Spanning Browns Town: Donte's Choice, and The End of OTAs

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Mangini seems to be building the team spirit he promised

I thought that Eric Mangini had a rather unique idea when he told the team he would cancel the afternoon session of OTAs last Saturday if an offensive or defensive lineman  caught a punt or a kickoff.

The reception that Rex Hadnot got when he caught Dave Zastuild's punt showed two things to me.

The first things is that Mangini is stressing the importance of hard work, but at the same time enjoying what you do. You cannot have the country club atmosphere that seemed to exist under Romeo Crennel, but you cannot over work guys and make them feel punished either.

It gave them a chance to fantasize a little bit, but it also gave them a chance to laugh and take a load off. Not just have a typical boring day at the office where nothing exciting ever happens.

It also helps bring the team together. The report that I read said that when Hadnot caught Zastuild's punt the team roared and swarmed him. That shows a team spirit and it is getting them to see that no one person is bigger then the other on this team. They will either win or lose as a team and it is starting to show.

I will admit to being very critical of Mangini because I didn't know if he could bring this group of players together. But he's managed to do that so far, while with some mixed results, there's been more good than bad.

The question is if can he do it during the grind of a hot late July and early August training camp and the grind of a 16-game regular season schedule.

That's all for this edition of Spanning Browns Town. In The next edition we will start our season preview in which we will break down each opponent on the Browns schedule this season.

Next time we'll break down their week one opponent the Minnesota Vikings plus my personal analysis on any news that breaks concerning the Browns.

Greg Cooksey Spans Browns Town every Monday and Saturday during the regular season and whenever there is news concerning the Browns.

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