Chip Kelly speaks movingly of his friend Bill McGovern at Pac-12 media day

‘If you want to touch the future, touch a person. That’s what Bill McGovern did.’ Chip Kelly spoke about his friend who recently died.

Pac-12 media day was dominated by the Pac-12 media rights story, which Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff handled poorly with his public remarks. Everyone wondered if the Pac-12 had privately arrived at a deal behind the scenes but wanted to wait to reveal it. Kliavkoff fended off that line of questioning from the assembled press in Las Vegas.

Pac-12 media rights questions overshadowed football, but there was still a lot of football to talk about. Players and coaches from the 12 different schools in the conference did a full range of media-scrum, side-session, and one-on-one interviews with various journalists, talk show hosts, and website publishers. How Pac-12 football teams stack up against each other was another central component of Friday’s events.

Then there was this very poignant moment, easily the most powerful of the whole day. UCLA coach Chip Kelly was deeply saddened by the death of his former defensive coordinator at UCLA, Bill McGovern. Kelly was profoundly touched by McGovern and wanted to make sure McGovern’s soulful life will be remembered.

Kelly, as relayed by UCLA commentator Tony Siracusa on a Trojans Wire special live show at The Voice of College Football, said this about McGovern:

“If you want to touch history, touch a rock. If you want to touch the present, touch a flower. If you want to touch the future, touch a person. That’s what Bill McGovern did.”

It’s a very moving meditation on living a purpose-driven life and dealing with the very natural fear of death human beings have:

“Good people leave a mark on everybody’s heart.” 🕊️

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