Cleveland Gets Rat Infested

I'd like to congratulate the Cleveland Browns for hiring the new face of their franchise in Eric Mangini. From here on out, they'll now be known as the Cleveland Rats. I have to admit that I have mixed feelings about this hiring. I've been a quasi-Browns fan through blood lines for a while and know the pain and suffering they've been through. Nothing compared to an 86 year drought of not winning the World Series but pretty close. But this moves makes no sense on so many levels that my head literally hurts from thinking about it.

For his three years in New York, Mangini managed a 23-25 record with one playoff appearance, which was a loss. He was overshadowed by SpyGate, which he brought upon himself and could never escape. When Mangini was first hired by the Jets, the thought was that they were getting the next Bill Belichick but that does not appear to be the case three years later. Even though Belichick was the one caught cheating, Mangini has had the most fallout from the events, being dubbed the Rat in the press. I've even heard people suggest that Mangini blowing the whistle on the cheating was worse than the cheating itself. All of his actions in New York led to his players not trusting him, his coaching and his play calling. He was destined to fail because his players couldn't trust him.

Compare that to Belicheat. By all accounts, players throughout the NFL would do nearly anything to come play in New England, a cold weather region with an outdoor stadium. Players know that when they come here, they're being coached and taught by the best there is in the NFL.

This leads me to an intersting point about assistant coaches and coordinators leaving to fill head coaching positions. In the last few years, the Patriots have lost Charlie Weis to Notre Dame, Romeo Crennel to Cleveland and Eric Mangini to New York. Combined, those three coaches have a record of 76-86, with only Charlie Weis having a winning record at 29-21 for an underachieving Notre Dame team. Let me make this analogy: hiring an assitant away from the Patriots is similar to finally getting the recipe to your grandma's favorite cookie recipe, except when you make the cookies, they taste gross. Weis, Crennel and Mangini have all been taught by the best coach in the NFL today and one of the best ever, yet it doesn't translate over to their new teams, just like your cookies don't taste the same as your grandma's even though you're using the same ingredients.

One of the things I'm having trouble comprehending is how quickly the Browns hired Mangini. Considering that no other team in the NFL was even remotely interested in talking to him, the Browns moved quickly to make this move, even though they have no GM. It's not like Bill Cowher suddenly made it clear he was interested in coaching again and they had to move fast. We're talking about a guy that no one else was pursuing. So with the hiring of the so called Mangenius, the Browns are hoping that he turns in to the next Belichick. But I have a bad feeling about this one. The Browns already have a head case in Braylon Edwards, as well as a quarterback controversy between Derek Anderson and Brady Quinn. If you're a Cleveland fan, do you really want an untrustworthy Rat coming in and trying to sort that out?