Arranged marriages were a common thing in many cultures throughout the world until about the 18th century and some nations stubbornly held onto the concept well into the 20th, particularly China where blind marriages were the norm up until the 1950s.
Closer to home, so-called “picture-bride unions” were popular among Japanese-American immigrants into the 1900s and “placement marriage” among certain Fundamentalist Mormon groups still goes on.
To most of us, however, being told whom to marry seems like an exercise in futility because it’s already so difficult to navigate through life with the person you’ve actually vetted.
Over in the NFL, no one really knows for sure if the marriage between San Francisco 49ers general manager Trent Baalke and head coach Chip Kelly was actually fueled with a shotgun Jed York was holding just off to the side but the union certainly didn’t make a lot of sense on the surface.
After all Baalke had already used up all of his political capital in Santa Clara after running off the successful Jim Harbaugh for his friend and confidant who happens to double as a walking, talking “Saturday Night Live” skit, Jim Tomsula.
So, if York was going to give Baalke one last chance to make things right with the 49ers, the GM choosing a head coach who went off the rails in Philadelphia because he couldn’t get along with the last guy who hired him, Howie Roseman, sure seemed like tortured logic.
The fact that the power-hungry Kelly also laid down a he-goes-or-I-go ultimatum to Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie back in January of 2015 also seems like something that might be a non-starter for an executive with shaky job security.
Yet Kelly is in the Bay Area despite the fact his reputation as both a coach and personnel head tumbled mightily after imploding in South Philadelphia. So, if that’s not a full-blown fire pointing to a York-arranged marriage, there’s at least a lot of smoke to it.
New San Francisco 49ers head coach Chip Kelly gestures during a media conference Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016, in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)
When Kelly was hired by the 49ers, more than one speculated Baalke was going to be out the door sooner rather than later because if you can’t get along with the admittedly surly Harbaugh, smooth sailing with the even more headstrong Kelly isn’t on the horizon.
And less than two weeks into their first offseason together before the players have even hit the field for any football-related work we have our first report of dissension.
“I already hear there’s problems in the building between Chip and Baalke,” former offensive lineman and current NFL Network analyst Brian Baldinger recently said on 97.5 The Fanatic in Philadelphia.
“I already hear there’s problems in the building between Chip & Baalke” – @BaldyNFL
— 975TheFanatic (@975TheFanatic) April 14, 2016
You should know Baldinger is admittedly very close to the Eagles and there remains plenty of bitterness with Kelly in the NovaCare Complex so those feeding Baldy could have their own agenda. Meanwhile, hearsay isn’t admissible in any court and should be taken with a grain of salt here as well but that said, would Baldinger’s assessment really surprise anyone?
In Philadelphia Kelly had no respect for Roseman’s football acumen and reached the end of his rope with the money man, turned talent-evaluator when Roseman ran the coach’s friend, Tom Gamble, out of the organization.
In San Francisco Gamble was already in place as a senior personnel executive before Kelly ever got the job and Baalke’s resume boats nearly two decades of experience with NFL personnel, far more than Kelly so the mentor has little to complain about right now, at least when it comes to that aspect of the Niners’ organization.
But excuses for creating trouble can change quickly and if someone has a combative personality, he’s going to find something to complain about at some point.
In the end this Baalke-Kelly union is one arranged marriage destined for failure.
– John McMullen is a national football columnist for FanRagSports.com and TodaysPigskin.com. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @jfmcmullen — Also catch John every day at 4:05 ET on ESPN South Jersey and check @JFMcMullen for John’s upcoming appearances on YAHOO! Sports Radio, FOX Sports Radio, as well as dozens of local radio stations across North America.
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