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Glazer: Chip Kelly knew Baalke had been trying to get him fired for weeks

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(Via Fox Sports 1)


As he so often does, Jay Glazer dropped a bomb Monday afternoon, revealing on Fox Sports 1’s Speak for Yourself that Chip Kelly knew former general manager Trent Baalke had been trying to get him fired for weeks.

This is not the first time Baalke has been accused of lobbying CEO Jed York to fire a coach, with similar reports surfacing around the firings of Mike Singletary, Jim Harbaugh and Jim Tomsula. The difference here is that Kelly flat out told Glazer he was aware of the backstabbing.

Glazer said he spoke with Kelly last night in what seemed to be a wide-ranging conversation, including Kelly revealing he was not interested in defending himself against Baalke, and that he’d like to take an offensive coordinator position as his next gig.

Glazer also revealed that Baalke was the reason the 49ers elected not to hire Adam Gase in 2015, and instead went with Jim Tomsula, who was out after one year. The Niners were set to announce Gase as their new head coach before Baalke reportedly went to York and undercut the decision, something Gase is still upset about to this day.

Here’s a full transcript of Glazer’s comments:

He’s learned from the Philly thing. I talked to him last night, I’ve talked to him for the last few days. When he got brought in there by Jed York, here’s what happened: For weeks and weeks and weeks, he’s known that Trent Baalke has been trying to undermine him and get him out. And other people said, go in there and defend yourself. And he’s kinda learned from the Philly thing, I’m not gonna do that again. I’m just gonna go, I’m gonna coach, I have my chance.

And he really thought that – like the Colin Kaepernick thing – that locker room never fell apart. And we were talking about this on presidential debates, and that locker room didn’t fall apart, so you’re right, he did a phenomenal job. I don’t think he saw it coming, well he told me last night, he didn’t see it coming that badly. But here’s a guy in Trent Baalke, who, he’s been controversial because of his role in the Jim Harbaugh affair. Went back to Singletary before that; Jim Tomsula.

And then I reported yesterday on FOX NFL Sunday that two years ago, they were hiring Adam Gase for that job instead of Jim Tomsula. They were hiring Adam Gase, and John Lynch knows, he was back in Denver, packing his stuff up to go to San Francisco, and at the last second, Trent Baalke went to the owner and completely undercut it. I talked to Gase about it, and he is still angry and bitter about it. So, 49er fans could have had Adam Gase this entire time, if there wasn’t so much politics that went on inside that organization.

So, the politics are gone, Trent Baalke’s out of there, obviously, Chip is out of there. Chip is saying to me last night, I’ll go be an offensive coordinator somewhere. He wants to be a football guy.