Chip Kelly's Play Cards as Entertaining as Eagles' High-Octane Offense

The Philadelphia Eagles captivated the nation on Monday night with a hurry-up offense that had Washington Redskins players and fans gasping for air. Well, that fun is spilling over to the sidelines as well. 

It seems Eagles fans will get more bang for their buck this season as Philadelphia aims to run a remarkable number of plays. Everything is flashier with this team, even the play cards. 

ESPN spotted this peculiar image and tweeted it out to fans on Monday: 

If you are wondering, the images are indeed real and just one of the myriad of ways Kelly is bringing a fresh new look to the league. 

The Oregon Ducks used a similar scheme under Kelly's watch. Back in 2011, ESPN'sPatrick Hruby wrote about the zany images plastered all over the sidelines during Ducks games. 

Unique, as in each placard displays silly, seemingly nonsensical pictures of—among other things—a battleship, a shamrock, a Cincinnati Bengalslogo, the words "MAGIC" and "GLYCERINE," a map of New Hampshire and (Lee) Corso's dome, alongside the guillotined visages of various other television sports personalities.

Photo Credit: Brock Ameele (via ESPN)

Thankfully, we will still get the usual array of WTF coming from Kelly's play-callers. It seems this time around the Eagles are honoring Philadelphia's more memorable pop culture icons—at least that's what For the Win's Chris Chase noted. 

Chase also spotted a report from USA Today's Jason Wolf, who is just the latest person to try to crack a seemingly unbreakable code: 

In order to play at a high speed, the Eagles need to communicate at a high speed. Kelly's system of communication renders the huddle nearly obsolete.

It has traditionally incorporated poster boards divided into quadrants, with four pictures, logos or words on each, and hand signals that are instantly recognizable to exhausted 20-somethings. These signs and signals relay all necessary information, including formation, motion, snap count, play direction, routes and play type.

Good luck trying to crack this thing, because the report offers that some of these images may be nothing more than inside jokes that would really only hold meaning for those on the field. 

If you still aren't sold, Wolf quotes Eagles tight end Brent Celek who has great things to say about the team's communication system: 

From a communications standpoint, it's going to change the league. I'm not going to tell you guys how, but it will. Just the way that they can communicate plays in and get us the stuff, it's pretty cool. It's something that I never even thought was possible in the NFL. Seeing the stuff he's doing, he has a reason why he does everything that he does, and a reason why each play is called what it is. And it all makes sense.

I can't say that we're going to be super successful, but from a communications standpoint, it's insane. I think it's awesome.

We will give up trying to decipher what Rocky and the Phillie Phanatic mean in the grand scheme of things. 

All that matters is something exciting is about to take place on the field, and that should be enough for a nation to consider the Eagles a must-see TV event for the season. 

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