Andy Reid

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.

OK, IT WOULD BE a stretch to say I missed Andy Reid on Thursday at the NovaCare Complex. But a job is a big part of the life of everyone who has one. And for the last 14 years, covering Reid had been a huge part of my job as a sports columnist in Philadelphia. Actually, about half of my working life has been spent listening to "Big Red" humph, grump and growl his thoughts about the Eagles and the NFL. So after Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie did his monologue to introduce Chip Kelly, it threw me a bit when the first words from the former leader of the University of Oregon Ducks were not, "OK, injuries.

THE RHETORIC no longer is about gold standards and Super Bowls. Jeffrey Lurie is too far gone for that now, too mired in his own missteps and missed opportunities to even attempt to repackage that pitch in a different wrapper, a different coach, a different era. Now the hard sell is about relevance, in a town whose oblong-shaped DNA has been mutated by the unfulfilled promise and lack of meaningful success that has marked Lurie's ownership, particularly...

The introduction that could have occurred 10 days ago finally happened on Thursday. Wearing a black Eagles polo, Chip Kelly walked into the auditorium at the Eagles training facility to be welcomed as the next Eagles coach. In Kelly's formal introduction to Philadelphia, he dimmed any shadow that could potentially loom from Andy Reid. Kelly appeared authoritative, witty, and confident in the spotlight while explaining a brand of football and the innovative thinking that made the Eagles swoon over the prospect of landing the former Oregon head coach during the past two weeks.

WHEN WAS the exact moment you knew the Birds season was done? Was it Michael Vick's Week 10 concussion, or LeSean McCoy's in Week 11? Was it back in October, when coach Andy Reid canned Juan Castillo? Or December, when making the playoffs became statistically impossible? For lots of fans, it was mid-November. That's when we turned on our computers/tablets/smartphones and watched a 22-year-old Drexel student walk around FDR Park singing, "We Are Never Ever Gonna Win With Andy" to the tune of Taylor Swift's hit "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.

KANSAS CITY Chiefs coach Andy Reid hired former Bears assistant Dave Toub to direct special teams and announced that he's retaining linebackers coach Gary Gibbs and defensive backs coach Emmitt Thomas from the previous staff. Toub has spent the past nine seasons with the Bears. Before that, he worked with special teams and the defensive line for Reid in Philadelphia. At the news conference, Reid announced he will be calling the offensive plays. Doug Pederson will be in his first season as an offensive coordinator after serving as the Eagles' quarterbacks coach.

The Kansas City Chiefs will introduce John Dorsey as their new general manager on Monday, the team said. Dorsey was the Green Bay Packers' director of football operations and has ties to new Chiefs coach Andy Reid. They worked together in Green Bay from 1992-98. The Chiefs plan to interview fired New York Jets offensive coordinator Tony Sparano for the offensive line job, according to an ESPN report Sunday. Sparano emerged as a candidate with the Chiefs after Cleveland offensive line coach George Warhop, who was targeted for the job by new Kansas City coach Andy Reid, elected to stay with the Browns and new head coach Rob Chudzinski.

"You gotta have an ego that's built with shoe leather" to coach in Philadelphia, according to ex-Eagles head coach Andy Reid. He also defended quarterback Michael Vick as "a very kind person" who lost his starting job in Philadelphia only because of injury. Reid's remarks about Philly, Vick and plans as the new Kansas City coach came during interviews on a couple of national radio shows. Reid has long seemed more comfortable and forthcoming on such interviews than during postgame Q-and-A's with local media.

KANSAS CITY - Just beyond the Lamar Hunt statue at the Founders Plaza on the walkway into Arrowhead Stadium lies a diagram of a play in the pavement. The engraving reads, "65 Toss Power Trap. " The arrow tracing the play stops in the end zone at the plaque for Super Bowl IV: Kansas City 23, Minnesota 7. It is a running play. Just inside the entrance up an escalator in the club level, Andy Reid sat on a podium Monday afternoon, peering out at an audience that was 1,123 miles from Lincoln Financial Field.