Rumor Mill: Cleveland Browns set to make Chip Kelly ‘an offer he can’t refuse’
Oregon Ducks coach Chip Kelly (left), defensive line coach Jerry Azzinaro (center) react after a fumble in the fourth quarter in the 2012 Rose Bowl game at the Rose Bowl. He may be doing the same in Cleveland very soon. (Kirby Lee-Image of Sport-USA TODAY Sports)
Earlier, we reported that Chip Kelly was set to interview for the vacant Cleveland Browns head coaching position on Friday, a day after his Ducks play Kansas State in the 2013 Fiesta Bowl.
Apparently, that interview is looking less and less like an actual interview and more and more like a recruiting of Kelly himself by Browns owner Jimmy Haslam.
Haslam recently acquired the Browns in a massive purchase, and he has made no secret of the fact that he hopes to make a splash by hiring a marquee coach. In fact, so intensely does he want to bring in a big-name coach that it had been reported he was prepared to make Alabama coach Nick Saban a 10-year, $100 million contract offer.
Such an offer would have floored most people, and Haslam is obviously hoping Kelly is one of those people.
This according to Mary Kay Cabot of The Plain Dealer, “If the Browns’ interview with Kelly goes well, they’ll be prepared to make him an offer he can’t refuse.”
Nothing has been confirmed as of yet, and nothing will be until after the Fiesta Bowl is played on Thursday night.
But if Kelly cannot refuse the offer, than the Cleveland Browns and their long-downtrodden fanbase may be having a little fiesta of their own.
