Grant Cohn: Chip Kelly’s performance with 49ers — fair or foul?

SANTA CLARA — This is about weather reports, the history of gloves and fairness in football. But before we get into all that, let me take you back to Chip Kelly's postgame press conference after the Chicago Bears massacred the 49ers 26-6 in cold, wet, football-unfriendly weather.

This wasn't one of Kelly's best games, to be sure. His offense gained only 6 net passing yards, and his quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, completed just one pass on five attempts, one of which bounced off the back of a defender's helmet, before Kelly benched him at the end of the third quarter.

I wasn't at this game. I was at home watching on television when a reporter asked Kelly why he benched his starting quarterback.

'I was just watching how the ball was coming out of his hands and what our chances were of completing it,' Kelly said at the visitor's podium. 'Didn't look like we were doing much in the passing game.'

Immediately, a question popped into my head: 'Why not try a glove on Kaepernick's throwing hand to help him overcome the bad weather conditions?'

Remember, though, I wasn't at the press conference. I couldn't ask my question. And, I wondered if it even was fair to ask. Kelly might not know what gloves are.

He doesn't seem to know a lot of things, such as gap integrity, defense in general, how to prepare for a game in the snow, how to make halftime adjustments, how to make pregame adjustments, how to make midweek adjustments, how to motivate players, how to create a system that fits players' strengths, how to change and evolve as a coach and a play-caller, how to evaluate himself, how to hire good coordinators, how to find Ferg the trainer after games to learn the status of players who are injured and how not to lose 11 games in a row.

Still, I figured Kelly had to know what gloves are. They're not a new invention. Homer referred to them in The Odyssey. Pliny the Younger wore them in Ancient Rome. Michael Jackson wore one in 1983 when he did the Moonwalk for the first time on live television. And, Peyton Manning wore gloves when he won the Super Bowl just this past February.

With great trepidation, I decided to ask Kelly my glove question the next time I saw him.

Cut to Wednesday in Santa Clara, Chip Kelly's first press conference of the week. There I was, sitting 10 feet away from him.

'Chip,' I said, 'You mentioned after the Bears game you didn't like the way the ball was coming out of Kaepernick's hand. Why not have him wear a glove on his throwing hand?'

Kelly gave a look like I was out of line. 'I don't think you can tell a guy to wear a glove…' he said.

A-ha! So, he DOES know what gloves are.

Back to Chip. 'I don't think you can tell a guy to wear a glove that has never worn a glove and say in the middle of the game, 'Hey, let's try this.' It's just not something (Kaepernick)'s done or has ever been approached with him. So, for me to come up to him and tell him, 'Hey, I think you need to wear a glove,' I don't think that was the answer.'

I appreciated Kelly's knowledge of hand-wear, but his response seemed strange. It implied the idea of gloves didn't come to him until midway through the game. As if he never thought to have Kaepernick throw a few balls before the game while wearing a glove just so he could see how he'd respond to it.

Or, during the week of practice in Orlando, knowing his team would play that Sunday in a torrential downpour, have Kaepernick throw a few passes with a wet ball just to see if he could.

These are reasonable things a coach can do. It's called planning.

Kelly may not know what weather reports are, although they've been around a long time.

What I can't get past is Kelly's idea of fairness in football. That somehow it would be unfair to broach the subject of gloves with Kaepernick midgame. So, in fairness to Kaepernick, Kelly benched him and humiliated him on national television. That's fair?

Maybe Kelly's concept of fairness explains his whole coaching philosophy.

In fairness to the Bears, Kelly had his team practice at the equator for a game at the North Pole. In fairness to the rest of the league, Kelly loses every week. In fairness to Oregon, Kelly didn't become their next head coach so they could hire someone better.

What a fair person.

Imagine if Kelly coached the Oakland Raiders when Derek Carr dislocated his pinky a couple weeks ago. You remember that. Carr went to the locker room. The trainers gave him a glove to try on. He wore it, returned to the game and won.

In fairness to Carr, Kelly would've told the trainers to hide the glove so Carr couldn't return to the field, Matt McGloin would have had to finish the game and the Raiders would have lost.

That's fair?

Does anyone on this 49ers team even think about football? Anyone from Kelly to the offensive coordinator to the quarterbacks coach to Kaepernick to the equipment man. Was there one person who could have come up with the glove idea all by himself? Does anyone even think about football details big and small?

In fairness to Kelly, I didn't ask those questions.

Grant Cohn writes sports columns and the 'Inside the 49ers' blog for The Press Democrat's website. You can reach him at grantcohn@gmail.com.