Santoliquito: LeSean McCoy Only Has Himself To Blame For Trade To Buffalo
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — LeSean "Shady" McCoy had the impression he bought into what Chip Kelly was doing. In his mind, the Eagles' all-time leading rusher was following Kelly's program, until he found out otherwise, when Kelly shipped him to Buffalo for linebacker Kiko Alonzo on March 3.
So McCoy, who will be returning to Philadelphia this Sunday as a Buffalo Bill, felt compelled to lash out at Kelly, implying in an interview with ESPN The Magazine during the Spring that Kelly was racist, with statements like, "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."
The fact is that McCoy is the reason why he isn't an Eagle anymore. He was close to receiving the boot right after the Eagles cut DeSean Jackson in 2013. But McCoy was smart enough to buy into what Kelly was dealing—then. It resulted in his best season as a pro, rushing for an NFL-best 1,607 yards in 2013—the Eagles' single-season record.
He had a slight slip in 2014, though still rushed for 1,319 and five touchdowns. But there were signs McCoy was slipping.
What compounded that was the jelly roll jiggling around his midsection after last year. McCoy spent part of the offseason in Miami supposedly training. Apparently that didn't include the weight room, numerous sources confirmed. Kelly supposedly didn't like the fact that McCoy wasn't taking the offseason conditioning program as seriously as everyone else on the team.
That was it—snip. McCoy had to go.
Shady claims he doesn't harbor any resentment toward Kelly, the two will probably shake hands before or after Sunday's game at Lincoln Financial Field. But the reality is that it still grates on McCoy why he was traded.
"Some things you may say from anger, and I was definitely angry, but I'm not going to change anything I say," McCoy told 94.1 WIP Tuesday afternoon. "I stand by everything I said before. I don't have no problems with Chip or nothing like that. No hatred. But I stand by it. I don't take it back."
Listen: LeSean McCoy on the 94WIP Mike & Ike Show
Yet in the same instance, McCoy backed off the racial undertone, explaining, "I'm not going to make it a racist thing, a black or white thing. I'm not going to get into that topic. It's old. It is what it is. People want to take it that way, they can. If you really know me, you know who I am. I embrace all people and all colors. ... I'm just honest. If they want to take it that way, that's fine."
There is one reason why McCoy is no longer an Eagle and it has far more to do with him than anything he said. It was another culture cleansing move by Kelly.
