From ball boy to team intern, Eric Mangini returns with his job of a lifetime: Browns head coach
When Eric Mangini announced to his mother Nancy that he was taking a job as a ball boy with the Browns a year after college in 1994, she flipped out as only a mother could.
"I said, A ball boy? You've got to be kidding me!' " recalled Nancy Mangini. "All those years and all that expense of an education, and you're going to be a ball boy? No paycheck? No benefits? No pension? I said, Eric, you really shouldn't do this!' "
Mangini, the Browns' new head coach, was 23 at the time and a graduate of Wesleyan University in Connecticut with a degree in political science. He planned to become an investment banker, but caught the coaching bug while studying abroad in Melbourne, Australia, where his brother was a banker.
When his brother's semipro football team needed a coach, Mangini jumped at the chance. He had a blast, deciding then and there to scrap mergers and acquisitions for the X's and O's of the NFL. Upon returning home, he worked as a substitute teacher and helped coach his high school team. He also had a real job offer, to coach the offensive line at nearby Trinity College in Hartford.
But he gave it all up to pick up socks and jocks for the Browns.
"[My mom] sees this picture of me with 11- and 12-year-olds, and I have my arm around them and we've got our towels on," Mangini said. "I had student loans and it was a hard sell. I kept saying 'Mom, this is the Cleveland Browns. Do you understand? THE Cleveland Browns.' "
Mangini got his foot in the door as a Browns ball boy because his former Wesleyan head coach, Kevin Spencer, now a Cardinals assistant, was the Browns special-teams coach at the time. Even so, it was a tough gig to get. Then Browns coach Bill Belichick, a control freak from the start, was in on the hiring of ball boys, making them catch balls and prove they could hold their own on a football field.
Of course, it didn't hurt that Mangini played college ball at Wesleyan - just like Belichick. Mangini was an undersized, overachieving nose tackle who set the Cardinals' career record with 36.5 sacks. Belichick had played center and tight end there 15 years earlier. "I think they had a secret handshake or something," quipped then Browns vice president of public relations Kevin Byrne, now with the Ravens.
Fortunately for Mangini, Byrne's son Sean also was a ball boy that summer and told his dad how much he liked Mangini. When their ball boy duties were up at the end of camp, the elder Byrne asked Mangini if he had anything going and Mangini said no. Byrne, who wasn't enamored enough with any of his public-relations interns that summer to ask one of them to stay on for the season, interviewed Mangini and gave him the job.
"Mangini said, 'I'm not sure what it is, but I think I could figure it out,' " Byrne recalled. "He said, 'I guarantee I'll work hard.' "
His duties included transcribing Belichick's monotone news conferences, compiling the weekly press book, painstakingly pasting newspaper articles into a large clip book, setting up conference calls with opposing coaches and fetching players for interviews. Oh, and delivering pizza to the media room on Wednesdays. Mangini's motto was, "No job is too small."
"No one could outwork him," Byrne said. "He figured out the job overnight and he was a mule."
Mangini's midnight visits to the enormous copy machine - nicknamed the Queen Mary - got the attention of Belichick, who often slept in his office. The rule was, if a coach came in to make a copy, move aside and let him go first.
"Bill noticed that Eric was still there long after everyone else had gone home," Byrne said.
In the last week of January 1995, when Mangini's internship was about to expire, Belichick said to Byrne, "What are you going to do with that blond-haired guy?" When Byrne told him that Friday was Mangini's last day, Belichick said, "Tell him to see me before he leaves."
Belichick promptly hired Mangini as a coaches assistant and taught him how to break down film. Mangini also made countless pots of coffee and picked up the coaches' dinner at restaurants. Of course, Mangini and the rest of the young gofers got to eat the leftovers.
And what a group of bottom-feeders, or PHDs (poor, hungry, driven) it was. Besides Mangini, the cast included Scott Pioli, now vice president of player personnel for the New England Patriots; George Kokinis, who will interview for the Browns' GM job today and is currently the director of player personnel for the Baltimore Ravens; Phil Savage, recently fired as Browns GM; Mike Tannenbaum, now GM of the New York Jets; and Jim Schwartz, the defensive coordinator of the Tennessee Titans and a head coaching candidate.
