His call or not, Holmgren should give Mangini another season
Now that Mike Holmgren is in as the Browns' president, the popular perception is that Eric Mangini is out as the team's head coach. It makes sense, mostly because new GMs seldom retain coaches who are both unpopular and unsuccessful, except for one thing:
It might not happen.
|
|
| Eric Mangini has had a rough first season in Cleveland, but so did Bill Belichick. (US Presswire) |
I don't know if that is accurate, but I hope it is. At the very least, Eric Mangini deserves another year to prove himself.
So the Browns stunk this season. The New England Patriots stunk in 2000, too, and Bill Belichick didn't win any popularity contests while sinking the ship. But they were better the next year. In fact, they were so much better they won a Super Bowl, and I don't know if it was because of Belichick or Tom Brady, and I don't care. Belichick was given a chance to show that he could be a successful head coach, and he did it.
Mangini should have that chance, too, and don't take it from me. One of the greatest players in Cleveland history, former running back Jim Brown, has called for Mangini to be given a second season because, as he said, the team is improving "with a lot of young people we don't know who are playing good football."
Pardon me, but isn't that what you hope happens when you start rebuilding a franchise? I know the dreaded "R word" wasn't kicked around Berea last summer, but that's who the Browns were and that is who they are. Jim Brown was right: They are improving. So give them another chance to improve under the guy who assembled them, played them and stood by them.
In other words, bring back Mangini.
I know it's been another long, dreary season along Lake Erie. But while Mangini is disappointed, he is not discouraged. At least he wasn't when I sat down with him last month. He knew he was in for a grind, but he also promised that things would get better.
And they have. The Browns were unwatchable the first half of the season, treating the end zone as if it were quarantined, but they won their past two games and should have won three of the past five. Moreover, they may have found their quarterback in Brady Quinn.
The point is: What Mangini hoped would happen is happening. Nope, these aren't your '64 Cleveland Browns, but they are a work in progress -- with progress the operative word.
"It doesn't happen overnight," Mangini said last month. "And it doesn't take one decision or one person. It takes a ton of them.
"Anytime you go through a transition it's really hard. Everyone has to get used to your approach. You have to get used to the players you have. You can talk about communication but that's developed. ... You have to have a shared vision because there are hard decisions and there are criticisms that are made. And you have to believe in what you're doing and weather the storm."
Mangini believes in what he's doing. Of that I am certain. I'm not so sure he will weather the storm, but I'd at least like to see him have the chance. There were a lot of people this season complaining about long practices and morale and bus trips, and it made me remember the St. Louis Rams voicing similar gripes about Dick Vermeil when he was their head coach in the late 1990s. Then they won a Super Bowl, and suddenly, Vermeil became Vince Lombardi.
The difference? He started winning.
Bill Belichick hasn't changed from the coach who turned an 8-8 club in 1999 into a 5-11 doormat a year later. He still practices and believes what he practiced and believed then, and he's as stubborn, as obstinate and as socially uncomfortable now as he was then. The difference is that he started winning.
So the perception of Belichick the Terrible transformed into Belichick the Genius, and not because he changed but because his record did. And that's what success can do for you. It subdues the criticism and covers the warts, and Mangini could use a dose of both.
Look, I don't know if he's a great coach. But I do know he was good enough to win two of three years with the New York Jets, including one season where he took them to the playoffs. He was fired after a 9-7 finish, and getting rid of him was supposed to be a good thing. Except now the Jets are 7-7 and on life support for the playoffs.
My guess is that if it were up to Holmgren he would not keep Mangini, just as Kansas City GM Scott Pioli did not keep Herm Edwards after Pioli took over, and Bill Parcells did not keep Cam Cameron after settling down in Miami.
But, if our GM is correct, this is not Holmgren's call ... not yet anyway ... and that gives Mangini a year to demonstrate he was the right hire. It's not much, but at least it's an opportunity, and I don't care if it angers Browns fans. I can't imagine that Patriots fans were all that enthralled with Belichick after the 2000 season, either.
Just give the man a chance to carry out his plan, and if the plan fails move on to the next head coach. But give the plan ... and the man ... another year.
"I really do believe in the things we're doing," Mangini said last month. "I do believe in good people. And after experiencing what I experienced in New England and in New York with Bill Parcells and their commitment to a certain type of player I know it works. I've been there. I've seen it. And I know it's hard. And I know you're going to take hits and that it's a process. I really have a conviction about that, so that when those things do happen I'm comfortable with it because I've been through it."
I'll be comfortable if Eric Mangini gets another chance.
