Mangini excited about Browns' new management team

By TOM WITHERS
AP Sports Writer

BEREA, Ohio(AP) — Browns coach Eric Mangini slipped into a chair
behind the dais adorned with an orange helmet in Cleveland’s
media room and noted the drastic changes.

He lost his wooden podium, the one he stood behind during a
tough season. He found some friends.

Flanked by new team president Mike Holmgren and general manager
Tom Heckert, and seated near business executive Bryan Wiedmeier,
Mangini, who last week learned he would be back for a second
season with the Browns, smiled and joked about his company.

“It’s pretty great to be up here with three other people
answering questions,” said Mangini. “I can get used to this.”

Later, a relaxed Mangini made it clear that he wasn’t kidding.

“It wasn’t a joke,” he said in a back room following the news
conference to introduce Heckert and Wiedmeier. "It’s nice to
have other voices in the organization and to be able to share
different perspectives. Everybody has different roles, and for
them to be able to get clarity, I think that’s a good thing.

“This is a real fantastic situation for me personally and for us
organizationally.”

Last year, Mangini had little help.

He now has a team.

In bringing in the respected Heckert, Philadelphia’s GM since
2006, Holmgren has given Mangini a qualified executive to add
players and continue to build the Browns, who finished the
season on a four-game winning streak.

While assessing Mangini’s performance last season, Holmgren
concluded that Mangini had been “thrust” into a situation where
he had too many responsibilities. Holmgren would know. He served
four years as both Seattle’s GM and coach and found parallels in
what he experienced to what Mangini went through.

Holmgren believes a coach should coach, so he reconfigured
Cleveland’s front office to ease Mangini’s load.

“Are you are a better coach when you just coach and don’t worry
about all that stuff?” Holmgren said. "You certainly have more
time. And your focus should be better on coaching. But it’s not
like all of a sudden we’re here and Tom’s here and all Eric has
to do is doodle Xs and Os.

“He’s going to be very involved in the player decisions. Now,
does he have to worry quite as much? No. I’m going to take some
of the worry and some of the anxiousness away from him.”

By dividing up the power, Holmgren believes the Browns will
function more effectively. And while the control is split,
Holmgren’s goal is to have consensus on all major decisions.

“It will continue to be my hope that the decisions this
organization makes going forward will be handled by these fellas
right here,” he said. “I trust them. I believe in them. They’re
good football people. If we pick a player in the draft, whatever
we do, it’s a decision that has been thought through, come to a
conclusion by a lot of discussion, maybe some argument. But at
the end of the day, it’s a Cleveland Browns decision.”

Holmgren was hired by owner Randy Lerner to fix the Browns.
Since 1999, Cleveland has had just two winning seasons, hired
four full-time coaches, five general managers and led the NFL in
turmoil and press conferences to introduce the next regime.

Holmgren believes stability has arrived.

“It was my charge by our owner to find the best people I can
find for these positions, and then define their roles and let’s
go,” he said as Lerner kept a low profile in the back of the
room. “I just believe they know they’re going to get this job
done. I don’t think this is business as usual. We will not
continue to have these kind of press conferences. We’re all in
it for the long haul.”

Mangini’s fate was unknown a week ago. When Holmgren assumed
control of the Browns on Jan. 5, one of his first orders of
business was to decide on the coach. He sent Mangini home to
ponder some philosophical questions, and then met with him for
several hours the next day.

In addition to talks both described as “honest,” Holmgren
consulted with a good friend, former NFL coach Bill Parcells,
before choosing to keep Mangini.

“And since I made the decision, it gets better everyday,”
Holmgren said. “It’s good and he’s happy about it clearly. He’s
a good football coach and I want to help him. I’m not coaching
any more.”

Holmgren came away from the meetings with a better understanding
of Mangini, who has been portrayed as sullen, arrogant and
tyrannical. Holmgren said there’s another side of Mangini.

“Every once in a while he smiles a little bit, and every once in
a while I’ll crack a joke and he’ll laugh and I’ll say, ’That’s
good stuff, you should do that more often,”’ Holmgren said.
“This is a hard business. As a coach, we work like crazy people.
You’ve got to have some fun at this.”

Holmgren, who spent 17 years on the sideline, understands the
pressures of coaching. In his new role, he wants to be a
sounding board for Mangini, someone the coach can turn to for
advice or just to vent his frustrations. Someone Mangini didn’t
have before.

“He can bounce things off me now if he chooses,” Holmgren said.
“I always had somebody. When it gets hard and it gets dark, you
like to be able to leave your office and go someplace else and
say, ‘Help me’ or ‘What am I doing?’ When you get to be a head
coach, you’re such a big shot in this league that there’s not
that many guys that you would do that with. You’re fortunate if
you have one in the building.

“I hope I can be that guy for him.”