At one point, Mangini, Pioli and Kokinis all lived in an apartment in Berea, which Mangini later described as a "rat trap." One day, someone left the screen door open and a raccoon sauntered through. Pioli had a bedroom, but Mangini and Kokinis slept on the floor on mattresses that had been borrowed from the dorms at Baldwin-Wallace College. Because they couldn't afford cable, they had three channels on their TV.
But they were learning football from some the best in the business and loving every minute of it.
"It was a special time in my life," Mangini said.
From the time he set foot in the coaches' locker room as a ball boy, Mangini began to dream about the day he'd be an NFL head coach.
"I'd see their names on the lockers and I thought, 'My name is going to be on there someday,' " Mangini told Newsday. "It seemed so far away - it was hard to envision - but that was the goal."
Mangini lived through the nightmare of watching fans have their hearts ripped out when the Browns left Cleveland in 1995. He went to Baltimore with the team in 1996, but his Cleveland experience stayed with him throughout his career as he went to Baltimore, the Jets and New England before returning to New York as the Jets head coach in 2006.
When he first faced the Browns as a head coach in 2006, he sent the media a catered lunch. "I haven't forgotten where I came from," he said. So when he got the call from Browns owner Randy Lerner last week to possibly become head coach of the Browns, he was filled with the same level of excitement and pride as when Spencer called him to be a ball boy in 1994.
"It was the Dawg Pound, it was Jim Brown and all of those special things about arguably one of the most storied franchises in NFL history," he said. "I thought about the fans and how they love their football. It's a special kind of intensity."
During his introductory news conference, the 37-year-old Mangini looked out on all the familiar faces and immediately felt at ease. One of them was his brother-in-law Mark Shapiro, the Indians GM. After the interview, he joked about transcribing his own news conference.
"I couldn't be happier to come home to Cleveland and see a lot of friends here," he said.
Even his mom, Nancy, has finally come around.
"I'm really glad Eric didn't follow my advice," she said with a laugh.
(c)2009 Cleveland Live, Inc
An uncomfortable crown to wear
FORT LAUDERDALE -- Whether he likes it or not, Sam Bradford's life changed on Dec. 13, 2008. From now on, wherever he goes, he will be introduced as "Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford."
Unfortunately, no one told Bradford the exclusivity of the club - he is one of 74 college football players to have won the award - and the instant notoriety which comes with the trophy.
After all, there is no Heisman Trophy how-to-act manual which comes with the 13.5-inch, 25-pound bronze trophy of an leather-helmeted player with the football cradled in his left hand and forearm against his body and his right arm straight out to ward off any invisible tacklers who wish to do him harm.
Since that ceremony 21 days ago, the quarterback of the Oklahoma Sooners has worn his crown rather uncomfortably. To be honest, of course, the newness of all this attention comes at a time when the 6-foot-4, 208-pound Bradford is preparing to lead the No. 1 Sooners against the No. 2 Florida Gators in the BCS National Championship Game next Thursday night.
Not only will the eyes of a lightning-quick, physical Florida defense be on Bradford but so will millions more who will watch in person at nearby Dolphin Stadium or in the comforts of their homes and neighborhood bars.
"Yeah, there's times where you want to go where no one knows your name," Bradford admitted Saturday morning prior to Oklahoma's workout at Barry University.
Heisman Trophy winners just don't blend into the woodwork, though Bradford found time to put his earphones in and stroll through cavernous New York City after winning the award. Yes, even after death are winners remembered just as they were in life, and even though their misdeeds in life sent LSU's Billy Cannon (the 1959 winner) and USC's O.J. Simpson (1968) to jail, the words "Heisman Trophy winner" still come before their names in stories chronicling them.
The 6-foot-4, 208-pound redshirt sophomore with the rocket arm does enjoy the moments when he can make someone's day.
"It's really cool," Bradford added, "having the opportunity to take pictures with people, give them something that they'll have forever and they'll enjoy."
