I Believe in Cleveland Browns Head Coach Eric Mangini

Stop laughing at the title and give me a minute or two. Seriously, stop laughing.

At the end of the 2009 NFL season in a piece I cannot find at the moment, I compared Cleveland Browns head coach Eric Mangini with Tom Coughlin, current head coach of the New York Giants. Coughlin, a hard-nosed head coach notorious for riding his players and running grueling practices, was on the outs with the team after another disappointing playoff performance. He was eventually given a one-year reprieve by the Giants, largely because there wasn't anybody out there to take his place. Giants running back and future Hall of Famer Tiki Barber was done with Coughlin, however, and retired from the league.

We all know what happened the next season. Coughlin loosened up a bit, Earth, Wind and Fire dominated opposing defenses and the New York Giants won the Super Bowl. Tom Coughlin and the Giants front office were all geniuses.

The Cleveland Browns aren't winning Super Bowl XLV (probably). The past moves made by Eric Mangini as head coach of the Cleveland Browns, as well as his recent "shift in personality," make me believe that maybe, just maybe, Mangini has had a plan all along.

Mangini replaced the fired Romeo Crennel, a player-friendly coach beloved by practically everybody on the Cleveland Browns roster, in January of 2009. Mangini, like Coughlin, is known for running players into the ground, picking them up by their nostrils and doing it all over again. Both NFL rookies and veterans complained about Mangini. Several players, including offensive threats Kellen Winslow and Braylon Edwards were shipped out of Cleveland. Eric Mangini was a mad man in the eyes of Browns fans, a coach hellbent on destroying the team.

Sometimes, a team needs to be destroyed in order to build it up again.

The Browns finished the 2009 NFL regular season on a four-game winning streak, which included notable victories against the Pittsburgh Steelers and Jacksonville Jaguars. "Big deal," you say. A 5-11 overall record is nothing to get excited about. On the surface, that's a true statement. Look deeper, though, and you'll find a franchise taking baby steps toward improvement.

Running back Jerome Harrison is the most obvious example of this improvement. Much to the disappointment of both Harrison and Cleveland Browns fans, Mangini decided to not utilize Harrison for much of the first half of the year. The coach believed Harrison was under-performing both on the practice field and the classroom (meetings, watching film, etc.). Harrison responded by stepping it up Mondays through Saturdays, impressing his coach and finding his way back on the field on Sundays. You may remember Harrison's 286 yards and three touchdowns performance from last December. In the final three games of the season, Harrison rushed for 561 yards and five touchdowns.

Thanks, in part (at least), to Mangini.

It appears that Eric Mangini is now in the "2007 Tom Coughlin" phase. On just the fourth day of Browns training camp, Mangini surprised his players by canceling on-the-field practice. Those on the Browns roster heading into the 2010 NFL season have remarked that they've noticed a change in Mangini's coaching style and personality.

Perhaps Mangini was aware that the 2009 Cleveland Browns were a lost cause. By weeding out the weak, can't-hack-it players, Mangini was creating a football team tough enough to last against the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens of the NFL. Unlike Tom Coughlin, Mangini doesn't have to win a Super Bowl in order to keep his job. Going 7-9 against this schedule would be just fine with me.

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