Glauber: Mangini relaxes, lets own style come out
FLORHAM PARK, N.J.
You want to see how much more relaxed Eric Mangini has become since his days as the Jets' robotic, do-whatever-Bill-Belichick-or-Bill Parcells-would-do head coach?
Consider this: In a 15-minute conference call from Cleveland Wednesday, Mangini might have cracked more jokes and offered more insight into his personality than in his three years with the Jets combined.
OK, perhaps we exaggerate just slightly. But it's no stretch to say that Mangini, who faces the Jets Sunday for the first time since being fired after the 2008 season, portrays a markedly different persona in his second year with the Browns than he ever did with the Jets. And even he admits he was not acting enough like himself when he coached the Jets from 2006-08. And he offered a perfectly legitimate observation about why.
"Those are my football fathers," Mangini said of Belichick and Parcells, for whom he served as an assistant for all but one year in the NFL before getting the Jets' head coaching job. "That's what I watched in that role for multiple years."
Mangini then checked off the chronology. "Six years in New England , three years in New York [with Parcells], and two more years in Cleveland ," Mangini said. "It's won a lot of Super Bowls."
Five, to be exact. That's the combined total of NFL championships for Belichick (three in New England) and Parcells (two with the Giants). "It's been very successful, so as a 34-year-old guy going into a new environment, it's hard to look at this extreme body of work that's produced results after results and say, 'Yes, I'm going to do it totally differently.' "
Makes perfect sense in retrospect. Unfortunately for Mangini, he couldn't assimilate his own style to navigate his way through the difficult times with the Jets. After getting to 8-3 in Brett Favre's only season with the Jets in 2008, the team lost four of its last five to finish 9-7 and miss the playoffs. Out went Mangini, and in came Rex Ryan, whose personalities couldn't be more different.
While Mangini rarely went off script and often made his players fear making mistakes, Ryan's uproarious sense of humor and freewheeling style is often lauded by many of those same players for bringing out their athleticism.
"I think the thing I've learned is to take the best things from the people I've been with who are outstanding, but do it in my way. It's more authentic."
It remains to be seen whether Mangini can translate his newfound self-awareness into a long-term run with the Browns. With former Super Bowl champion coach Mike Holmgren now overseeing football operations as the team's president, Mangini must pass muster with his new boss. Not only that, but Holmgren himself has not closed the door on a return to the sideline.
But rather than see Holmgren as a threat, Mangini actually sees him as a resource. "We can just talk as coaches, and he'll say, 'Oh, yeah, I remembered when that happened to me.' He's been really supportive this entire time. He's a good mentor to have."
It certainly has helped Mangini's cause that the Browns have beaten the defending Super Bowl champion Saints on the road and then Belichick's Patriots in their last two games. Mangini is now looking for a hat trick of sorts by beating his former team.
Oh, and one more piece of unfinished business: He still hasn't sold his New Jersey home.
"It's [on the market] if you're interested," he cracked. "We can talk after the conference call. It's a great location. I thought Rex might buy it after his [contract] extension. I don't know what he's waiting for."