He'd just prefer to deal with the distractions after he adds another title - that of being the quarterback of a national championship team. That club, too, is an exclusive one.
"Obviously, the Heisman experience was something special and it was fun to be in New York," Bradford said of the days he spent leading up to the ceremony with runner-up Colt McCoy of the University of Texas and 2007 Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow of Florida, who finished third.
"But as soon as I got back to Norman, I got back to trying to be as normal as possible," Bradford continued. "I got back to finishing school and got back to practice."
In fact, though Bradford knows his Heisman Trophy is in the home of his parents, Kent (a Sooner offensive lineman in 1977-78) and Martha Bradford. "It's there somewhere," he chuckled.
There's no hiding Bradford's abilities, athleticism and toughness. They were all exhibited during this past regular season when he led the Sooners to a 12-1 record and a Big 12 Conference championship. He completed 302 of 442 passes (68.3 percent) for 4,464 yards and 48 touchdowns with just six interceptions.
Bradford became the first quarterback at Oklahoma to lead his team to a pair of Big 12 championships as well as lead the nation in touchdown passes and passing efficiency (186.28). He had 12 300-yard passing efforts and threw five touchdown passes in four different games this year. It's no wonder the Sooners scored 60 or more points in their final four games of the regular season (with 65 and 61points, respectively, against Big 12 South foes Texas Tech and Oklahoma State) and the Big 12 Championship game on Dec. 6 (a 62-21 victory over Missouri).
What makes Sam Bradford so great?
"(His) reading the defense and his poise in the pocket," said senior wide receiver Juaquin Iglesias, who caught 69 passes for 1,092 yards and 10 touchdowns.
"His passion for the game, just the way he approaches it and his hard work towards it," said 6-foot-6, 261-pound junior tight end Jermaine Gresham, who had 58 receptions for 888 yards and 12 touchdowns.
"He earns everything he's got and he does a great job with it," said Big 12 offensive lineman of the year, center Jon Cooper. "Like he said, as soon as he's been back from New York, he was business as usual. He's just regular Sam to us."
Except he's not. That all changed for regular Sam Bradford when he became a "Heisman Trophy winner," and in the history of BCS National Championship Games since 2000, only one Heisman Trophy winner, USC's Matt Leinart in 2004, took his team to the national championship. The Trojans whipped No. 2 Oklahoma and 2003 Heisman Trophy winner Jason White of Oklahoma, 55-19, in the Orange Bowl. White failed in 2003, the No. 1 Sooners losing to No. 2 Louisiana State, 21-14.
Florida State quarterback Chris Weinke (the 2000 winner) lost to Oklahoma, 13-2, in the Orange Bowl. Nebraska quarterback Eric Crouch (2001) lost to Miami, 37-14, in the Rose Bowl. Reggie Bush (2005), Leinart and the Trojans lost to Vince Young and the Texas Longhorns, 41-38, in the Rose Bowl, and quarterback Troy Smith (2006) and Ohio State lost to Florida, 41-14, in the Fiesta Bowl.
"It's really hard for me to talk about previous winners and the difficulties they've had in their bowl games," Bradford said. "I know as soon as I got back from New York, I forgot about the experience, got back to business, getting ready to prepare for this game and help my team win."
After all, Sam Bradford has the rest of his life to accumulate other descriptive monikers.
Copyright 2009 GatorCountry.com
West Point names new football coach
WEST POINT, N.Y. -- The U.S. Military Academy has named Rich Ellerson as its new head football coach after the recent firing of Stan Brock, who in his two years at the academy had a record of six wins and 18 losses.
Ellerson, a veteran of nearly 30 years of experience coaching at the college level, comes from Cal Poly, where he led the Mustangs of the Football Championship Subdivision, formerly Division I-AA, to an 8-3 season.
Considered one of the nation's triple-option experts, Ellerson has a record of 60 wins and 41 losses as a head coach.
West Point Superintendent Lt. Gen. Buster Hagenbeck said Ellerson's proven record of success, strong leadership qualities and thorough knowledge of the triple-option offense played a large role in his selection as West Point's new football field boss.
