Philadelphia Eagles SHAKEDOWN

Aug 13, 2014; Foxborough, MA, USA; Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly answers questions during a press conference at Gillette Stadium prior to a joint practice with the New England Patriots at the Patriots practice fields. Mandatory Credit: Stew Milne-USA TODAY Sports

Philadelphia Eagles SHAKEDOWN: Aftershocks

When Tom Gamble left, that shook the foundation of that belief.   The cause was not important.  The result was that the head coach realized that he was on a trip to make a superbowl run, and discovered all too late that he was not a copilot as he had thought.  He was a passenger, and Howie Roseman was the pilot.

That could have been the end of it, and by rights it may have been.  But it was not a Roseman-Gamble conflict.   Following Tom Gambles dismissal, reporters have uncovered the dysfunctional front office dynamics:

Reuben Franks, from CSN, whose ability to cite the most mundane trivia for any Eagles occasion, reported on the Roseman Lurie relationship:

"Lurie is fiercely loyal to Roseman, who’s risen through the organization from intern to GM and has been here since 2000. Lurie even kept Roseman over his boyhood friend, team president Joe Banner, when Roseman and Banner were locked in a power struggle a few years ago. “Jeffrey sees Howie as a messiah,” a one-time Eagles front-office exec said Wednesday. “Howie can do no wrong in his eyes.”"

Geoff Moesher, another CSN reporter, broke this aspect of the news story:

"According to multiple personnel men who have worked under Lurie and Roseman, the team’s unconventional front office structure has enabled management turmoil to prevail year after year despite the rash of changes around Lurie and Roseman. The root of the problem is the flow of information from Roseman to Lurie, which is spun exactly the way Roseman wants it. So although Lurie is known to take “voluminous notes” about the goings-on in personnel matters surrounding his franchise, he’s essentially scribbling down the lecture coming from Roseman’s podium. “A toxic environment,” as one former Eagles personnel executive deemed it. Lurie trusts Roseman blindly and implicitly, which is the only reason to explain why he’s sat back and allowed several well-regarded football men to become fall guys when the Eagles didn’t win or made bad draft picks. Someone always pays the price — Marc Ross, Lou Riddick, Jason Licht — and now Gamble. Someone other than Roseman, of course."

So the fracture was long standing. But when Howie Roseman made the cut of Tom Gamble, the line was crossed.  Chip Kelly realized he was helpless in the current organization structure to control his destiny.

Something had to be done.