of everything, and he don’t like to be uncomfortable. Players excel when you let them naturally be who they are, and in my experience that hasn’t been important to him, but you guys have heard this before me.”
We have heard it before, but we still haven’t heard an explanation for why Kelly, if his roster moves are motivated by racism, has also jettisoned good white players like Evan Mathis and Todd Herremans. There’s no doubt that Kelly is radically reshaping the roster he inherited in Philadelphia, but that radical reshaping of the roster hasn’t significantly changed the racial makeup of the Eagles’ roster.
It’s easy to find on-field explanations for why Kelly has made these allegedly racist moves. He prefers a straight-ahead running style, so he traded LeSean McCoy and signed DeMarco Murray to a lucrative contract. He prefers bigger cornerbacks, so he traded Brandon Boykin and signed Byron Maxwell to a lucrative contract. That’s evidence that Kelly has clear ideas about the kinds of players he wants on his football team, but those ideas aren’t tied to race.
