Chip Kelly, some say, is cold as a stone. When Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie fired his head coach last month, he implied that Kelly lacks “emotional intelligence.”

But there was a time when Kelly had his heart broken.

The romance — or bromance, or coachmance — began in 2010 at an Oregon football camp for high schoolers. Johnny Manziel, already a Texas legend, attended and loved everything he saw.

Johnny Football, as he already was known, relished the idea of playing quarterback for head coach Chip Kelly, whose dynamic, warp-speed offense was the shiny new toy of college football.

Manziel committed to the Ducks. Kelly also recruited and landed a lesser-known prep quarterback, Marcus Mariota, and envisioned using both QBs to goose the Oregon attack into the stratosphere.

Ah, but Manziel was lured away by Texas A&M.

“He broke my heart,” Kelly said before the 2014 NFL draft. “I love the kid. I think he’s a hell of a football player.”

Well, according to at least one song, love is lovelier the second time around.

Could Kelly and Manziel have another shot at making beautiful music together?

Crazy things can happen in football, as I was just saying to my pizza-delivery man, Jim Tomsula.

For the 49ers right now, everything is on the table and, who knows, they might entertain the idea of trading for Manziel. Sounds nutty, but stay with me.

We know Kelly likes Manziel’s skills and his swashbuckling style.

“When I coached at Oregon,” Kelly said in 2014, “he was tailor-made for the offense.”

We know that Kelly, while coaching the Eagles, showed interest in Colin Kaepernick. Kelly’s offense works best with a mobile quarterback, and he evidently believes he could utilize Kaepernick’s unconventional skills, coach him up and bring out his potential.

There’s probably a little conceit working here. I can see what other coaches can’t.

If this is the case, and if Kelly is telling the 49ers he wants to keep Kaepernick and make him leader of a Kelly-style offense, the 49ers will need a suitable backup.

Blaine Gabbert? Gabbert is conservative. Last season, he was Captain Checkdown, master of the 6-yard pass on 3rd-and-8.

A Kelly quarterback, ideally, is a gambler, an improviser, a thinker on the run. Manziel fits that bill even better than Kaepernick does. I don’t know how smart Manziel is, but Stanford recruited him.

Also working in favor of a Manziel-to-the-49ers scenario: The Browns recently fired offensive coordinator John DeFilippo, who has been friends with Kelly for more than a decade. DeFilippo reportedly is a candidate for the 49ers’ OC job. Continuity for Manziel?

But what about the character question? Kaepernick, whatever you think of him, seems to be an upstanding citizen and crazy-hard worker. Manziel ... not so much.

Kelly does not abide knuckleheads. At Oregon, he suspended, at different times, his starting quarterback and his starting running back for foolish behavior. The 49ers probably can go ahead and fire their staff bail bondsman.

Kelly, though, also believes in second chances. He kept the suspended running back, LeGarrette Blount, close to the program and reinstated him after 10 games.

It’s clear that Kelly believes that people can learn from their mistakes, change their basic selves and evolve. Otherwise, why would he be willing to take a gamble by working for Jed York and Trent Baalke?

Most football people have given up on Champagne Johnny Manziel. He has had several second chances and has not given convincing evidence that he’s willing to treat football as more than something to pass the time between parties.

Worse, Manziel has not dazzled as a quarterback. He’s looking like a Heisman winner whose college skills didn’t translate to the NFL. An un-sober Tim Tebow.

But another thing we know about Kelly is that he doesn’t give a whit what anyone thinks.

If the 49ers are indeed a collection of last-chance desperadoes — York, Baalke, Kelly, Kaepernick — then Champagne Johnny would be a good fit.

Kelly and Manziel: Each could help the other revive his career and restore his reputation.

Manziel has two seasons left on his contract, at about $2.5 million per. The Browns are fed up, and the 49ers could get him for a song.

The song might be a twist on the Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen classic, “The Second Time Around.”

Love is lovelier, the second time around

Just as beautiful, with two dudes on rebound ...

Scott Ostler is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. E-mail: sostler@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @scottostler