Jeffrey Lurie

When Chip Kelly sat down Jan. 5 with Jeffrey Lurie, Howie Roseman, and Don Smolenski in the Four Seasons hotel in Scottsdale, Ariz., to begin what would become a nine-hour interview, the Oregon coach told them that some things they might have heard about him weren't true. "These reports about me being power hungry. That's just not me," Kelly said, according to Lurie. If that was welcome news to Lurie, imagine how it played with Roseman, who wanted to run his player-personnel department in collaboration with a new coach, but not have to engage in a daily power tussle over how the roster is built.

The Eagles never wavered. From the moment Jeffrey Lurie fired Andy Reid - and possibly even earlier - the team had one man in mind to be the next head coach. On Wednesday, Lurie pushed all his chips in and named Chip Kelly, the innovative Oregon coach who had been ambivalent about jumping to the NFL, as the 21st head coach in Eagles history. "It was really tough," Kelly said of his decision to leave Oregon as he arrived Wednesday night at Northeast Philadelphia Airport. "I left a special, special place.

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...

AS THE EAGLES trudged through a dozen interviews, it made sense that owner Jeffrey Lurie and general manager Howie Roseman examined each of the head-coach applicants. But . . . Don Smolenski? The money guy? The marathoner? The soccer fan ? Certainly, Smolenski, the team president, would have to be made privy to the preferred candidates. After all, as a former accountant and the team's former chief financial officer, Smolenski relishes disbursing the finances. But did he need to have a seat at the conference table in the suite at the Four Seasons in Scottsdale, Ariz.?

Eagles fans are polarized over the surprise hiring of Chip Kelly as the successor to fired head coach Andy Reid. "Love it! Love it! It's a great surprise," said "Phil from South Jersey" on 97.5 The Fanatic. "This is disaster," said "Rich on a cell" on 94 WIP. " ... To get a college coach is pathetic. " Hosts on both stations were quickly wondering if the hire means quarterback Michael Vick would be back, given the University of Oregan coach's love of a fast-paced attack.

The beautiful and terrifying thing about Chip Kelly is this: Nobody knows whether he will soar or flop in the National Football League. Nobody. Not Jeffrey Lurie, not Howie Roseman, not even Kelly. Especially not Kelly. By hiring the latest offensive genius from the college ranks, Lurie has turned his franchise into a laboratory. What we'll all be watching for the next few years will be as much an experiment as a football team. It could be fantastic and entertaining and lead, finally, to a Super Bowl title.

Jon Gruden and Eagles general manager Howie Roseman have both been drawing questions - in different ways, says Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports. Gruden has been contacted by four clubs about their head-coaching jobs - and has turned them all down, the "NFL Insider" reports , not naming names. Roseman, on the other hand, is being whispered about around the league as a hindrance to the Eagles landing a top-notch coach, La Canfora wrote this morning . As of 10 days ago, Gruden hadn't spoken with the Eagles, according to ESPN analyst and ex-Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski . Since then, Gruden has been widely endorsed for the Eagles job not only by Jaworski, but former Eagles coach Dick Vermeil , NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock , former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell , and Inquirer columnist Phil Sheridan . And Gruden would be interested in the right job. "He would have loved a shot at the Carolina job, the chance to work with [quarterback]

Jeffrey Lurie, in his attempt to "leave no stone unturned," found a mossy one that has been languishing in the broadcast booth for several years and interviewed him for the Eagles' head coaching vacancy. His name is not Jon Gruden. It is Brian Billick, another Super Bowl-winning coach who has expressed a desire to return to the NFL. But the offers previously weren't there, until perhaps now. The Eagles, who have cast a net as wide as Roosevelt Boulevard, interviewed Billick last Monday, an NFL source said.

Perhaps the most talked about topic in our region these past few weeks has been who will be the Eagles' next coach. It blew away talk about the fiscal cliff, what to do about Iran, and many other issues of lesser importance. Everyone has an opinion, and everywhere I go, people don't hesitate to tell me their choice. From that decidedly unscientific poll, I can tell you that the overwhelming people's choice is "Chuckie," a k a Jon Gruden. For what it's worth, he's my choice, too. The main indictment against Andy Reid was that he never won a Super Bowl, and that is the standard that we judge all coaches by. When talking about prospective coaches, that's the question we always ask - does he have the stuff to make us Super Bowl champs?

Of the remaining candidates for the Eagles, Gus Bradley and Brian Kelly would seem to be the two that best fit the template Jeffrey Lurie set when he explained what kind of coach he was looking for to replace Andy Reid. If it's Bradley or Kelly that they have narrowed their sights on, the Eagles could be very close to announcing their next head coach. Bradley's Seahawks travel to Atlanta to face the Falcons in a divisional playoff game on Sunday at 1 p.m. If Seattle loses, the Eagles - or any team - would be free to hire the 46-year-old defensive coordinator.