"Rich has the experience we need," said Hagenbeck, "an award- and title-winning head coach who runs the option. Rich also has extensive ties to West Point and the Army. Not only are his father and two brothers members of the Long Gray Line and career Army officers, but his brother John was the captain of the 1962 football team."
Lauded for his ability to transform Cal Poly, where he was 56-34, into a consistent winner, Ellerson expects to apply the same approach he used with the Mustang program to getting Army's football fortunes turned around.
"I will never receive, nor have I ever received a finer compliment professionally or personally than to be entrusted with the Army football program at this point in its history," Ellerson stated. "I grew up with Army football. I was part of a typical Army family. When I was a kid, I was watching those guys at West Point, my father was a West Point graduate and we were living on Army posts all over the world. I just grew up thinking that West Point was the center of the universe. It's a little bit of a catharsis."
Ellerson will begin his new duties at West Point immediately and soon will begin building his initial Black Knight coaching staff.
All content (c) 2008, Army Times Publishing Company
Was Auburn's Decision Not to Hire Turner Gill Racist?
Auburn's recent hire, Gene Chizik, has the media and Charles Barkley up in arms over their perceived discriminatory hiring practices. The inference from the media - or in Barkley's case, the outright accusation -alleges that Auburn's decision not to hire Turner Gill was nothing more than blatant discrimination.
Most importantly, the action has added fuel to the controversy concerning the number of black coaches in the NCAA football league.
The weekend after Auburn's decision not to hire Turner Gill, the football media coverage left no doubt how they perceived Auburn's choice in the matter. In between the clips of Charles Barkley ranting, football pundits shook their heads in disapproval, some going as far to say that the football league should "do something" about the lack of black coaches in the league.
Of course, "do something" means that there should be quotas or rules governing the hiring of coaches to ensure an equal chance for black coaches. This is tantamount to affirmative action, which assumes that colleges would rather have white coaches than win football games, which is ridiculous.
No one would argue that, from a talent perspective, passing on Turner Gill for Gene Chizik was a boneheaded move. Equally stupid was the missed opportunities to hire TCU's Gary Patterson, Tulsa's Todd Graham, and Ball State's Brady Hoke. However, due to the fact that Turner Gill is black and Auburn is in Alabama, the stereotypical assumption is that racial prejudice was the reason for the snub.
Unfortunately, race probably was a consideration for Auburn when they made their final decision of who to hire. However, it wasn't the hate-filled prejudice from the "good ole boys network," as Barkley and company have implied. In a racially charged world of political correctness, every step and misstep is sensationalized and scrutinized by the media; Auburn's choice had to be very well planned.
Think about it - the SEC changes coaches at twice the rate of other conferences. What do you think is going to happen to Chizik after a couple of mediocre seasons? What if Auburn had hired Gill and he has a couple of mediocre seasons?
Suffering the same fate, the headlines will read, "Auburn Fires Turner Gill," followed by a segment on the inequality of minority coaches in college football, including innuendos from gifted orators like Charles Barkley. Perhaps Auburn just decided to take their medicine up front.
In all probability, any coach that follows Tommy Tuberville is merely a sacrificial lamb for the real coach to follow. Right now Auburn has an average football team, below average recruiting, and a new set of coaches - that's a recipe for failure.
In case you haven't noticed, the SEC doesn't put up with mediocrity. High caliber teams like Auburn demand that their team be good EVERY season, with greatness lurking around the corner. Fans will endure a couple of bad seasons from a coach with a proven track record, like Saban or Meyer. However, without that assurance of greatness, an unproven coach can put the home up for sale after a couple of 8-4 seasons. Ask Ron Zook.
Unfortunately, the consequences of political correctness have forced high caliber teams like Auburn to plan an "exit strategy" in advance when hiring minorities, especially in Alabama. Believe it or not, the hiring and firing of a black coach by an Alabama college is treated differently by the media and perceived differently by the public.
For example, when Chizik arrived in Auburn to assume his role as the new head coach, he was greeted with boos and heckling from the Auburn "faithful." They screamed "you suck" and "go home" at him all the way to the car.
