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Cry havoc...
Join Date: Aug 2000
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Interesting interview with Mangini...
Is it just me or could you replace "Mangini" with "Haley" with a lot of these answers and beliefs on how to build a team?
I have grabbed excerpts because the article itself is really long, but a fascinating read...
http://www.cbssports.com/print/nfl/s...owns-belichick
Quote:
Q: Last week Washington owner Daniel Snyder said he was "disappointed" and "embarrassed" by his team's performance. Do you share similar sentiments about this team?
Mangini: I'm not happy with the production that we've had, and I don't think anybody is. But I am happy with the way these guys have worked. Going through the experience in New England where the team was 8-8 [in 1999] and ended up 5-11 [in 2000, Belichick's first season there]; then where the start of the next year we were 1-2 and things didn't look good ... Anyway, we worked the same way, and people make good decisions. Then we beat San Diego [in 2001], and it was like the whole tide turned. And that wasn't a function of that game. It was a function of all the work that went in leading up to that game. People understood how to play as a team; what it meant to study, to work, to be selfless, to be part of something bigger and not to worry about who got credit. And when it hit, it hit big and it's continued to hit over time.
I like to think I was part of an organization that was built to last, but it doesn't happen overnight. And it doesn't take one decision or one person. It takes a ton of them. Our whole philosophy is based on things that I learned here [in Cleveland] as a ballboy and a young guy, and in New England as a young position coach. Here, we [the Browns] had gone to the playoffs and paid Andre Rison a $5 million signing bonus, which at that time was astronomical. I picked up Andre at the airport, and he made Bill sit and the owner sit and the media sit for an hour while in a limousine that I was in. And that was the start of it.
The first game he had two penalties and wasn't very productive. But when you give a guy like that all that money you're assigning what you believe in organizationally: That it's OK because we will pay you. Basically, what you're saying is that those traits ... that's what we endorse organizationally. And when we struck adversity that year things fell apart.
But when we went to New England we committed to guys with character, and it was totally different. It was like truth in sports. I believe in smart, tough, hard-working, competitive guys -- guys who are selfless and guys whom football is important to. Those are our core characteristics. You can ask any player on the team what it is. It's in the draft room. It's in the free-agency room. And it frustrates the personnel guys because they say, hey, we have this great guy who can run this 40, and we'll say, "What's he like? What's he like in the locker room? What's he like in the classroom? What's he like in practice?" Because I really believe one guy affects five. You get a bunch of good people organizationally, committed to the same vision and working the same way ... and it doesn't waver ... great things happen.
Q: But great things haven't happened to this team. Did the Browns have to take two steps back to take one step forward?
Mangini: I think any time 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. There is a trust that's developed. When I got let go in New York I wanted to address the team, and I told them, "Look, guys, there are times where you thought I was the biggest [jerk] in the world, and you probably thought I was crazy. But my job ... and what I committed to doing ... is making you the best players and us the best team. And that's not always easy. You're not always going to agree with the decisions I make. But they're all made for one reason: To help us win and to make sure you achieve your potential and we achieve our potential. There is another coach coming in, and I've been on the other side of the table, where I heard that things didn't work out and we're going in a different direction. I was told that today, and that's part of the business. But whoever comes in here you're a good group of players who worked hard. So embrace that guy. Don't let all that hard work go to waste because you're trying to figure out who the new guy is."
Q: The problem with a long-term plan is that you're on the clock, and time is a luxury you may not have. Having an owner who understands that is crucial.
Mangini: It is crucial, and you have to share the same vision because there are hard decisions that are made and there are criticisms that are made. And you have to believe in what you're doing and weather the storm. If you're always going to respond to public opinion and not do what you believe what you should do organizationally because of a negative article or how it's perceived, then you don't believe in anything and everything is diluted.
When I got to Cleveland I started my first meeting with the same message I left the last team with. I said, "This is who I am. I have three kids. This is my wife. I like Tupac better than I like Biggie. I like these TV shows. And this is my approach as a coach, and this is what I believe in. And you can come into my office at any point, and that's not a corporate slogan or a line I'm telling you to get it off my check list. It's true."
I'll tell you what Rodney Harrison told me. He said, "Tell players the truth. They may not like it, but they will respect you for it." You come up here, and I'll tell you the truth. And at least you have a chance to do something about it. You may not want to hear it, but you can do something about it. It's your choice. And I believe in that.
It happened with Laveranues Coles. He hated me -- I promise you, as much as any player has hated anybody. And I didn't understand him, either. So I called him up on a Saturday night and I said, "L.C., I want to meet with you tomorrow afternoon at 1 o'clock." He shows up at 1 with a suit. And we sit across a conference table, and I said, "Look, I'm going to tell you all the things I like about you, and all the things I don't like about you. And you're going to tell me all the things you don't like about me. And maybe there's something you do like about me. But we're not leaving this table until we understand each other." And we sat for three hours and talked about everything. After that, we had a great relationship. He became one of my guys, and he still text-messages me.
