Cleveland Browns head coach Eric Mangini is a self absorbed egotistical jerk

No one likes Eric Mangini. The players don’t and people around the league don’t. Not that anyone condoned “Spygate”, but people around the league didn’t like the fact that he “broke code” and squealed on Belichick.

There is a little published fact that deserves some attention here. When Mangini was obviously a hot candidate for a head coaching job, Belichick who disliked the Jets (that’s a whole entire different story, Belichick is a dope himself for hanging the Jets out to dry like that) asked Mangini to take any job except the Jets job. Not that he had the right to do that, but the reality is that Mangini would be a school teacher somewhere right now if it is wasn’t for Belichick so I guess some loyalty was warranted…..

When Mangini returned back to the Patriots complex after interviewing for the Jest head coaching position he’s key card did not work. Belichick was pissed and changed the lock. And there started the feud between Mangini and Belichick …

Let’s look at where Mangini is coming from:

College

Mangini has a Wesleyan University education. In college he played nose tackle at Division III Wesleyan and holds the school's single-season (11.5) and career (36.5) sacks records. During the second semester of his junior and senior years, he coached the Kew Colts, a semi-professional football team in Melbourne, Australia, to two regional championships. Mangini joined the Chi Psi Fraternity that coaching mentor Bill Belichick, a Wesleyan alumnus, was part of two decades earlier.

Coaching career

Assistant coach

Mangini first caught the attention of Bill Belichick, as a 23-year-old ball boy with the Cleveland Browns. His work ethic impressed Belichick, and the head coach was instrumental in promoting Mangini to a public relations intern, and later, an offensive assistant.

After spending 1996 as an offensive assistant with the Baltimore Ravens, Mangini rejoined Belichick and spent three seasons as a defensive assistant with the New York Jets. When Belichick was hired as the New England Patriots head coach in 2000, he brought along Mangini as his defensive backs coach. Mangini, who won three Super Bowls with the Patriots, turned down defensive coordinator positions with the Miami Dolphins, Oakland Raiders and Cleveland Browns before accepting the position with New England in 2005.

Head coach

Mangini, 35, became the youngest head coach in the NFL when he was hired by the Jets on January 17, 2006, to replace Herm Edwards. He beat internal candidates Donnie Henderson, Mike Heimerdinger and Mike Westhoff and external candidates Jim Haslett, Mike Tice, Tim Lewis and Joe Vitt for the job.

In his first season, Mangini led the Jets to a 10-6 record and a postseason berth. New York, which finished the previous year 4-12, lost to New England in a wild-card playoff game.

New York went 4-12 in 2007, failing to make the playoffs. Early in the regular season, Mangini complained to league officials that Belichick's Patriots illegally filmed the Jets' defensive signals, causing the "Spygate" scandal.

In 2008, a late-season collapse—the Jets missed the playoffs despite an 8-3 start—led to Mangini's firing on December 29, 2008, one day after the season ended.

Mangini was hired as the head coach of the Cleveland Browns on January 7, 2009, signing a four-year deal. Mangini currently has an 0-3 record as the head coach of the Cleveland Browns and is now replacing his young QB 3 games into the season. Not that I like Brady Quinn better than Derek Anderson to begin with, but if you are going to name your young “franchise QB” the starter, you have to have a longer leash than that.

Mangini seems to pride himself on running a tight ship. He does in fact run a tight ship over there on the Cleveland Browns. How do we know? Nothing says d-bag no-nonsense like fining a player $1,701 over a bottle of water snatched from a hotel mini-bar. (The NFLPA has filed a formal grievance.) Apparently, the parched player grabbed the H2O but didn’t pay for it during a team road trip. Are you serious?

Some other reasons Mangini is an called “A-Hole” we haven’t discussed yet:

- He kept Brett Favre’s injury hush-hush while coaching the Jets last season. Oops, there’s a fine.
- He made rookies take a 10-hour bus ride (each way) to and from his one-day football camp in Hartford, CT. This took place on a weekend between voluntary minicamp and team activities slated for the following Monday. Oh, and he took a plane on the way down. After some heat, Mangini rode the bus with them back to Cleveland.
- He showed up in Cleveland and had a mural of Browns greats removed. Something tells us that isn’t a team-building exercise in the NFL Coach Handbook.
- During training camp he fined a player for parking in a spot that he did not first pre-approve of. (Ok, I don’t know that actually happened, but I heard it did, and why wouldn’t you believe it?)

This guy is more concerned with bullshit stuff that has nothing to do with playing the game. The bottom line is that he takes the fun out of it for the players as well as the fans and he won’t get the players to play for him or the fans to root for him.

I feel sorry for the Cleveland fans. I’m a Jets fan. I wished you would have asked me before hiring him, you would have saved yourself some pain. Get rid of him. -Keith A. Baker

Keith A. Baker is a sports agent in Stamford, Connecticut. His goal is to offer a unique insight to the world of sports and Major League Baseball in particular. Comments in his columns are for entertainment purposes only and do not reflect the views and opinions of his firm or his clients.

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