Eric Mangini (Getty Images)
Eric Mangini sat in his office last night outside of Cleveland watching film of the Jets. The Browns head coach found himself wrestling with conflicting emotions.
Should he feel angry, yearn for retribution? Did he miss the players he drafted and helped coach into the successes they’ve become?
Or was he jealous that the team he helped develop is 6-2 and one of the best in the NFL while his Browns are struggling to stay in contention at 3-5?
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“I’m watching the Jets now on tape and it’s fun to watch the guys that I know and have so much experience with, but it’s not like I’m longing to be there,” Mangini told The Post. “I really like our guys. I’m really happy here.”
Here
is Cleveland, the place Mangini landed after the Jets fired him following the 2008 season.
When his Browns play the Jets on Sunday at Cleveland Stadium, emotions surely will be stirred.
Though he doesn’t grouse about it, Mangini knows he was a scapegoat victim of a sudden change by Jets owner Woody Johnson and general manager Mike Tannenbaum, taken amid the fan unrest when the team went from 8-3 to missing the playoffs in 2008.
Mangini, too, knows that it was Johnson and Tannenbaum who brought him into the NFL head coaching world, gave him his first opportunity at age 34, and that led to where he is now.
“There are two sides to that,” Mangini said. “When you make tough decisions, then you have to accept the fact that other people have to make tough decisions about you. You may not agree with them or like them, but it’s their right.”
THE FALL GUY
Mangini hardly was the abject failure with the Jets that many fans perceive him to be, thanks in part to a reputation projected by the media he rarely endeared with great team access, information and witty sound bites.
Mangini moved the Jets forward, led them to the playoffs in his first season, suffered through a poor second season with multiple quarterback injuries and was fired after finishing 9-7 following that 8-3 start with Brett Favre.
He had a big part in building the foundation of the Jets team Rex Ryan will bring to Cleveland on Sunday.
“There are a lot of good people in that locker room and I’m happy they were successful last year, because I know there were a lot of decisions made that I was a part of that helped that happen,” Mangini said.
That, however, wasn’t enough for Johnson and Tannenbaum to warrant bringing him back for a fourth year in 2009.
“The plan was the plan and we were all together and everybody was in,” Mangini said. “And at the end of the day the plan changed and someone had to pay. Maybe I was the only one that didn’t anticipate it, but I didn’t think [getting fired] was going to happen.”
Mangini said he was going by what Johnson told The Post in an interview at the 2008 NFL owners meetings, where while citing his desire to build the kind of continuity franchises like the Steelers have, the Jets owner said the jobs of both Mangini and Tannenbaum were safe regardless of the results of that season.
“Then we had a winning season and it wasn’t what we hoped it would be at the end, but it was the same result as [2009 under Ryan] when they went 9-7,” Mangini said. “But 9-7 one year gets you in the playoffs and 9-7 another year gets you fired.”
Tannenbaum, who said he still speaks to Mangini on occasion and still regards himself as a friend, described the late-night call he made to Mangini the day after the 2008 regular season to fire him as “the hardest thing I’ve had to do.”
“We got a lot accomplished in three years and Eric deserves a lot of credit for the foundation that he helped build,” Tannenbaum said. “Rex has been able to take a lot of things Eric started and take the program from there.”
MANGENIUS
Because he was hired so quickly by the Browns, Mangini never had much time to stew over the shock of being fired.
Mangini’s firing seemed so far removed from his rookie year when he was such a hot commodity he drew the nickname “Mangenius” and even made a cameo on “The Sopranos.” At that time, it seemed he’d be the Jets coach for a long, long time. Ever the calculated realist, though, Mangini knew that wouldn’t last — even if he embraced it while it was happening.
“You just know that every nametag is temporary. You don’t wear it for long,” he said. “Last year, I couldn’t get bill collectors to call me back. Believe me, I was called a lot of things last year and none of them was as flattering as ‘Mangenius.’ ”
Mangini was, indeed, skewered by the locals in Cleveland and the national media for going 5-11 last year and for strong-arming his discipline into a team that when he took over had none in place. Along the way, though, he’s allowed his affable personality to trickle through publicly, an image that betrayed the way he was portrayed by many.
NEW ATTITUDE
His less stringent approach has come with becoming more comfortable with his position.
“Each year you grow and become more comfortable in your own skin,” Mangini said. “You’re a lot more comfortable being who you are in that role as opposed to trying to generate success through being like somebody else.”
Translation: He stopped trying to act like his mentor Bill Belichick, who invented rigid, and started to be himself.
“He smiles and laughs and answers questions, and it seems like he embraces the time he has with the people in public more now,” said Browns offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, who came with Mangini from the Jets. “He does a good job of interacting with guys and doesn’t seem so secluded and evasive as he was in New York to me.”
For those who think Mangini’s players dislike him, consider that former Jets receiver Laveranues Coles, who used to mock Mangini, texted him earlier this week to congratulate him for the win over New England.
“Who would have thought he’d be texting me after a win however many years later?” Mangini said.
MAKING STRIDES
Rob Ryan, who worked with Mangini under Belichick and is his defensive coordinator in Cleveland, called Mangini “a grinder deluxe.”
“When you’re tired and have been working all night, he’s in his office saying, ‘Come on, teach me the 46 defense,’ ” Ryan said. “I’ve wanted to coach for Eric for a long time because I really believe in him. He’s always been a really great motivator.
“He’s changed everything in this building — he changed things physically and he also changed the mindset. Eric is leading this ship.”
Mangini’s ship enters Sunday’s game having won its last two games and is 7-5 in its last 12 dating to last season — and that’s been done with five different starting quarterbacks in that span. The Browns’ three wins this year have all come against 2009 division champions — Cincinnati, New Orleans and New England.
Those closest to Mangini praise him for sticking to his beliefs even when things seemed most dire.
“It’s been a tough road here, but things are getting better because Eric has just stayed the course,” Ryan said.
“Sometimes you’ve got to strip the cupboards before you go grocery shopping again,” Daboll said. “You’re like a contractor who sees this nice house, looks inside and all the wood is rotten. You’ve got to decide if you want to tear it down or build it back from the inside.”
Unwittingly, Daboll’s words delivered a perfect metaphor for Mangini’s head coaching career.