It was good to hear Eric Mangini state his dissatisfaction with the celebration penalty incurred by Eric Wright in the Browns preseason win over the Lions. Mangini said he talked to the team about celebrating as a team, about not doing things as an individual – and about not hurting the team.
“I’m not going to set up any celebration police force or anything like that,” Mangini said. “I think everybody is different. I’m not asking somebody to be outside their personality, or something like that, just put it in the right context. …
“… whether you do something good or you do something bad, either celebrate it or be angry for about five seconds, because life moves on and you have to get on to the next thing. It’s true in games.”
That has been one of the great secrets of Bill Belichick’s success. Good or bad, the New England Patriots end a play and immediately move on to the next play. They enjoy their success, but they don’t dwell on it. They get up, go to the huddle and concentrate on the next play.
In this day and age, not celebrating as an individual might be asking a lot, but Wright’s celebration brought new meaning to over the top. He made a very nice play to intercept Matt Stafford’s pass, then made a very nice run to nearly score. At that point, his neurons apparently started to misfire. Wright did an exaggerated end-zone bow and attempted leap into the stands.
That would have been a lot after a touchdown, let alone after a play that ended at the 5-yard-line.
Mangini called celebrations and retaliations “selfish.”
He’s right. Wright cost his team 15 yards and a good scoring opportunity. I’m not sure how popular Wright is with his teammates, but what he did was not professional. If I were Jamal lewis, I might have had a little sit-down with him.
“I want the team to direct their emotion in the right way,” Mangini said. “I think that guys should be happy about the things that they do well and other guys should be happy for their success and it should be celebrated in a team fashion, but not out of context and in perspective of, we have to move on to the next play.
“We have to play the next play. There are other things happening.”
Amen.