I did the same thing with Eric Barton. When Braylon [Edwards] left, I said, "Look, this is a great start for you. Don't let anything get in the way of what you really want. It's a totally new start. You may get to a point sometimes where you need to hear the truth or need perspective. Call me up. When I met you the first time and told you I want you to be the best player and person you can be that doesn't change because I'm not your coach anymore. You call me, and we can talk. I wish you the best. So go do the things you want to do there. It didn't work out here, but that doesn't mean it can't work out there."
Q: Since you brought it up, why was it in the Browns' best interest to get him out of here? Was there a moment where you said enough is enough?
Mangini: I think Braylon was at the point where he needed a fresh start, and organizationally we needed to change directions, too. And that was going to be the best thing for both sides.
Q: What or where has been the biggest source of disappointment?
Mangini: The hardest thing for me is that a lot of times when there is criticism -- and I respect everyone's right to say a decision is poor -- but when it becomes personal criticism by people I've never met before, that is different. You like to have the opportunity to explain what you believe in and why you make decisions. That doesn't mean you expect the person to agree with what you say or that you expect a different kind of grade scale. But the personal attacks ... that's a little more disappointing, especially from someone I haven't met or dealt with because it just doesn't seem as objective and balanced.
Q: Has that criticism or this streak of futility affected the way you go about your job?
Mangini: No, because I really do believe in the things we're doing. 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 look back at some of the articles from 2000 in New England, and they were pretty brutal. There are a lot of things said then (he pauses) ... well, history has sort of been rewritten in the recent past. But that's the way it is when you're losing. Not much looks very good.
Q: Have you pulled any of those articles out recently?
Mangini: Yeah, recently, actually. Very recently. (He goes to his desk and pulls out a binder of articles from that season, with sentences highlighted). Look at this one. (He starts reading) "Not much worth saving here ... Next test, please ... A mess ... Autopsy on the season, a pretty good choice of words."
I remember the Cleveland game where we came here, and that was brutal. They were an expansion team, and we came here and lost. (He starts reading again) "Officially plunged to the nadir. ... Bill Belichick is in charge of bringing respectability back to football in New England, but right now fans would settle for a little dignity, which is in short supply on bloody Sunday."
Thinking back to it, I remember when I drove up with Bill to New England. I was in my hotel that first night. I was listening to a talk show, and the three guys on the show were just killing the decision [to hire Belichick]. And I was thinking, "We haven't even been here five hours, and we're getting killed." I think back to that now, and say, "OK, we've been through this experience before. But I know what we're doing." And so does Brad Seely, and Brian Daboll and Rob Ryan. You just have to keep digging.
Q: I've seen some teams that have trouble scoring, but nothing like this ... and I mean dating back to last year. What's going on?
Mangini: It's been frustrating, and what's frustrating is the amount of self-inflicted wounds. Now where we've been great is penalties. We're number one in the NFL in penalties, but we hired Dick McKenzie, who once was the head of officials. He does our challenges at the games, but he coaches our officials every day. So we have a coach for our officials who officiate practice, and they've been great.
We track every penalty every day, and we went from 32nd in the NFL last year to first this year. And that's a sign of discipline. That's a sign of growth.
When I look at some of the scoring plays we have ... like last week [against Chicago], there's a second down, and we fumble the snap. We actually have the play blocked up pretty well, and on third down D.A. goes to the fade instead of to the snag because the first time we ran the play the snag wasn't open. So instead of going through his progression he goes away from it, and now the snag is open and the fade is covered. Those types of things are examples of where it's like, "Look, just stay with what we talked about. We can't have these fumbles. We can't have these turnovers."
Last week we hit Mohamed [Massaquoi] on the 12- or 14-yard line, and he fumbles. We hit Steve Heiden on third-and-5, he gets the first down and he fumbles. It kills you.
Q: One writer said the worst thing that happened to you was getting hired immediately after you were fired in New York; that it didn't give you time to analyze what you did wrong in New York. Any truth to that?
Mangini: I'm proud of what we did in New York. I played the Jets for a lot of years, and we were built to be able to stand up to the teams in the division. We went to the playoffs the first year, had a setback the second and were 8-3 at one point in the third year before Brett got hurt.
