SI's Joe Posnanski and of the cleverly named blog, Joe Posnanski, one of the more tortured sports fans in the public spectrum, writes in his latest column that while it sounds hyperbolic, Eric Mangini might be the worst coaching hire ever. And he sure as hell has an argument.
I'm actually starting to believe that Mangini really was the worst head coach hire in 25 years. Remember:Other bad hires that were compared to Mangini include: Art Shell, Bobby Petrino, Jim Zorn, Steve Spurrier, Raheem Morris, Tom Cable, Rich Kotite (RICH KOTITE!), Scott Linehan and Marty Mornhinweg. Posnanski rebuts all of those pretty factually.
1. Mangini had just been fired in New York, where he had done a terrible job. He had a losing record. His team had collapsed down the stretch, he had alienated his players, he was a pain in the neck to deal with. Point is: He'd already PROVEN how much damage he could do as a coach.
2. He came right out of the school of Bill Belichick ... and that didn't work THE FIRST TIME in Cleveland. It seems to me that Cleveland is a working-class town and Browns fans want a working-class coach -- not some pompous know-it-all who doesn't feel like he should have to explain to the commoners what he's doing.
3. What had he ever done to convince anyone he could be a head coach in the first place? Why, because he was a defensive coordinator for the Patriots under Belichick for one season? The Browns had JUST HIRED Romeo Crennel, who was ALSO defensive coordinator under Belichick. Attention Cleveland Browns owners, here's a good hint: BILL BELICHICK IS HIS OWN DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR.
4. Basically the first thing Mangini did -- first thing -- was have them tear down a mural of great Cleveland Browns players on the wall in the Browns offices. Now, there are differing opinions about what really happened, whose fault it really was, does it all matter, etc. You know what? The Cleveland Browns have never been to a Super Bowl. Never. Not one. But Browns fans still have a whole lot of pride. Browns fans grow up on a glorious history. If you allow something stupid like that to happen on your watch ... just a horrendous hire.
We'd love to throw Norv Turner (hired by anyone) into that hat. He's turned the most talented team in the league into a perennial playoff bust. The Niners hiring Dennis Erickson was also pretty bad.
Worse NFL hire ever? Your arguments in the comments, please.
14 comments:
hes right. and the fuck was cleveland in such a hurry to hire this clown. they need to beat his ass
rich kotite for the jets was a bad hire. rod marinelli was a bad hire. any coach who cant win a game in a season is a bad hire. kiffin to the raiders was a bad hire.
Just because Mangini is an uppity cunt doesn't make him- after 3 games- the worst hire. There has to be sustained tanking.
All of these guys sucked but...Shell had some success, Petrino didn't hang around long enough to do lasting damage, Spurrier was a grand letdown, but not nearly bad enough to be included here, too early to include Morris and Cable (but not Kiffin) and there were pre-existing problems (lousy teams, no QB) in both places. If Linehan and Mornhimweg coached the Lions- I don't f'n know- Millen was the bad hire there.
Of these, Rich Kotite is the absolute worst. I lived it every week. Ask any Eagles or Jets fan, who have had- despite their relative successes- almost as brutal an existence as the Browns fan.
Ray Handley was at least as bad as anyone here. He had no experience, didn't know WTF he was doing, but was handed a Super Bowl champion. He promptly destroyed that by benching Simms for Hostetler on the strength of the latter not fucking up two games that the defense won. In the afterglow of a Bowl, we really couldn't get into too much of an uproar.
As a Skins fan who lives in Ohio, I would say that Spurrier was the worst hire. He had NO IDEA what he was doing.
Bokolis you must be a Jets fan sticking up for that clown Manginidiot. hopefullly 0-16 for them.
Anonymous makes my point for me. He thinks Bokolis is a Jet fan and is sticking up for Mangini. If Jet fans are sticking up for Mangini than Posnaski's first premise is bunk. And it is.
Mangini was not a bad coach with the Jets. He uses the word "losing record" a shit load. In reality Mangini went 10-6, 4-12, 9-7. In the year he went 4-12 Pennington was injured in the first week of the season and the O-Line was in shambles after giving away Pete Kendall for nothing. Why do you think they shelled out a ton of money for Faneca in the 08 offseason. So he had a losing record strictly on the back of a season where he had no QB or offensive line.
Last year he coached the Jets through a collapse. But any person who watched any of the Jets games down the stretch knows that the biggest culprit of the Jets collapse was BY FAR Brett Favre. BY FAR. The man threw just 2 tds to 9 ints over the last five weeks and never had a QB rating over 62 in any of those games. He was DREADFUL.
While hiring him right away seemed to be a little rushed as he probably should have been forced to take on a DC job for a year or two, Mangini was not a bad head coach for the Jets, he was just the head that got lopped off thanks to the collapse of Favre.
cleveland fired the wrong eric
Kay Stephenson (BUF) and Les Steckel (MN) were spectacular flame outs. How about when the Cardinals hired 350 year old college coach Bud Wilkinson after he hadn't coached for 15 years?
Cam Cameron was 17-38 as head coach at Indiana. He was fired. Then Miami hires him as a head coach in the pros? 1-15.
Marinelli's hiring stunned me -- he was a defensive line coach!! What exactly do you bring to the table here? "You know guys, our offense was terrible last year and so was our defense, we haven't added any D lineman, but I think I can scheme us about 6 more sacks a game...."
On the flip side, Mike Tice was a terrible hire, but he was always around .500 because he had Ok players and they would jump in front of a train for him. He had NO X and O ability as a head coach, but his team somehow won half its games.
Apologies -- I see he limited it to 25 years, so Stephenson and Steckel and Wilkinson don't count. That leaves me with only Marinelli and Cam Cameron.
Disclosure: I didn't- and don't plan to- read the article. The writer gives me no indication that he's worthy of being published, much less worthy of my direct attention.
When compared to the Jets signing Kotite on the back of a brutal job in Philly, this guy is grossly premature- especially since the Browns already sucked- in making such an assessment based on a 3-game sample.
Can't quite reconcile calling Mangini an "uppity cunt" with sticking up for him.
Simon covers Mangini's tenure and plight with the Jets much better than I, not being a Jets fan, ever could.
hyperbole aside, mangini DID just fine a player $1700 for forgetting to pay for a $3 water at the hotel. i wouldn't want a tyrant like mangini as my head coach...
I think the reason Handley and Petibon were not included is because it was the right thing to do i promoting from within after a Super Bowl.
Art Shell- Actually not bad, but Al drags down everybody.
Bobby Petrino- Not a bad hire at the time, never had Vick, thought he would get Brohm- then pussied out.
Jim Zorn-Not a horrid hire
Steve Spurrier- Good hire would have turned program around if he stayed ,same category as Saban. Raheem Morris- too soon
Tom Cable- Raiders disease
Rich Kotite (RICH KOTITE!)-one of the worst ever and as a Colts fan I have a huge dislike for Lindy Infante
Scott Linehan-is in the Rich Brooks category for Rams- good coach with brittle qb Bulger/Chris Miller
Marty Mornhinweg- Millen was worse.
dave shula was terrible.
lou holtz was a bad hire.
wade phillips is always a bad hire
Ooh dang i just typed a big comment and as soon as i hit post it come up blank! Please please tell me it worked properly? I dont want to write it again if i do not have to! Either the blog glitced out or i am an idiot, the latter doesnt surprise me lol. Cheers, denver-asbestos-attorneys.com
Post a Comment