SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Even at the very end of his tenure of less than one calendar year with the San Francisco 49ers, Chip Kelly refused to make excuses or point fingers for what was about to happen.
“It’s a bottom-line business," Kelly said after Sunday's season-ending loss to Seattle. "So, we probably didn’t win enough games.”
About two hours later, Kelly was proved correct as the 49ers fired him. The 2-14 Niners didn't win enough games, and that ultimately led to his becoming the third coach to depart the organization in as many years and the second in a row to do so after just one season at the helm.
For anyone who watched the Niners flail their way to just two wins against the equally lowly Los Angeles Rams and set franchise records for longest losing streak and yards, rushing yards and points allowed, it's not hard to understand why CEO Jed York found it important to make sweeping changes.
All of that, including Kelly's dismissal, is understandable. But Kelly deserved better. He didn't deserve to get just one year to turn around a team that was devoid of difference-makers at almost every position. He didn't deserve to have his imminent dismissal leaked the Saturday night before his final game. And he especially didn't deserve it in light of the fact that he showed loyalty to the franchise amid plenty of questions about his returning to college football during the season.
When Kelly signed on with the Niners last January, York said he expected Kelly to be with the team "for a long time." By Sunday night, 347 days later, York and the Niners released a statement saying it was "absolutely necessary" to fire Kelly and general manager Trent Baalke. What happened in the time between those statements would indicate that perhaps it was absolutely necessary, but it could have been handled better.
While the Niners went from a five-win team in 2015 to a two-win team in 2016, Kelly wasn't in charge of the roster. If the Niners were going to make sweeping changes, last year would have been the time to do it. Instead, Kelly and Baalke ended up in an arranged marriage with little chance for a quick turnaround.
As the losses piled up -- 13 in a row at one point -- the Niners gravitated toward Kelly, who never wavered despite the team's woeful record.
“The biggest thing is, can relate to football but more so relates to life, and that’s not letting your circumstances dictate your attitude and how you approach a situation," quarterback Colin Kaepernick said. "Once again, our circumstances weren’t the best this year, but our team came out, we played hard every week. We played for each other each week, and that was something that I look at as something I can take moving forward and make sure I can continue to do that.”
To hear 49ers players talk about Kelly after Sunday's game, even before he'd been fired, was to understand whatever Kelly's reputation in Philadelphia was, it hadn't carried over to the Bay Area. The Niners respected Kelly for the way he took care of them with his schedule and for how he handled adverse situations. When Kelly's father died just a couple of days before the Chicago game and he coached anyway, players spoke passionately about trying to get a win for him.
Kelly also earned points for how he handled Kaepernick's national anthem protest. When he publicly backed Kaepernick for standing up for what he believed, his players followed suit.
Then, as rumors swirled that Kelly would leave San Francisco for a job at Oregon or another plum college gig, Kelly never deviated from his commitment, saying he would never leave a job while he has one.
"He’s a good dude," receiver Torrey Smith said. "I understand the business side of it. I think he’s a good coach. I think he’s a better person. But that’s how this business goes. They let good people in tough spots. When we lose like we did and have a season like we had, changes are made or can be made. From coaches to players, it’s all of us, and we were all a part of the problem. That’s why our record was what it was."
Even as the season wound to a close and the Niners seemingly put someone new on injured reserve every day, Kelly kept his focus on the task at hand.
"There was a time in the last two weeks -- I mean, I looked around the locker room and there were guys who, I didn't even know what their names were," left tackle Joe Staley said. "We had a ton of injuries coming down the stretch ... and nobody really blinked. Everybody was just kind of coming into work. We could have really, really, really lost this football team. And I thought [Kelly] did a good job of just keeping everybody focused throughout this kind of crappy season."
Ultimately, Kelly's approach might not have worked in the long term. Moving on from him now gives the Niners a chance to start fresh with a general manager and a coach who can work together to rebuild the franchise. That's part of the business.
But the most successful organizations also have a knack for handling those business decisions in a decidedly more compassionate way.