Kelly was not willing to rework Mathis’ contract, as the previous Eagles regime had. Most players would use their agent to handle such a task. Mathis directly texted Kelly with a YouTube video of Engelbert Humperdink singing, “Please release me, let me go. …’’
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“There were many things that Chip had done that showed me he wasn’t building a championship team. Two of the main issues that concerned me were: 1. A never-evolving, vanilla offense that forced our own defense to play higher than normal play counts. 2. His impatience with certain personality types even when they were blue-chip talents. The Broncos team I was on would have eaten Chip alive. I don’t think he could have handled the plethora of large personalities.”
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The Eagles extended an offer but Mathis and his agent Drew Rosenhaus decided to table negotiations until after the season so he could focus on football.

After that 2014 season, Roseman was stripped of some authority while Kelly was given full control of football operations. When Rosenhaus reached out to resume negotiations, Kelly said he had no knowledge of previous negotiations.

"Since I wasn’t going to be paid what I was offered and I wouldn’t simply be given better incentives to play for a coach who wasn’t building a winning team, I decided I wanted out of Philadelphia. I hope Chip learns from his experiences in Philadelphia and grows as a coach. Maybe he’ll find some constructive criticism from this."

Squire wrote:Didn't flippin' Mathis expressly deny asking to be released? I wish more people were embarrassed to admit that the publicly and clearly lied. I'm old fashioned that way.

Woody wrote:Seems like a lot of post-hoc rationalizations from Mathis meant to fit his own i'm-too-clever-for-the-world self image

“There were many things that Chip had done that showed me he wasn’t building a championship team. Two of the main issues that concerned me were: 1. A never-evolving, vanilla offense that forced our own defense to play higher than normal play counts.

2. His impatience with certain personality types even when they were blue-chip talents. The Broncos team I was on would have eaten Chip alive. I don’t think he could have handled the plethora of large personalities.”

Eem wrote:I mean, Chip ran like the same 10 plays over and over again so I know what he means by vanilla

Woody wrote:oh come on eem everyone knows that. point is mathis is simply piling on here for his own personal gain