Duck Tales: Chip Kelly Writes Checks When Oregon Doesn’t Quack

Chip Kelly’s Oregon Ducks laid a massive egg in the first game of his head coaching career, and that was even before LeGarrette Blount went all Captain Falcon on Boise State’s Byron Hout. It was so bad (152 total yards) that one frustrated fan wrote in to Kelly requesting a refund, with an itemized list of expenses attached.↵↵He got one.↵

↵↵⇥“When Chip replied and said ‘What is your address?’–that was all he said–I replied with my address, and a few days later I had a check in the mail.”↵⇥↵⇥Seminary was understandably dumbfounded by the response.↵⇥

↵⇥↵⇥“As a sales guy, it’s really hard to shut me up. When I received that check, I was literally speechless.” ↵⇥

↵↵↵Kelly sent an authentic, this-is-good-for-money check to Tony Seminary, an Oregon grad and longtime fan, but Seminary didn’t cash it. And why would he? No amount of money is worth the faith this classy response should give the green-and-gold-and-silver-and-black faithful, passed around as legend and photocopy.↵

↵↵“He could lose every game 50-0 and he’d still be my coach, our coach, through thick and thin,” Seminary said. Even if there’s no earthly way Kelly would be anywhere near the Autzen Stadium sidelines after a hypothetical nightmare like that, maybe he should be: In this act, he’s shown his players how to take responsibility for mistakes and react to criticism with grace and good humor. That’s more valuable than any Pac-10 championship, no?↵

↵↵(HT to EDSBS.)↵

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