BOCA RATON, Fla. – The NFL lived in a world that has walls during the NFL owners meetings.
And between those walls, Chip Kelly sat quietly and listened to the discussion about a proposed rules change to make disqualification mandatory for a player who is penalized twice in a game for certain types of unsportsmanlike conduct fouls.
And while Kelly might run his unit how he runs his unit, he could not see why it was necessary to enact such a rule when officials already have the power to eject a player if they deem it necessary.
Before the vote became official, and the rule was officially adopted on a one-year basis, Kelly gave a unique spin on the rule while comparing it to a well-known 1992 motion picture.
Here’s what Kelly had to say:
“Did you ever see ‘A Few Good Men’? Why the two orders? Right? If you already have the ability to throw them out of a game, why do we have to put a second order in to throw them out of the game? Throw them out of the game. If they’re not playing it the right way and you have the ability to eject them. . . There’s already a mechanism available.
“Pt. Santiago. Don’t touch him. Why the two orders? You tell me. Maybe they ordered a Code Red that we didn’t know about. We have to investigate. But I don’t think anybody’s ordering a Code Red in the National Football League.
“But when that whole debate went on yesterday, I just kept thinking about ‘A Few Good Men.’ Why the two orders? If you told your men not to touch Private Santiago, then why did you have to move him off the base?
“That's all I thought about, to be honest with you. I know I think things differently than a lot of other people, but I wanted Col. Nathan Jessup (Jack Nicholson) to come and just walk up to the microphone and say, ‘Why the two orders?’ And then Lt. (Daniel) Kaffee (Tom Cruise) would get into him, you know, ‘I want the truth.’ And they start screaming at each other.
“Sometimes, you can handle it (the truth). If a guy doesn’t do something right, get rid of him.”
