Chip Kelly calls NFL draft hype ‘insane’
By Cory Buck
Chip Kelly has brought a great deal of hype and vigor to the NFL since his arrival last year. The Philadelphia Eagles were one of the most fun teams to watch last season, and this year could be even more fun now that Kelly’s had a full year to install his system and bring in more guys who fit his vision. Kelly sat down with Peter King and discussed some of his observations from Year One, which were almost as entertaining as the team he coaches.
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“[T]he hype that goes into the draft is insane. Totally insane,” Kelly told Peter King via MMQB. He continued at length on the topic.
"“I think a lot of times the hype turns into really, really hard times for the individual who got picked, because there’s so many expectations of everyone building them up to be Superman because they had three months to write about them and talk about them. Then when they get picked, they’re a very, very good prospect, but there’s a learning curve when you go from any job out of college into a company. If you take a job at Wells Fargo when you get out of college, your first day of the job they don’t say, ‘He’s our first-round draft pick, he’s the savior to the company!’”"
It’s an interesting perspective from someone who’s keenly aware of the psyche of college students, having coached at Oregon before arriving at Philadelphia. It’s also a great way to connect what is essentially a television event for the average viewer to our everyday life.
Typically, we get months, maybe even a year or two, to truly acclimate to a career-level job. If anyone at that job pegged us as a company-savior, we’d probably not be crazy about that label even as we turn around and do that to every rookie drafted highly by our own team.
The NFL draft is worth more than most small countries so the hype machine will only grow greater every year, but it’s worth a little perspective to hear Chip Kelly’s take on the event as a whole. Perhaps in so doing, we can all temper our own expectations some, even as rookies do insane things to pump up their fans’ hype machines.