How It All Went Bad... Again

Doomed Kelly era ends with one of worst seasons in 49ers franchise history.

- Craig Massei

Chip Kelly is a straight-shooter. During his 352 day reign as head coach of the 49ers, he never was one to avoid or dance around questions, typically addressing them with forthright answers. There wasn’t much to hide in his approach. What you see is what you get.

So it’s no surprise Kelly had a typically blunt response when asked on New Year’s Day — just hours before being fired after a dreadful one-and-done season — how he would analyze what just happened to the 49ers over the previous four months.

Kelly summed it up succinctly. And honestly.

“We were 2-14,” he said. “That’s how I would analyze the whole season.”

Kelly needed to say no more. That’s a record that speaks for itself.

It’s also a record from which few coaches survive, unless their name happens to be Bill Walsh, who also went 2-14 in his first season as 49ers coach in 1979.

That was then. Walsh would go on to build a dynasty and win multiple Super Bowls for former team owner Eddie DeBartolo.

This is now. Kelly got the swift ax from 49ers CEO/owner Jed York, DeBartolo’s nephew, who released a statement via email shortly after San Francisco’s season-ending 25-23 loss to Seattle that told the world both Kelly and general manager Trent Baalke “have been relieved of their duties.”

Most everybody paying attention over the previous four months knew that would be the word coming down after one of the worst seasons in the franchise’s 71-year history. Kelly’s 2-14 debacle matched San Francisco’s worst record ever, a dubious finish also attained by the 49ers in 1978, 1979 and 2004.

“It’s a bottom-line business,” Kelly said. “We probably didn’t win enough games.”

No probably about it.

But it wasn’t just about losing games. It was about how the 49ers lost them.