With a month to go in the 2014 NFL season, and in less than two years on the job, Chip Kelly had the Philadelphia Eagles positioned for a potential Super Bowl run. Then, everything fell apart. The Eagles lost three in a row, slipped out of contention, and missed the playoffs entirely. But instead of Kelly landing on the head coaching hot seat, the exact opposite happened: Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie gave Kelly the keys to the kingdom. In the second installment of a retrospective on the wild, unpredictable Chip Kelly era, Philadelphia Inquirer Eagles beat reporter Jeff McLane explains the role that a power grab played in Kelly’s demise, and how a recent phone call between Jeff and Kelly helped bring closure to an at-times rocky relationship. 

Follow Jeff McLane on Twitter. You can also read his work at inquirer.com.

unCovering the Birds sponsored by Wawa is a production of The Philadelphia Inquirer and KYW Newsradio Original Podcasts. New episodes are released every Friday.

Host: Jeff McLane
Executive Producer, Philadelphia Inquirer: Renee Ifill
Director of Podcasting, KYW Newsradio: Tom Rickert
Producer: Brian Seltzer