15 cartoons that sum up Chip Kelly's tenure with the Eagles

The first cartoon I drew about Chip Kelly featured the newly-hired head coach being pulled out of a hat by Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, saying, "Now make a quarterback appear!"

Sadly, Kelly never got that franchise quarterback, and his tenure as Eagles head coach featured some dramatic ups and depressing downs. It was always interesting, whether it was cutting Pro Bowl talent or making high-profile trades in a league where that tends not to happen. Even his departure, released from his duties with a game remaining in the season during a holiday week, was out of the norm.

As a cartoonist, I lamented the departure of the easily-caricaturable Andy Reid, but Kelly proved equally as fun to draw, with his Barney Rubble face and ears permanently pressed down by his omnipresent visor (which I kept on his head long after he moved to an NFL-approved ball cap).

As I looked back at my cartoons, I noticed Kelly got progressively smaller the more and more I drew him, which seemed to align with my growing displeasure with his performance, first as head coach, then later as general manager.

Maybe the most fitting cartoon I drew about his tenure featured his crumbled "genius" statue lying scattered on the ground. I actually drew that cartoon during the eventful offseason, when I thought the veneer of his ideas began to lose their shine. I didn't expect it to be this prophetic.

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Rob Tornoe is the sports cartoonist for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philly.com. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

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