This writer recommends that Mangini forget the Jets...

[NIGHT STALKER]

The writer of this article is Jeff Jacobs from the Hartford Courant...

Mangini To Jets Not An Age-Old Question

January 13, 2006

The lure is great. The siren's call, launched by the New York tabloids and talk shows, grows louder and clearer. "Get him at all costs," Steve Serby wrote in the Post, and his sentiment is not alone.

The call is not for Bill Parcells.

The call is not for Bill Belichick.

The call is not even for the return of Pete Carroll.

The call is for Hartford's Eric Mangini.

The call is for the guy who grew up in the South End, went to Bulkeley High and went on to be a nose tackle - one unafraid to stick his nose in a book and tackle the formidable Wesleyan curriculum.

A decade ago, Mangini was walking around the Cleveland Browns locker room, picking up dirty jocks. A decade ago, his peers hadn't even reached puberty. He was one of the NFL's oldest ball boys.

Now Mangini is in demand to coach the big city's football team. The Jets tried to keep their desires under wraps when Herm Edwards left for Kansas City, allowing the typical suspects to float to the top of the rumor mill. Soon enough, however, the whispers grew louder that if Mangini really wants to coach the Jets, he will get the job as coach of the Jets.

Ahead of Jim Fassel. Ahead of Mike Sherman. Ahead of Mike Tice. Ahead of the rest.

Mangini will be 35 next week and that would make him the youngest head coach in the NFL.

Can you imagine how enormous the temptation must be?

Not so long ago, Eric Mangini was unknown. Not so long ago, he was a nobody.

And next week? He can be a major league coach in the big city. His peers won't be pimply faced ball boys. His peers will be Larry Brown and Joe Torre.

His face will be all over the back of the newspapers. His words will be dissected and re-dissected on talk shows. He will be famous, infamous and famous again - all in one day's news cycle. He will be a big man in the biggest town.

So how do you tell him it's all wrong?

How do you tell him the Jets are football's biggest landmine and his next step could blow one of the brightest futures in football into smithereens?

How do you tell him, "Don't do it, Eric?"

Guess we just did.

And although he will interview with the Jets - reportedly on Sunday after the Patriots play in Denver Saturday night - something tells us Mangini knows the right thing to do already.

Mangini is the fruit borne of the greatest coaching tree in football. He worked for Parcells when he was Jets head coach, answering directly to Belichick. Later, he went to New England with Belichick. He was the Patriots' defensive backs coach and, when Romeo Crennel left to become Browns coach after last season, he became Patriots defensive coordinator.

Look at those names he has worked with and for in the previous paragraph, and add in Nick Saban, Kirk Ferentz, Charlie Weis, Dan Henning and Jim Bates. Mangini has studied under the masters. He has studied with great pupils. He has worked nonstop to emerge as one of the top young defensive minds in the game.

We said he was an "unknown" and a "nobody" not so long ago. The truth, of course, is those two words are slaves to public perception. Mangini's family and friends always have known him as bright, caring and competitive. These days he is being called an X's and O's expert, and there's a certain intellectual exclusion in the complex nomenclature of NFL schemes. Those who knew him when he was young marveled at the way he was so inclusive. He could have gone to South Catholic. He chose Bulkeley, where the student population was 11 percent white. Black, white, Hispanic, Mangini drew people to him and he continues his work each year with his camp in Hartford.

And now, with three Super Bowl rings, Mangini finds himself the prodigy de jour. Although a number of players, McGinest, Law, etc., insist Mangini is ready for an NFL job, some observers wonder if the fruit of Belichick's tree is too green for Gang Green.

He is not too green to be a head coach.

He is too young to have his career gobbled up in the great shark tank of New York.

The Jets are a mess. The quarterback's shoulder is in tatters. The running back is 32 and coming off knee surgery. The team is $30 million over the salary cap.

Owner Woody Johnson has watched his team crash and burn.

President Jay Cross seemed much more absorbed in building stadiums on the West Side than a winning football team in the Meadowlands.

Despite his protestations to the contrary, general manager Terry Bradway seems hopelessly lost.

Yes, Mangini has a good friend and close ally in Mike Tannenbaum, but the Jets' salary-cap guru can carry only so much clout.

What happens when the Jets start out slowly?

What happens if it takes a couple of years to build a team back to mediocrity?

What happens when Bradway burrows deeper into his bunker?

New York is not a patient town.

Belichick fled the Jets and everybody called him Belichicken. He turned out to be the smartest fowl in New York sports history.

It's hard to imagine Belichick advising Mangini to chase his dream with the Jets, not if he really cares about him. Some have surmised that Belichick will guide him away from the Jets' job because he doesn't want one of his disciples in his division. That's bunk. At this point Belichick is convinced he can beat anyone.

A better job will be out there for Mangini, and, yes, he would be better off waiting and maturing another year or two. Who knows? Maybe he is the next head coach of the Patriots. Yet if the right job came along now, with a stable franchise and a stable general manager, Mangini could be a rousing success.

The problem is if he goes to New York and it falls apart all around him, he will be ridiculed as the wunderkind who knew defense and didn't know how to lead. He could be branded a coordinator and that brand can last forever. Maybe the Jets dangle big bucks at him in the belief that any Belichick disciple is worth it. Maybe they run it up to $3 million a year. Maybe he'd look goofy turning down that kind of cash.

But if he plays it right, he'll get that money back and much more if he finds head coach employment that lasts 15 to 20 years.

The Jets are the wrong team at the wrong time. Surely, Eric Mangini sees this.

That doesn't mean the siren's call isn't strong and the temptation isn't great.

[4HCrew]

Ughhh articles like this give me the shakes knowing that either Tice or Fassel is our next coach.

[PatsFanTX]

Ughhh articles like this give me the shakes knowing that either Tice or Fassel is our next coach.

Tice would certainly be a dumbass move.

What would the problem be with Fassel?

[faba]

It will not be easy but you can turn around the nightmare season we just had with intelligent decisions in free agents and drafting and getting people healthy.It does not have to be all doom and gloom for this franchise. A year ago all the talk was how terrible the Giants were - look what happened is a small example

[4HCrew]

I think the problem with Fassel is that he does not install the discipline that I think the Jets need. And for some reason the way Tiki progressed after he left bothers me as well but just do not know why.