AP

Giants coach Tom Coughlin has to try to beat Chip Kelly twice a year now.

But in 2006, he tried to get the Eagles head coach to join his staff.

Coughlin told reporters at the owners meetings that he offered Kelly a job as offensive quality control coach, a job which Kelly turned down, staying at New Hampshire so he could continue to work with players directly.

“I was very tempted to go, because I have the utmost respect for Coach,” Kelly said, via Gary Myers of the New York Daily News. “The only reason I didn’t take the job is because I wasn’t going to be a position coach. That’s what I was going to miss if I left New Hampshire.”

Kelly was only there one more season, before going to Oregon as offensive coordinator in 2007. By 2009, he was head coach, and two years later, he turned down a chance to coach the Buccaneers.

It was a risky move for the young coach, but his path has crossed with Coughlin’s quickly enough.