Hey, did you know that new Jets coach Eric Mangini worked under Bill Belichick and Bill Parcells?
It’s true.
The major job of a journalist is to inform the reader. So, just in case you missed the past week of newspaper, Internet and television reports about the Jets’ coaching search, Mangini is from the Bill Belichick family tree, of which Bill Parcells sits atop.
Perhaps you missed Mangini’s introductory press conference on Tuesday, which we can sum up as follows: Eric Mangini, new coach of the New York Jets, has been around the football minds lodged in the craniums belonging to Bill Belichick and Bill Parcells.
OK, we get it. Belichick is the best coach around right now, and Parcells was the best before his protégé surpassed him.
But enough of the Belichick and Parcells stuff. Few statements, fewer questions and even fewer responses at the Mangini coronation did not include a reference to one of the Bills, and we’re not talking about their division rival upstate.
Were the Jets getting paid by the reference? Did the beat writers have an internal bet on the over-under of Belichick/Parcells name drops?
This is not to say Mangini will not be a good head coach. I don’t have the answer to that, nor does anyone yet. But, no matter how you reorganize the letters, Eric Mangini does not equal Mike Tice, Jim Haslett or any other retread floating around the NFL. Right away, he’s one step ahead. Step two: He’s Italian and coaching the New York Jets, making Joe Benigno’s WFAN show a must-listen during the season.
The draft will be here soon. Then minicamp. Then training camp. Then more Belichick comparisons. And if the Jets lose the 2006 opener, the stories will likely all lead with some derivative of “You’re not in New England anymore, Eric.”
How long until Eric Mangini is known as Eric Mangini instead of that former assistant to Bill Belichick and Bill Parcells?