Tra Thomas, a member of the Eagles’ all-time team and a former assistant coach under Chip Kelly, indicated in a TV interview Tuesday morning that there may be some substance to Stephen A. Smith’s insinuation that Kelly favors white players and coaches.
Smith, a one-time Philadelphia Inquirer reporter, said on ESPN Monday that Kelly’s recent roster moves appeared to be racially motivated.
Thomas, in an interview on WTXF FOX-29, said he’s heard conversations among players that “hint” of racism on Kelly’s part.
Thomas pointed to Kelly’s coaching staff, with only one African-American position coach, as evidence of this.
“One of the things that you're seeing right now, and these are the things that you have heard in the locker room from some different players is that ... they feel like there is a hint of racism," Thomas said on FOX.
"When you put that tag on someone — you have to kind of be careful with that — but there are some players that kind of feel that that's what it is. Especially when there was a report that came out last year that the Eagles were one of the whitest teams in the NFL. So you start to see the culture of the team change extremely quick when Coach Kelly takes over.
“You have seven assistant black coaches but only one assistant coach is over the segment. The other guys are assistants to the assistant coaches.
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“Duce Staley (running backs coach) is the only guy that's headed over his segment that's gonna be in charge of his group. The other guys are just assistants to an assistant coach.”
Thomas, the Eagles’ first-round pick in 1998, started 154 games at left tackle from 1998 through 2008 before finishing his career with the Jaguars in 2009.
He was on Kelly’s staff working with both offensive linemen and linebackers in 2013 and 2014 but did not have his contract renewed when the season ended.
Thomas also formerly worked for Comcast SportsNet on the Eagles’ pregame and postgame shows.
Smith on Monday used some of Kelly’s roster moves — releasing DeSean Jackson, trading LeSean McCoy and losing Jeremy Maclin in free agency — to support his theory.
The Eagles over the last couple weeks also released two white players — Todd Herremans, Thomas’s former teammate, and James Casey — and signed African American cornerback Byron Maxwell to a reported $63 million contract.
"I think what Coach Kelly is doing — he's doing is just making decisions based off what he feels is right for his team, but there are some guys that feel that there are some issues there," Thomas said.
Smith and Thomas both referred to Riley Cooper, who Kelly kept on the roster after Cooper was videotaped at a Kenny Chesney concert in the summer of 2013 shouting a racial slur at a security guard.
Asked why Cooper is still on the team, Thomas said, "I don't know."
“Coach Kelly backed him and they sent him off to have some coaching with how to handle race, I don't know," Thomas said.
“But my question is with that … if Riley Cooper was black ... if was at a Trey Songz concert and he was black and he went up to a white person and was talking like that, or even if he talked to a homosexual person and was gay bashing, would he still be on the team?”
When contacted about the remarks by CSNPhilly.com, the Eagles have not responded. Kelly hasn’t spoken publicly since the day after the Eagles’ season ended. He’s not expected to speak again until the NFL owners’ meetings later this month in Arizona.
For what it's worth, Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins praised Kelly on Tuesday. Granted, it appears as if it's in the context of free agency, as Kelly has taken some heat after Frank Gore spurned the team and joined the Colts.