Jets provide Browns’ Mangini with another chance at vindication

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

When Browns coach Eric Mangini, with a generous dip of chewing tobacco ballooning his lower lip, looks across the field at the New York Jets’ sideline today, he’ll see his past — what was, and what might have been.

Mangini will see players, and friends, who meant a lot to him and still do.

The Jets are no longer Mangini’s team, but they were for three seasons and if not for a late-season collapse in 2008, when quarterback Brett Favre lost his touch, the coach once dubbed “Mangenius” by tabloid writers, might still be Gang Green’s boss.

“That was two years ago,” said Browns linebacker David Bowens, who followed his coach to Cleveland. “He’s here now. We’re having a ball.”

Meet the new Mangini.

Criticized for being aloof, controlling and rigid with the Jets (6-2), Mangini has loosened up with the Browns (3-5), who are coming off back-to-back shocking upsets over New Orleans and New England.

After coming close to losing his job last season in Cleveland, he had little choice. He changed but not by being anyone other than himself.

During a conference call with New York media members, Mangini explained his transformation.

“I know this may sound crazy, but some people actually think I have a good personality and a little funny,” he said. “It’s just letting more of that out.

Part of the change in Mangini can be traced to the influence of Browns president Mike Holmgren, the Super Bowl-winning coach who felt Mangini deserved another year so his system could take deeper root in Cleveland. Just a few weeks ago, that decision seemed to have backfired.

But wins over the Saints and Patriots, has renewed faith in Mangini.

Last week, the focus was on his relationship with his mentor, Patriots coach Bill Belichick. They shared their latest frigid postgame handshake and went their ways with Mangini carrying the satisfaction of a 20-point win over his alienated friend.

Mangini joked afterward that this two-week span of games against his former teams was like his own version of the movie, “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past.”

He’s not looking for lost love or revenge, but the Jets present another chance at vindication.

“With New York, I had my first opportunity to be a head coach. It was a great time for us professionally and personally to have that, but in Rex [Ryan] coming there, things are obviously different,” he said.

The Jets are Ryan’s team, but Mangini’s handprints are all over: two dozen players remain from his last New York team. But, while many names are the same, the way they play has changed.

He’s on the other team, but the bruising Peyton Hillis is Ryan’s kind of player.

“We’re one of the great teams in the league in stopping the run and we clearly have our work cut out going against that young man. He’s going to have his work cut out as well,” Ryan said.