Cleveland Browns' Eric Mangini: Deja Vu All Over Again?

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On my way to the office today, I was listening to a local sports talk radio show taking merciless shots at Eric Mangini.

Callers to the show chimed in with their own negative views of the beleaguered head coach. And that is putting it lightly.

Just yesterday, veteran running back Jamal Lewis took a not-so-subtle swipe at the head coach for what he deems to be working the players too hard.

Without getting into the legitimacy of Lewis’ gripe, it occurred to me that I had been in this place before as I listened on my car speakers.

New head coach takes over a team that was bludgeoned to death the year before under complaints that the previous regime was too soft on its players.

Head coach proceeds to dismantle the roster to rid the team of malcontents and players who do not want to play by his rules.

Head coach unceremoniously benches the hero quarterback and Clevelanders threaten to charge the gates of the Browns' headquarters.

Veteran players begin to squeal on the head coach to the media because he’s working them too hard and is not approachable enough in the clubhouse.

Soft-spoken, egotistical, and remorseless head coach makes enemies with the media because he is...well, soft-spoken, egotistical, and remorseless.

The local fans and media members take turns joining into the fracas by consistently beating the life out of the head coach on the airwaves and in the newspapers.

Just as all those previous events begin to float through my head, a caller to the talk show comes on and says, “this is like déjà vu all over again…you guys are running this coach out of town just like you did to Bill Belichick.”

Now, this particular media member gets defensive and cut off the caller by shouting him down with, “revisionist history,” “Modell let him go before he took the team to Baltimore,” and “Bill admitted he made mistakes when he was with the Browns.”

While it is in fact true that the Browns were on their way out of town with or without Bill Belichick, apparently some in the Cleveland media forget their places in history, as well.

In 1995, I placed my one and only phone call to a sports talk radio station. In fact, it was to that exact same talk show host I was listening to today (who, by the way, I think is fantastic and I happen to agree with roughly 80 percent of the time).

He and a Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter had just spent the previous three months taking apart coach Belichick at virtually every turn and I called to defend the man.

I reminded them both that neither had ever coached a football team—let alone coached an NFL team to the playoffs, nor had they been on a Super Bowl-winning coaching staff.  I tried to explain to them that this guy is young and he will learn from his mistakes, and he has a reputation as a very smart football guy.

I further went on to say that even though no one wants to admit it, he took over a team on the decline and it will take a little while to clean it up.

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