With firing of Tom Gamble, Eagles general manager Howie Roseman wins power struggle with Chip Kelly
By Mark Eckel | For NJ Advance Media
on December 31, 2014 at 7:31 PM, updated December 31, 2014 at 9:55 PM
Tom Gamble was just a pawn in a chess game, and Wednesday, Eagles general manager Howie Roseman made the final move and declared, "Checkmate!"
Gamble, the Eagles vice president of player personnel with nearly 30 years of NFL experience with the Eagles, Jets, Indianapolis Colts and San Francisco 49ers, was fired by Roseman on New Year's Eve.
Don't buy into the "mutual parting of the ways'' that team declared in a statement.
This was a firing.
Why?
Gamble was a pawn in a power struggle between head coach Chip Kelly and Roseman — a struggle that could force Kelly to leave the Eagles.
Shortly after Kelly was hired as head coach in 2013, Kelly brought Gamble aboard. The two go back to when Kelly was the head coach at New Hampshire and Gamble was an East Coast scout. With similar goals, desires and work ethic, they hit it off immediately, and remained close on the West Coast when Kelly became head coach at Oregon and Gamble became the 49ers' director of personnel.
Roseman wasn't supportive of Gamble's hiring. Roseman didn't think another talent evaluator was needed, especially a guy with more experience — not to mention a guy with close ties to the head coach.
During the season, Kelly joined Gamble on scouting trips and the alliance created tension in the front office. Some speculated that Kelly — a popular head coach with a massive contract — and Gamble would team to force out Roseman, and Gamble would be elevated to general manager.
But in a Philly Game of Thrones, it didn't play out that way.
Kelly and Roseman's relationship has had its ups and downs. According to a person with knowledge of the situation who requested anonymity, the two "didn't get along, but had a sitdown (last) summer." Now, according to the same person Kelly "tolerates'' Roseman.
Two years into the Kelly regime — after a first-round exit from the playoffs in 2013 and missing the postseason in 2014 — with Kelly at his weakest, Roseman got his way. Gamble was fired, and Kelly lost his lone ally in a front office, which obviously is ruled by Roseman, whose power now appears unthreatened.
"There is no way Chip Kelly is happy about this,'' said an NFL personnel executive with another team who knows Gamble. "What the (heck) is going on there? How does Tom lose out in that battle? That place is dysfunctional.''
The executive requested anonymity to speak freely about another team.
The team refused comment when contacted by N.J. Advance Media, Kelly was not made available to discuss the firing, and he was not quoted in the team's press release that announced the move.
On Monday, Kelly called Gamble "an outstanding football man'' and said he did a "great job." During that same press conference, Kelly said Roseman was good at handling the salary cap.
According to people inside the organization those quotes "infuriated'' Roseman. The general manager — who has never been a scout, played the game or coached — has worked to overcome the image of being solely a salary-cap guy.
Roseman believes he has earned his job as general manager and the club's top talent evaluator. Instead, his head coach called him a glorified cap guy. Two days later, Roseman, with support from owner Jeffrey Lurie, exacted his revenge.
Now the big question is: What happens next?
Gamble will find another NFL job quickly. It will be a surprise if he doesn't have a job by the Scouting Combine in February.
Gamble isn't the first personnel person Roseman has dumped and probably won't be the last. Gamble joins a list that includes Louis Riddick and Tom Heckert, among others.
In the end, Roseman could end up like the 49ers' brass — a general manager trying to explain why a successful coach abandoned the organization. Because, with Gamble gone, Kelly likely will be more willing to take a call the next time a major college coaching opening occurs.
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Good, I hope they force Chip out like Baalke did Harbaugh