Andy Reid

BY DEFAULT, NFL coaches often define themselves more by their podium presence as by their sideline actions. Ray Rhodes' dark and vicious diatribes flavored his 4-year stint as Eagles coach as much as Andy Reid's endless obfuscation marred his 14 years. Chip Kelly on Monday continued the construction of his image in Philadelphia. He explained, and sometimes defended, the hiring of 19 new assistant coaches and the retention of two from Reid's staff. As advertised, Kelly was, at times, informative; at times, glib; at times, abrasive.

CALL THE roll: Dan Reeves, Jim Mora Jr., Andy Reid, now Chip Kelly. They all thought they could harness the diverse talents of Michael Vick for a greater football good. Now, only Kelly - surprise! - still has a chance. Reid, especially, was seduced by the possibilities that Vick brought, only to be disappointed in the end - just as Reeves and Mora were before him in Atlanta. Kelly, by contrast, seems more of a realist. Reid had a soft spot for a man returning from incarceration, a state from which his sons had also emerged.

Before Chip Kelly burned his boats, here's hoping he noticed the wreckage along the coastline. They are the ruined vessels of other captains lured toward the rocks by the siren song of Michael Vick's physical gifts. They were coaches who saw the rocket arm and the tailback speed and believed they could turn Vick into a championship quarterback. They were Dan Reeves and Jim Mora Jr. and, most recently and painfully, Andy Reid. If Kelly knows about Cortes, the Spanish explorer who burned his ships to remove the possibility of returning home from his men's thoughts, he probably knows about Odysseus, lashing himself to the mast to resist the sirens.

Eagles head coach Chip Kelly, known to quip more than his predecessor, Andy Reid, wasn't exactly forthright. But he was amusing when talking about how the team's play-calling duties will work between him and new offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur. "I will call all the good plays, and Pat will call the bad ones," Kelly said on Monday during a news conference to introduce the new coaching staff. Shurmur was more revealing. "Things haven't been totally talked about [between us]

Charlie Manuel closed the door to his home in Winter Haven, Fla. this weekend, found the highway, and made the two-hour drive to Clearwater. In that space of time, regardless of what the calendar says, winter became spring, and the promise of baseball was kept once again. "I'm excited," Manuel said. "I like a lot of the things we did this winter. " It is another baseball spring for a baseball man who put on his first professional uniform 50 years ago. That's a long time to keep the excitement of a fresh start going, a long time to look at each new season and see the positives.

IT WILL NOT last, of course. Honeymoons never do. Reality will intrude at a certain point, and probably sooner rather than later, because that is what reality always does. In no time at all, Chip Kelly will begin presenting us with his decisions as if they were meticulously decorated Christmas trees, and all we will do is start looking for the broken branches. But that is for later. In the here and now, as we wait for Kelly's most important early decisions, it is with a sense of anticipation, not dread.

NEW ORLEANS - John Harbaugh learned how to charm the media in Philadelphia. Of all the things he took with him from his 10 seasons with the Eagles, it was probably his interaction with the media that prepared him best for becoming an NFL head coach. During one of his many required news conferences as he prepared his Baltimore Ravens to face the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII on Sunday (6:30 p.m., CBS3), Harbaugh joked that he never wanted the Eagles' top job because he was "afraid of the media there.

MOBILE, Ala. - Same familiar black short-sleeve shirt, different surroundings. Andy Reid was sitting with some of his new Kansas City Chiefs cohorts Tuesday afternoon at the South team's Senior Bowl practice, Reid getting a faceful of sun in the East stands at Ladd-Peebles Stadium. Like Chip Kelly, his replacement with the Eagles, Reid said he has spent much of his time since being hired by his new team "mainly just hiring coaches. " Then, with new Chiefs general manager John Dorsey sitting next to him, Reid said: "We went through the process of hiring a general manager.

TO A REGION lately capped by the knees of Andrew Bynum and Chase Utley, dismayed by the failings of Andy Reid and Michael Vick, and held hostage by the egos of Gary Bettman and Donald Fehr, Chip Kelly at least offers hope. He is an uncertain light at the end of what is a short but very dark tunnel. Largely without pedigree - he never coached in the NFL, never coached a team covered by a major media market, ran an emerging college program for just four seasons - Kelly landed in Philadelphia last week in full glow.

THE BASEBALL manager cannot shake the image of an overmatched, backwoods rube . . . and he won a World Series and more games than any of his predecessors. The football coach who was just fired achieved unprecedented success . . . and continually was depicted as an oafish, overweight, fumbling fool. The hockey coach revels in confrontation, always rises to the fight. The chip on the shoulder of the basketball coach is slightly smaller than the statue on top of City Hall, but it might weigh more.