Win or lose, the Eagles are Chip Kelly's own

It would only be natural that someone so deftly and persistently private would become someone so under siege with interest and intrigue into his privacy. Whenever something becomes concealed, or makes some prolonged effort to conceal itself, it becomes more alluring to outsiders.

Is there something to hide? Something scandalous, or something controversial? Something bad, or something good? Hidden things and people often, paradoxically, become the things and people under the most irrational surveillance.

Like Eagles head coach Chip Kelly. Rarely one to give a one-on-one interview, and a man greatly disinclined to reveal much of anything about himself in general, he sails through meetings with the football press like he has a full bladder. "Okay, guys," he spurts out before fleeing from the podium and into an ether.

When it was revealed the seemingly silent bachelor, wholly devoted to gridiron scheming, once had a wife, the reactions were, in some quarters, as fanatic as a mid-century sewing circle learning one of their members was an undercover Communist.

Then, this offseason, Kelly introduced a lethal combination. He fused his fervent privacy with the NFL's most activist and attention-grabbing free agency period. With the stroke of a pen and little given reason, he shipped his starting quarterback and running back out of town. Two offensive guards were gone. A veteran linebacker. Two starting cornerbacks. A reserve cornerback. A wide receiver was allowed to walk. 

Into Kelly's cocoon came allegations of racism from the departed. He got rid of all the good black players, said LeSean McCoy. He wasn't comfortable with "grown men of our culture," said Brandon Boykin. Wink, wink. Racism, being an unseen thought, is easily declared. But racism, being an unseen thought, is nearly impossible to prove unless obviously enacted. 

And, because Kelly is so secretive, and secretive people often hide things, maybe he was hiding a racial bias. Keeping Riley Cooper around didn't help his cause: the very-average wide receiver was caught on video in 2013 yelling the "N-word" and came away with a $22.5 million contract extension.

That all seems to dissipate, however, with the preseason approaching. The focus is moving to where it belongs, the X's and O's. The one thing Kelly cannot hide is results. Wins and losses. Injuries and touchdowns and interceptions. Pass defense. Especially pass defense.

With his newfound duties in player personnel, despite his insistence that he lacks full control in that department, every nook and cranny of this roster and its work is his personal property. His fingerprints will be all over every yard gained and lost.

Though, if Kelly isn't running the Eagles' personnel department, as he says, someone should tell Howie Roseman why he was asked to move all the stuff from his office and put it in another one. 

Granted, Kelly is used to control. He had it from top to bottom as the head coach at Oregon. He had a particular system that needed particular players of a particular type. He was the one who went into prospective players' living rooms, met their families, convinced them to not to go USC or Stanford, nurtured their development, answered for their performance. 

Only three years into his NFL tenure, he's taken hold of and preserved that control. His culture is the gospel and his way the life. Ask Evan Mathis what the consequences are if you're even suspected of not being devoted to it heart and soul. 

What's the threshold for Kelly to know if his work is a success or a failure? His Eagles have been 10-6 in his two campaigns, made the playoffs (for a night) his first time and missed them the second. Should he miss the playoffs in his third year? It depends: if the Eagles repeat or improve their record and stay home, the grumblings will be loud and legion, but he'll have a fourth opportunity.

After that, the postseason will be the singular measure of Kelly's reign. If they make it and win something, he stays. If they make and lose or miss it entirely, he's out. But not just out, out amidst the shrieking and bloodlust and fanfare that only Philadelphia can drum up. 

They'll know where to point their torches. Though whether they'll be able to find the man who has so adeptly choreopgrahed his own isolation is another matter.