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Rotational Player and Threatening Starter's Job
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By Mike Reiss | April 8, 2007
Icy feelings between Patriots coach Bill Belichick and his former assistant, current Jets coach Eric Mangini, have thawed this offseason.
Not to say the two men will be cracking lobster tails this summer on Cape Cod and reflecting on their success together, but they appear ready to put behind some of the circus-like atmosphere that has surrounded their strained friendship.
"We had a long history together and worked together in three different organizations -- the Browns, Jets, and Patriots," said Belichick. "Eric and I go back a long ways, our connections at Wesleyan, the same fraternity. It's just disappointing the way things went.
"The way I see it, it takes two to have a good relationship, and it takes two for that relationship not to be that way. It would take two to repair it."
Mangini, who has regularly lauded Belichick since landing the Jets job while privately wondering how the friendship could become so chilled, would welcome a step in that direction.
"I think I'm always open, I'm pretty much good friends with everybody I've worked with. I'm always looking to maintain those friendships," he said at the NFL's meetings last month in Phoenix. "We're not that far away from each other on the Cape. I get together with a lot of guys there. It would be great."
Whether Belichick and Mangini take that step remains to be seen. If they do, they would have plenty to discuss regarding how things have unfolded since Mangini was named coach of the Jets on Jan. 17, 2006.
There were the tampering charges that the Patriots filed against the Jets regarding receiver Deion Branch. Three handshakes/non-handshakes/embraces that were scrutinized as much as the games that preceded them. Belichick not mentioning Mangini by name prior to the first game between the teams. The Jets upsetting the Patriots at Gillette Stadium last November. The Patriots knocking the Jets out of the playoffs. Mangini hiring former Patriots assistant Brian Daboll this offseason.
Both clubs had terrific seasons, the Patriots going 12-4 and Mangini leading the Jets to a 10-6 season while earning Coach of the Year consideration.
Belichick said he spoke with Mangini after he took the Jets job, while noting publicly -- for what is believed to be the first time -- that his feelings toward Mangini last year had nothing to do with him taking the job with the Jets.
"Eric and I talked about it a couple of times last spring and there were no miscommunications," Belichick said. "It didn't have anything to do with him taking the job. I never said anything negative about it. He knows that.
"The fact of the matter is when he did take the job, I said complimentary things. I meant the things I said. It was a professional decision he had to make. I know it's his first [head coaching] job and that's a significant opportunity. It's just unfortunate where things went from there.
"Nick [Saban] was in this division for two years and it was completely different with him. There don't need to be problems. It's disappointing. I think both of us know where it's at."
Belichick said he didn't want to go into details. Neither would Mangini, who simply acknowledged the fact that being in the same division creates a "unique" dynamic to their friendship.
It's certainly been a unique 15 months when it comes to Belichick and Mangini. But the first signs of a spring thaw are in the air, adding yet another twist to the rivalry between the Patriots and the up-and-coming Jets.
http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/articles/2007/04/08/offseason_salvage_work/