What if Chizik had been black? Do you think the story would have legs? Hell yes, big ones. What if a couple of idiotic fans actually yelled something racial? How do you think that would play out for Auburn?
What about Sylvester Croom? He had a relatively smooth ride from the media and the fans while at Mississippi State. True, but Coach Croom inherited a second-rate team and coached them right back into mediocrity. Expectations at Mississippi State are much lower compared to Auburn's standards. Croom wouldn't have lasted two seasons at Auburn.
It's a sad fact, but race had to be considered when making the decision to hire a coach at Auburn; it's naive to assume otherwise. However, it's equally naive to assume that race was the only deciding factor, or that that decision was rooted in hate.
Based on Gill's limited resume, the probability of success and the implications of failure had to be weighed. On the other hand, had Tony Dungy been up for the job race, wouldn't have been a factor whatsoever.
It's not fair and it's not right, but it is what it is, and we have political correctness and the media to blame.
Copyright (c) 2008 Bleacher Report
It's time for UA to give Richardson his due
It is time for Nolan Richardson to come home.
Maybe it's that six years have sped by since he was fired as the head basketball coach and filed a race discrimination suit against the University of Arkansas.
Maybe the change in athletic leadership played a role.
Whatever it is, it is past time to honor him and the 1994 national champion basketball team.
Richardson, who will turn 67 two days after Christmas, and that team will be honored the weekend of Feb. 28 and March 1 when the Razorbacks play Georgia.
It has been a long journey in more ways than one.
From the time he stepped foot on the UA campus in 1986, and most likely in the years leading up to his chance on the big stage, Frank Sinatra should have been singing "My Way" in the background.
"I'll state my case, of which I'm certain. I've lived a life that's full. I traveled each and every highway. And more, much more than this, I did it my way ..."
When Richardson came to the Razorbacks, he, Jerry Tarkanian, Billy Tubbs and a few others were revolutionizing college basketball.
No matter what label - runand-gun or chuck-and-duck - was put on up-tempo basketball, the days of Dean Smith's four corners died with the addition of the shot clock, and guys like Richardson knew how to take advantage of rule changes.
He took over a squad of Razorbacks who were recruited for a slow, deliberate, half-court game, and as much as he tried to mold them into his system, it just wasn't going to happen.
It was much like what Bobby Petrino went through during the last football season.
As Richardson started bringing in his style of players, he was educating the fans in a new way to look at basketball.
His style and his players meant conference championships, high seeds in the NCAA Tournament and three Final Four appearances.
Richardson's first two years at Arkansas were a struggle, but nothing compared to what was going on inside him.
His teenage daughter, Yvonne, was fighting a losing battle with leukemia.
Richardson, a private and complex man, kept the hurt hidden as he took the Razorbacks to the peak of college basketball, relishing the role of giant killer.
While much was said and written about his fast-paced offense, it was really his "40 minutes of hell" that set his team apart.
Borrowing a line from Vince Lombardi, Richardson was fond of saying fatigue makes cowards of us all.
No team, especially in the 1990s, was in better physical shape than the Razorbacks.
Their smothering man-toman defense made the 94 feet of hardwood seem like 94 miles of heartbreak for opponents.
The 1994 championship team had one starter (Corliss Williamson) drafted by the NBA, and while a couple of others had a cup of coffee in the league, it was almost unheard of to earn the crown with just one professional player.
Yet, Richardson's method was always about teamwork.
Richardson was so successful that a football-minded athletic director, Frank Broyles, raised the money to build Bud Walton Arena.
In the national spotlight, Richardson often used news conferences to talk about the racism he had endured growing up in El Paso, Texas, and because his teams won, he had the chance to preach often.
Success is never easy to sustain, and in 2002, after a tirade about the school and the area and racism, Richardson was fired.
After his lawsuit was dismissed, Richardson practically disappeared. He was the volunteer head coach of the Panamanian and Mexican national teams, challenges similar to his first year at Arkansas.
When success came, Richardson said, "I forgive, but I don't forget."
