When Riley Cooper let off an ugly N-Bomb this summer, rookie head coach Chip Kelly could have lost his locker room before his was even firmly entrenched as Eagles coach.
Instead, Kelly with the help of Michael Vick and other Eagles vets weathered Cooper’s racial incident, and everyone involved ended up better because of it.
Eagles owner Jeffery Lurie told the Philadelphia Inquirer that Kelly’s handling of the Riley Cooper incident proved what kind of leader his coach really is.
“He brings people together, and he’s dynamic,” Lurie said of Kelly, via Mike Sielski of thePhiladelphia Inquirer. “Cooper’s a good example, a really good example.”
Lurie said that Kelly already had a plan of action on how to deal with Cooper and his teammates.
“Chip had a plan of how to deal with the humanness of it all,” Lurie said. “He really was able to help get the team together through the adversity. That’s what you have to do in the NFL, because you’re always going to have things like that.
“It wasn’t sort of a knee-jerk reaction. It was a thoughtful reaction, and he understands the locker room and the players and the chemistry and what needed to be done. It wasn’t like he was a populist politician or something. It’s about true leadership, not superficial leadership.”