Chip Kelly, Hernan Cortes, And Burning The Boats
By Dom Pruett
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Former Oregon football coach Chip Kelly is currently weathering the storm caused by his underachieving Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles are only one game below .500, but patience in Kelly’s system is growing thin. More recently, Chip Kelly’s name has been attached to seemingly every college football coaching rumor. With Steve Sarkisian’s departure from USC, and Charlie Strong’s poor start in Austin (despite an upset win over rival Oklahoma), reporters speculate Kelly is likely to return to college sooner rather than later.
Chip Kelly disagrees with those sentiments and recently offered an interesting quote to show his commitment to the Eagles and succeeding in the NFL.
#ChipKelly [on NFL] "I'm all in. I think it was [Hernán] Cortes who burned the boats. Well I burned the boats. I'm an NFL guy."
— KEZI 9 NEWS (@KEZI9) January 17, 2013
The quote references Spanish explorer Hernan Cortes, who burned the ships that brought he and his men to the ‘new world.’ The myth says it was done to show that turning back was not an option; failure wasn’t to be tolerated.
It’s a popular tale to history buffs for inspirational purposes. However, Hernan Cortes is regarded by many as essentially a war criminal, who led a genocide against the Aztec people.
Anyway, I’m sure Chip meant no harm with the quote.