LeSean McCoy: Not enemies, but Chip Kelly 'can't say s--- to me'
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- Buffalo Bills running back LeSean McCoy on Wednesday angrily dismissed the idea of coach Chip Kelly shaking his hand when the star running back makes his return Sunday to Lincoln Financial Field against the Philadelphia Eagles.
"Listen, man, Chip can't shake s--- at all. Nothing. He knows this," McCoy told a large group of reporters at his locker. "That's why [he] said it. I know him. He's very intelligent. I can read between the lines. Like I said, I have nothing against him, no hatred. We're not enemies. I won't say anything wrong to him. But there's nothing for us to talk about, at all. Simple as that."
Kelly traded McCoy to the Bills for linebackerKiko Alonsoin March, just months after McCoy became the Eagles'all-time leading rusher after his sixth season with the team. Kelly then signedDeMarco Murray, the NFL's leading rusher last season who was with Dallas, to a five-year, $40 million contract.
McCoy hasn't spoken to Kelly since the trade and said he has never received an explanation.
When asked on a conference call with Buffalo-based reporters earlier Wednesday if he would shake McCoy's hand after the game, Kelly responded, "Yeah, I would want to shake LeSean's hand."
"I tried to call him after, and I talked to his agent after we traded him," Kelly continued. "I always wanted to talk to LeSean. Again, I have no issues with LeSean at all. He did everything we asked him to do when he was here. You guys know him, he's a great personality. He's got an infectious personality. I've got tremendous respect for this man."
McCoy said he will shake hands with Eagles owner Jeff Lurie, and with running backs coach Duce Staley and other coaches, but he wants nothing to do with talking to Kelly.
"Man, listen. I'm not talking to Chip. We got nothing to talk about," McCoy said Wednesday. "He can't call me. He can't shake my hand. There's nothing he can do with me. He can't say s--- to me. It's as simple as that. I don't dislike him. I don't have nothing against him. But there's nothing for us to talk about. And he knows that, he knows me, he know how I act. There's nothing he can tell me. There's nothing he can talk about."
McCoy was quoted as saying that Kelly "got rid of all the good players, especially the good black players." Lurie said in mid-September that he thought McCoy said that because he was hurt about being traded.
"I said what I said because it's how I felt," McCoy said.
Bills Hall of Fame running back Thurman Thomas, who spoke to McCoy Wednesday, cautioned him about letting emotions take control on game day.
"Obviously, going back to where he grew up is going to be a big, emotional day for him," Thomas said of McCoy, who is from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. "But I told him today, I said, 'You know what? The last time that the Bills and former players were emotionally high, was the New England game [which Buffalo lost 40-32 in Week 2], and we can't allow ourselves to do that. You can't allow yourself to get caught up into what's going to be happening with the game. Especially with the crowd, and Chip, and all that. You have to go out and keep doing what you've been doing the past four or five weeks and you'll be fine.'
"So I expect a big game out of LeSean, but I expect an overall team effort for them to go down there and beat Philly."
