LeSean McCoy Is Wrong

Missanelli: Shady basically labeled Chip a racist. That's a problem.

Photo Credit: Jeff Fusco

Photo Credit: Jeff Fusco

LeSean McCoy is still very hurt about being traded from the Philadelphia Eagles.

That was the clearest conclusion anyone could reach about McCoy’s comments to an ESPN.com reporter after Shady pretty much labeled Chip Kelly — the man who traded him – a racist, in a nonsensical diatribe that only served to worsen relations between the races.

“He wants full control,” McCoy said to reporter Mike Rodak. “You see how fast he got rid of all the good players. Especially all the good black players. He got rid of them the fastest, that’s the truth. There’s a reason…it’s hard to explain with him. But there’s a reason he got rid of all the black players – the good ones – like that.”

Stunningly, the follow up question from Rodak was not, “Oh really? What is the reason? What exactly are you trying to say?” But journalism today isn’t the same as it used to be and reporters for some reason no longer forge in like pit bulls when a subject dangles such a piece of meat. But I digress.

Here’s the problem in a nut shell: Shady is in Buffalo. The Bills can give him a $40 million contract, but it’s still Buffalo. Shady can’t parade around that American Siberia like he did here in Philly, running the town where he can be bratty enough to leave 30 cent tips or hire party buses to casinos filled with a collection of women he can douse with Hawaiian Punch or toss out to the side of the road. In Buffalo, your star is a lot dimmer. And that pisses Shady off.

When a coach does you dirty like that, you grab for the biggest knife in the drawer. McCoy used the race card as his machete.

He got rid of all the black players? He got rid of two: McCoy and the year before that, DeSean Jackson. The Eagles wanted to keep Jeremy Maclin – they made him an offer of $9 million per year. Maclin took a better offer, so good for him.  In the meantime, Kelly signed Byron Maxwell (black), Walter Thurmond (black), Miles Austin (black), DeMarco Murray (black), and Ryan Matthews (black). Five of the six players he drafted are black, including first round pick Nelson Agholor. Two other important skill players this year will be Darren Sproles (black) and Josh Huff (black).

And if Shady was really paying attention, he might go back in time to discover that Kelly chose Michael Vick (black) as his starting quarterback over Nick Foles, when there could have been a case made that Foles had been the better quarterback throughout that particular training camp.

Now I’m not here saying Chip Kelly is Abraham Lincoln or anything. I don’t know how he feels about black folks — he won’t talk to me, or anybody really.  And I get the implication. Kelly ran off McCoy and Jackson, two brash and outspoken black players. The implication is that Kelly is more comfortable with the just the obedient black player. That, black folks might say, is just another example of the man keeping us down.

Is it a fair judgment? Probably not.  But Kelly heaped on this burden two years ago when he somehow allowed Riley Cooper to wriggle out of a racist rabbit hole after the Kenny Chesney concert incident by not only not cutting Cooper, but rewarding him with a new contract. Kelly could recite the Gettysburg Address from the Edmund Pettus Bridge and he’s not going to get a break from black folks for endorsing Cooper.

With his diatribe last week, was Shady McCoy trying to ride shotgun with Ferguson, or South Carolina, or Baltimore? Did he really think that a coach removing him from a team – whereby he got another and better deal with another team – was really a racial issue? Perception is reality. Shady created the perception. Some black folks see another injustice. White people blanch that black folks see that injustice. Both sides move further and further away from creating better societal understanding.

I’m just a white dude. But I’m a white dude who would like to make a difference, to help build bridges. If Chip Kelly was running off black players and only hiring back white players in return, I would lead a march down Broad Street. He should have cut Cooper, but just having Cooper on the team shouldn’t put him in a box where he can’t get a fair shake on everything else.

Buffalo ain’t that bad Shady. So ice your hurt feelings and move on with your life.

Follow Mike Missanelli on Twitter.