Back to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Newsfeed

Eagles' Chip Kelly explains 2012 rejection of Bucs' coaching offer

It is no doubt hard for fans of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to imagine what could have been.

In January 2012, on the eve of the Senior Bowl, the Bucs were in search of a new coach, and for a few hours they thought they had landed one of the game’s true innovators.

A deal was nearing completion, the Bucs said late on a Sunday night, with then-University of Orgeon coach Chip Kelly. Before dawn on the following Monday, though, the deal was dead.

After strongly considering the offer the Glazer family had made to him, Kelly decided to go back to college, back to Oregon.