Right name, wrong guy: Eagles fans tweet ‘Chip Kelly’ after firing
Chip Kelly was on vacation in Hilton Head, S.C. when Chip Kelly was fired. And that’s when the messages began. Or should we say, continued.
The man who uses the Twitter handle @chipkelly is John Chipman Kelly, a 41-year old executive at a California start-up company. The man who used to coach the Philadelphia Eagles, Charles Edward “Chip” Kelly, is not on Twitter.
But when the latter was canned Tuesday night after less than three full seasons on the job, the former’s mentions on the social media site exploded.
“I got some unbelievable things,” Twitter Chip told Philly.com on Wednesday.
But it was nothing new for Twitter Chip, a former tennis player at Tulane University who’s been known as Chip for much of his life. He’s been getting tweets intended for Coach Chip for years, and even received death threats when Coach Chip cut DeSean Jackson.
Twitter Chip’s friends even got in on the joke Tuesday night, with one texting him, “Sorry you got fired.”
Here’s a sampling of the messages sent to Twitter Chip after Coach Chip was sent packing:
That’s just a small sampling, and it was hard finding ones that weren’t rife with four-letter words (Eagles fans seem most fond of the one that begins with F). They weren’t all bad, though, Twitter Chip did get some job offers intended for Coach Chip:
Twitter Chip, who is actually a New England Patriots fan, took all of the tweets in stride, and said he doesn’t mind being a source for Eagles fans to vent their frustrations.
At least his mentions should be quiet for a while, at least until Coach Chip gets another job.