I'm making no excuses for us not finishing stronger than we did, but I know that organization is stronger. We transitioned to a new building. We made a lot of changes in a lot of different areas, and I'm proud of the people we brought in. The draft picks are all guys with character. Look at them: D'Brickashaw Ferguson? He'll go to the Pro Bowl. Nick Mangold? He's been to the Pro Bowl. [Darrelle] Revis has been to the Pro Bowl. [David] Harris will go to the Pro Bowl. Leon Washington has been to the Pro Bowl. We have rookie free agents who are making meaningful contributions. Brad Smith is a good player in his own right in the role he has. We brought in Alan Faneca, who is high character. There was a lot of heat there, with people saying we couldn't get good free agents, but we got Faneca and we got [Calvin] Pace and Damien Woody. We traded for Thomas Jones, who led the AFC in rushing. We had 47 sacks last year. We just traded for Jason Trusnik, who was a rookie free agent out of Ohio Northern, and this past week he led us in tackles, had a sack and a quarterback pressure and a batted ball. This is a kid we developed, and we taught our rookies how to be pros. We spent a lot of time with those guys, and we had programs in place.
It was a great experience. You make a lot of mistakes, but one of the things that was a benefit of being a first-time head coach was that you didn't see a lot of the problems because you didn't know what a lot of the problems looked like. But when you come to a new place and you know what they look like ... sometimes it's like, wow, we have a lot of things to get straightened out. Where in New York you didn't even know they existed.
Q: Tell me, then, if I'm a season-ticket holder here, given what happened with your GM and what is happening on the field this year, why should I believe there is hope for this team now or in the future?
Mangini: Being here in the past and getting to know the people of Cleveland, I feel like they deserve a team filled with men who will make them proud on Sundays and every other day of the week. That's what I said in my press conferences. I want my kids to cheer for this team, not just because we're winning on Sunday but because of all the other stuff we're doing throughout the week. We're committed to finding those men. We're committed to building an organization that they can support, not just in Year One but in Year 10. And that doesn't happen instantly and it's not easy. It's like anything else in life that's worth having. You have to work at it. This is a city that's built by and with hard working people who are good people.
Q: That's fine, except this is a team that scored nine points the last two games. How do you convince people that is progress?
Mangini: Unfortunately, there is the very obvious progress, which is what is happening on the field. And that is what we're all committed to. But there's other progress, too, and I don't think a situation like penalties is something that's not substantial, even though it's not sexy. It shows that discipline has changed. When you look at the kids that we've brought in and the people that we've brought in, anyone who is exposed to them will know what we're committed to; anybody who looks into their backgrounds will know what we're committed to. When you combine that with the work ethic that this group has, things will change.
Q: You can collect the best people in the world in a locker room, but it doesn't matter if you don't win.
Mangini: I guess what I believe in and what I've seen is that you can collect both -- talented players who are really good people. Tedy Bruschi. Rodney Harrison. Ted Johnson. Troy Brown. Go right on down the list. Darrelle Revis. David Harris. D'Brickashaw Ferguson. Nick Mangold. Alex Mack. Mohamed Massaquoi. Those are good players, but they're also good people. Fans are going to enjoy cheering for them.
Q: How soon before the Browns become a competitive factor again?
Mangini: I really think at different points this season we've been competitive. I don't want to make excuses for what happened in Green Bay, but it wasn't the easiest week in the world. We had 14 guys miss practice with the swine flu. We had our starting corner get into a car accident where he flipped the car. There were a lot of things swirling around [running back] James Davis, and those were substantial. But I told the players this: "We only have one opportunity to play. Regardless of what happened leading up to it we got to maximize that opportunity. And that's it. There are no excuses." [Against Chicago] I thought we did a lot of good things defensively. We stopped them on fourth down. We sacked the quarterback four times. We hit him a bunch of times. And we come out on the first drive of the second half, stopped them, they punted, we got good field position and we scored. Now it's a 10-point game. Then we drive down the field again and fumble. It's kind of like the Denver game. It was 13-6 going into the fourth quarter, and we give up two big plays. Now it looks like an absolute runaway game. The Minnesota game we're leading at halftime and holding on for a long time defensively, but when you give Adrian Peterson that many chances ...
The thing I see on tape is that these aren't mistakes you can't correct; they are correctable. Now it's something like 66 points net difference in turnovers. You can't overcome that. But you can protect the football better. And you can get the football out better. You can create more turnovers.
Q: What is the prognosis for the second half?
Mangini: I want to see improvement in the areas that we've targeted. And I saw that in the three games leading up to Green Bay and, to some degree, the Chicago game, especially defensively. There's a way I want to play games: intensity, finish, emotion. That's the way we have to play football. That's the starting point on Sunday. Do everything leading up to Sunday, play that way and execute the plan.
In the Cincinnati game there are seven seconds left in the fifth quarter, and we lose. That's hard. Then we beat Buffalo. There are pockets of what we're seeing, but we have to have complimentary football through four quarters. That's what our task is. Figure out how to get there as coaches and players, and it will happen.
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11-10-2009, 02:34 PM
Interesting interview with Mangini...
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