Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly made it clear that he has no interest in an NFL job, at least not right now.
Kelly was asked about NFL ambitions on Wednesday, and he said that there was no reason for him to cede all the control he has at Notre Dame to coach in the NFL.
“I’m not curious anymore about how I would do in the NFL,” Kelly said, via Notre Dame Insider. “It’s always about, ‘Would I want to do that? Would I want to put myself in that position?’ That’s the issue. I’m not curious.
“How would you give up control of all the things you have at Notre Dame to do that, unless they gave you full autonomy and control of an organization? I don’t think that’s happening anytime soon for Brian Kelly.”
Kelly pointed out that he has full control over a storied program in South Bend, and he wouldn’t get that in the NFL.
“I handle the contracts. I negotiate the contracts. I recruit the players,” he said. “So I’m the owner, the GM, I’m the football coach. Very rarely do you have those scenarios in the NFL. There’s very few of them that control all those buckets, if you will, in the NFL. I control all those buckets here at Notre Dame. So if you’re going to make that move to the NFL, you have to understand what you’re getting into.”
Kelly seems as though he’s been paying attention to why Chip Kelly didn’t last in Philadelphia. In the past, he’s been linked to the Giants as a potential successor to Tom Coughlin, but these comments make that seem unlikely. He’s already in a situation where he has full control over a football team, and he won’t get that in the NFL, and he seems content to stay right where he is.