Now, six years after the lawsuit and 15 since the national championship, it is time to not only forgive, but forget, and it's time for Nolan Richardson to come home.
Copyright (c) 2001-2008 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc
Alabama Battles Florida For SEC Championship - Conference Champ To Decide National Champions?
Whoever turns out to be the winner of Saturday's 2008 SEC Championship game between Alabama and Florida, most pundits expect that team to battle for the BCS Championship game, or better yet be in the driver's seat for the title of College Football's National Champions for the 2008 season.
A potential classic, because by the AP polls, it pitches the Top two colleges in football against each other and also two teams coached by such intelligent men. This game should provide all the essential elements of a showdown; the winner goes on to the BCS National Championship game.
It is somewhat your semifinal and a preview to what the final proper should look like. Unfortunately both teams will not have the opportunity to meet in Miami, FL.
Also no one cares about the loser, because the focus is always on winners in sports. How many fans - other than someone from that team - remember the losing side?
The SEC in the opinion of many - and that includes pundits outside of the conference - is the best in college football and there is no denying that fact. The SEC schools have more BCS Bowl wins compared to any other conference and that includes PAC-10, Big XII and Big 10.
Alabama, an undefeated story all season long, coached by the shifty Nick Saban will have their hands full when Florida files out at the Georgia Dome. Both teams have their strengths and also weaknesses.
Florida with a great leader in Urban Meyer will look to stop the Crimson Tide, but should be smart not to attempt going tit-for-tat with Alabama; a team that can pound you with their strong tailbacks and enormous front lines.
It will be a game that comprises power, speed and agility; something not strange to either team. The beauty of this game also is that both coaches have demonstrated open respect for one another. Saban who had a considerably poor first season as coach of the Crimson Tide gives credit to the opposition. "They have a lot of speed," Saban said. "They have probably three or four players that are unique space players in terms of speed and quickness."
Meyer on the other hand who won a national title in his second season at the helm in the swamp understands how complex the game Saturday would be. "I am very eager to have those guys get up there," Meyer said. "And that's going to be a fast track, but the team we're playing is going to be fast as well."
Saban who's debut season was stained by a four-game losing streak to end the year, almost did not have a winning record if not for the win in the Independence Bowl against Colorado.
Some of the Crimson Tide players feel the reason their season has been so successful compared to last year was because they listened more to their coach. "We really didn't do it the way coach Saban wanted us to do it, and we saw the results," said Alabama safety Rashad Johnson.
"Once the summer came around, you could see a different look in the guys' eyes."
Gator players understand their opposition should not be taken lightly. "They are still the undefeated team, still have not lost a game yet," said Florida defensive back Joe Haden.
Though the Gators are the team with the more vibrant offense, one part of that offense might be missing as running back and receiver Percy Harvin has been sidelined on the practice field all week. Harvin sprained an ankle last Saturday against in-state rivals Florida State.
For Saban who arrived in Tuscaloosa with a fanfare and over 92,000 for a spring scrimmage, knows that he has to get the job done Saturday, but also come January. Even if Alabama wins this game and goes on to conquer college football come January, will Saban bolt Tuscaloosa like he ditched Miami and the Dolphins for the next competitive thing? Only time will tell that and who is going to be crowned SEC Champion in 2008.
jocklife.com
Wyoming staying mum on next football coach
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) - Wyoming is keeping mum for now on who its next football coach might be and when that coach might be announced.
Citing unnamed sources, several Wyoming newspapers reported Monday that Missouri offensive coordinator Dave Christensen will be chosen to replace Joe Glenn. Glenn was fired Nov. 23, a day after he finished his fourth losing season in six years as the Cowboys' head coach.
Wyoming athletics spokesman Tim Harkins said Monday the team had nothing to announce yet. He wouldn't comment on whether Christensen might be a candidate.
This season, Christensen's Missouri offense ranked fourth in NCAA Division IA for scoring and passing. Mizzou averaged 45 points per game and more than 344 yards per game.
The Tigers are ranked 19th overall after losing to Kansas 40-37 on Saturday.
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