Today, Sunday the 20th, in the second game of the new season, I watched an absolutely awful display of football on the part of the Eagles, and this point became clear to me: Part of the reason for this early failure may be due to the fact that, with all this trading, the new coach in his third season, Chip Kelly, has destroyed the comradery of the Philadelphia Eagles, an essential to the success of any great team. Although the players know each other, there is no possibility for the kind of unity one could describe as "comradery."
The Era of Free Agency has presented a challenge to the existence of team "togetherness." Julio Jones (receiver) and "Matty Ice" (QB - both on the Falcons) are great, together, in part because of the chemistry between the two. Ditto Tom Brady and several receivers on New England, or Arron Rogers (QB) and Jordy Nelson (receiver) or . . . . . . . . . . well, you get the point.
If you coach or teach or minister to a congregation, run an office, or, whatever, and ignore the development of the familia tie that can be described as "comradery," you will hurt your chances of being as successful as you otherwise could be.
Perhaps that is the problem with politics. By design, politics is a "blood sport," featuring confrontation as an essential aspect of the political scene. Without this, there is no foundation for the political parties.
When the flower grandchildren of the Marxist oriented Boomers (not all Boomers are Marxists, btw) posit the question "Can't we all get along," they miss the point of "representative governance." Those whom we elect, we elect as representatives of our hopes and dreams for this country and our own personal advancement. That is the purpose of our elections and there are as many constituencies as there are representatives.
Politicians negotiate, they compromise, they make concessions, and, in the long run, all of this had better be perceived as balanced, or, the system is seen as a failure. If "compromise" is seen as one sided, those who are ignored, will (finally) rebel and the system comes tumbling down. Nothing is more harmful to representative government than a party or a leader who does not care for the opinions of the other side. Obama and the Democrats have "officially" chosen to ignore the blue collar male worker, for the past several years. Understand that killing off your opponents is not a path to unity. Rather, it is THE path to totalitarianism and repression . . . . . and that is the current agenda of the New Progressive Democrat Party. To work for the criminalization of partisan speech, to weaponize federal agencies against the likes of the Evangelical and teaparty communities, to circumvent Congress, and ignore the dictates and decisions of the High Court, is to bring an end to all that makes this nation uniquely great.
Point of post: Comradery is critical to any tribal concern, whether that be family, team sports, charity services, and so on. Ignore this, and you have disarray. But comradery has nothing to do with politics (except, perhaps, within a given party).
Learn the lessons and ignore those who make mention of how well they get along with the political opposition. They are ideological smucks who do not represent their constituencies.
(BTW, when the Right opposes "compromise" simply because it is "compromise," it makes itself as much a purveyor of chaos and disruption, as anyone on the Left).
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Kelly is gutting the Eagles now, after winning 10 games each in his first two years, because he has total control over personnel for the first time. As that anecdote about "culture and scheme fits" suggests, Kelly has a specific system and wants specific types of players to join it.
The players he has shipped off this offseason:
- LeSean McCoy (traded)
- Nick Foles (traded)
- Jeremy Maclin (let go in free agency)
- Trent Cole (cut)
- Todd Herremans (cut)
- Cary Williams (cut)
McCoy was on a monster contract, and Kelly reportedly didn't like his horizontal running style. Herremans, who was cut, floated a theory on Philly radio that Kelly was so confident in his offensive system that he thought he could plug in anyone and still score points. That could explain why he dumped McCoy's salary, let Maclin sign with Kansas City, and cut Herremans to create extra cap room that he subsequently used to sign players on the defensive sign of the ball.
