About Me
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Mangini deserves a chance
I've been reading a lot of posts from disgruntled Browns fans about what a bad job Eric Mangini has done since stepping in as Head Coach of the Cleveland Browns. They complain that he's not handling the players properly, that he's alienating the media and that he's a difficult person to play for.
I even read where some fans said they're going to root for teams playing against the Browns until Randy Lerner finally see's the light and fires him.
All I can say is shame on you.
I can understand not being happy with the state of the Browns at the moment. Especially when we had all our optimism for the 2008 season rudely and abruptly taken away from us by a rash of injuries, bad defensive play and even worse coaching.
But to be a Browns fan and root against the Browns??? That's incomprehensible!
I mean, give the guy a chance to screw up first. What has he really done since he took over the Browns to deserve this?
Hmmmmmmm........lets see........
First he took down the mural of the Browns Legends and moved it to another location. He claims he moved it because it should have been in a place where everyone could see it. I believe that's partially true, but I also think he did it to make a statement to the players. I think he wants them to build their own dynasty and that this was his way of making them realize it. Was that incredibly wrong for him to do??? I don't think so. And people who think it is are nitpicking.
Then Mangini supposedly angered Shaun Rogers twice by not acknowledging his presence while being in the same room with him. I know a lot of people think how on earth can you not see a mountain of a man like Shaun Rogers? Well, first of all, maybe if your back is to him? Or perhaps when your in a large room full of hundreds of people some of whom are rather large pro football players. And possibly because you're used to constantly being around extremely large pro football players, and some of whom you might not recognize without a helmet on. Especially if they've never played for you before.
Those seem like legitimate reasons to me.
And I dunno, but maybe Shaun Rogers and his agent are trying to set the stage for a new contract deal because Shaun thinks he deserves more money. Especially since he was one of the few people to actually play defense for the Browns last season. And possibly, just possibly because the Redskins were stupid enough to give Albert Haynsworth a $100 million dollar contract this season.
Do you really think money isn't the motivator here??? I think it very well could be.
I remember reading in a couple of places that he's supposedly a hard Coach to play for because he doesn't buddy up to his players and makes them work for their money. What a novel idea. Actually working for the money your making.
I also read he instills something called discipline into his team.
Now all you young Browns fans you might not know what this word means because discipline is something you've never seen in Cleveland. For us older fans it's something we only remember from the Marty Schottenheimer days. I also know that more than a few of you are utterly amazed that I put the words "Cleveland Browns" and "Discipline" in the same sentence.
And because "discipline" is such an alien and foreign term for us Browns fans, I decided to include the definition so we all have a clear understanding of what it means.
discipline
dis·ci·pline (d
s
-pln)n.1. Training expected to produce a specific character or pattern of behavior, especially training that produces moral or mental improvement.
2. Controlled behavior resulting from disciplinary training; self-control.
3. Control obtained by enforcing compliance or order.
4. A systematic method to obtain obedience.
5. A state of order based on submission to rules and authority.
Call me crazy, but I firmly believe that someone insane enough to even attempt to instill the foreign concept of discipline in the Cleveland Browns deserves to be given a fair chance.
Actually, we should be happy if not ecstatic that a Head Coach like Mangini even wants to Coach the Cleveland Browns. I think most people are upset because Bill Cowher, ex-Headcoach of the loathed Pittsburgh Steelers didn't want to coach the Browns. I repeat, he didn't want to!!!! It's not because of the money or because he likes being a studio analyst for CBS so much. It's because he doesn't want to coach the Browns. And actually, who can blame him. Why should he blemish his record by taking over a dysfunctional football organization who has the most unforgiving fan base in the NFL? I think Bill's smarter than that.
But because Bill had the audacity to dash our dreams of future NFL glory, some people won't even give Mangini a chance. A guy who used to be a member of the Browns organization and happens to understand what this team means to the city of Cleveland and it's fans. A guy who has the guts to step into a bad situation and try his best to fix it. A situation that no other Headcoach would touch with a 10 foot pole.
And I hear how a lot of people try criticizing his past record.
Criticize all you want, but I see a guy who took over a bad 4-12 New York Jets in 2006 and in less than a year turned them into a 10-6 Wildcard team. Granted the Jets went 4-12 again the following season, but they did have a much tougher schedule in 2007, with no offensive line to speak of and a quarterback who couldn't stretch the field because he was playing with a weakened arm caused by a rotatory cuff injury.
I see a Head Coach who in spite of having to play a quarterback he didn't want go 9-7 and just missed the playoffs. I heard from a lot of sources that Mangini didn't want Farve. And I personally believe that had Pennington stayed in NY that the Jets would have gotten a Wildcard slot last season.
If you look back you see in 2008 Brett Farve passed for 3,472 yards, made 22 touchdowns, had 22 interceptions and had a 81 passer rating for the Jets. He also had 10 fumbles and 2 for a loss.
Chad Pennington on the other hand passed for 3,653 yards, made 19 touchdowns, 7 interceptions and had a 97.4 passer rating in his first year at Miami. Chad had only 3 fumbles and 1 for a loss.
This is the guy Mangini wanted to keep. And it doesn't take a stretch of the imagination to believe that had Pennington stayed in NY last season that the Jets would probably have made the playoffs and Mangini wouldn't even be in Cleveland now.
And to top it off the Jets had a league high and franchise record 7 players make the Pro-Bowl last season. All under Manginis watch. So basically, had Mangini gotten his way, he would have had two playoff appearances in a three year tenure as Head Coach.
He suddenly doesn't look so bad now, does he?
I think we should be counting our blessings. I think we should be collectively kissing Mangini's backside right now, and not criticizing him for the job he hasn't even really begun yet to do. We should all be incredibly thankful that he even came to Cleveland.
Now I'm not saying that Mangini is the answer to all our problems. I also don't know if he'll be the guy who will change our losing ways. All I do know is he's got a pretty darn good track record and I really like how he's handling things right now, especially since he's handling it completely different than any other Head Coach we've had since The Return. After all it's not his fault the Browns organization is in complete shambles.
I just think we should give him a fair chance to try to fix it. Or at least let him mess things up before we criticize him.
I think he deserves it. It's only fair.
Do your thing Eric!
Go Browns.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment