Interesting take from Mike Lombard in the National Football Post on Eric Mangini’s decision not to reveal the Browns starting quarterback even thought everyone in the Western Hemisphere knows it’s Brady Quinn (would Mangini start Derek Anderson for a play just to play with folks … nah).
Lombardi is quite critical, saying Mangini’s decision “might be the most childish act I’ve seen in my 20-plus years in the NFL.’’
He agrees with me … well … he writes stuff similar to what I’ve written when he states that keeping the secret provides “no competitive advantage … whatsoever.”
He also writes about the importance of communicating your plan and message to the team, fans and organization. He discusses Mangini’s quirky habit of holing up in his office for hours and not talking to anyone, and states: “(Mangini is) not going to share his thoughts with anyone as he doesn’t trust people to keep a secret. It’s this lack of trust that prevents him from allowing the dialogue that’s needed with the right people to make the right choices. It takes discussion about the issues to decide on new ideas, new thoughts and maybe alternative solutions. Get smart people making decisions and you’ll make smart decisions. Exclude everyone and you’ll only get what you want.”
A few points on this:
1) I agree with Lombardi.
2) Mangini hasn’t been a jerk about this. In fact, when he said he wasn’t going to announce the starter he admitted there were different approaches and he respects those approaches. He was just going to do it his way. That is his right as an American. I just disagree with him that it’s going to matter at all.
3) This might matter if we were talking two different styles of quarterbacking, say a guy like Mike Vick and Brady Quinn. One runs, the other drops back and throws. But we’re talking about two pocket passers, and one throws deep a little more often.
4) None of this will matter in the biggest for the Browns in this game: Running the ball and stopping the run. Those are the Browns biggest issues in this opening game.
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Is it just me, or is Vegas missing something @ the Browns-Vikings? Browns +3.5? I would probably STILL take the Vikings if it was Vikings -10. For fun, of course…gambling is illegal.
Pat, phenomenal UA article. Great reporting, thanks for that inside look.
mangini is an oaf, and is sure to end up on those coors light commercials by next year. his secretive paranoia is nothing short of a psychiatric disorder, and if he truly feels keeping the QB secret confers some sort of competitive advantage, he's delusional as well. the man knows how to eat though, and how to fill out a waist line on xxl clothing.
It's a non-issue unless the team itself is 'in the dark' about who's starting, which I doubt. Competition in the NFL is razor thin and if Mangini makes the Vikings tweak their preparations one iota he's right to withhold an announcement. Different qbs have different tendencies, even if one of them isn't a Vick.
I wonder how the national guys come to their conclusions. My guess is they read a couple local articles.
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