Can Coaches Change? Maybe Not, But Eric Mangini Is Trying In Cleveland

You may remember that exactly a week ago, Browns’ coach Eric Mangini was among three NFL coaches highlighted as “pissants—insecure little dictators that have no means for leadership other berating their well-meaning players.” And today, in the interest of fairness, the other side of that coin.

In a profile for the latest issue of ESPN the Magazine (Insider only), Mangini shows a softer side. Or, at the very least, expresses a desire to find a softer side. Remember: This is a man who once fined some $1,700 dollar for drinking a bottle of water in a team hotel room. But maybe it’s not that simple:

I always had a hard time reconciling the Eric I knew -- easygoing, fun to have a beer with, lacking the self-importance possessed by so many in his profession -- with the arrogant, inflexible, humorless coach I saw on the sidelines and heard about privately from his colleagues. ... What I saw was a coach relearning his craft, knowing that he might be entering his last six months on the job. ...

This time, he hopes to enjoy it himself.

If someone that’s humorless and inflexible knows that he’s humorless and inflexible...

That’s a step, right?

The entire profile is worth your time, so check out ESPN Magazine if you don’t have insider. It’s a good read not just because of Mangini’s personal and professional crisis in character (he’s probably on the “hottest seat” in the league this year), but because the Browns are currently marrying the NFL’s two bluest bloodlines, in terms of coaching philosophies:

Cleveland’s new power dynamic reflects an even bigger change. The Browns are the first team ever to attempt to meld the NFL’s two most influential philosophies from the past 30 years: Bill Walsh’s and Bill Belichick’s. The systems are opposite in almost every way, from playbook terminology to practice schedules. The 49ers’ system, favored by Holmgren, is fundamentally built around the West Coast offense. You draft and pay big money for the best available talent to run it. But in Belichick’s approach, you draft specific types of players -- lots of good, reasonably priced guys instead of a few expensive greats -- for a flexible scheme. (Mangini’s defense, for example, switches between the 4-3 and the 3-4.) And you sign players to specific types of contracts, with no incentives for individual accomplishments, only team goals.

How that’s executed, and how Mangini adjusts to the newfound authority sitting down the hall, should make for some fascinating theater for football fans interested in that sort of thing. Already, Mangini is deviating from the schedules and pep talks he apparently lifted verbatim from his time with Bill Belichick, and adding his own flair to the proceedings it Cleveland.

Will it work? Hard to say, and certainly, Mangini’s someone that seems readymade for scapegoating, regardless of what he changes this year. But just for changing—or recognizing that he needs to change—he’s shown that he probably deserves more credit than we’ve given in years (or weeks) past.

Perhaps pissants can evolve, ya know?