Mangini Paints Over Browns Mural
 

you know..THIS is not the way to start things off in a city with tradition in football...I HOPE the fans give react properly to what he has done...
Mangini tears down Browns' history (What about Bob?) - Newsday.com
The Browns had a really solid franchise BEFORE the Superbowl..and to erase that from memory is only what an overinflated egoist like Mangini would do. In fact..being a BROWN's fan from that era..I hate Mangini more for doing that.

Re: Mangini Paints Over Browns Mural
 

I feel bad for the Browns. I know they asked for it by hiring him etc but who tf is he and what has he exactly earned that would entitle him to do that.

He's the ankle-biter of the NFL (now that Dungy's retired:p)

Re: Mangini Paints Over Browns Mural
 

I can't stand Mangini, but given how Browns fans treated Belichick and what they said about him afterward, this actually seems like a good move. The fans there act like you have to pay homage to team, the city, the past, just to play or coach there. They still kill Belichick for cutting a hometown hero, Kosar, without even stopping to notice that Kosar sucked, that he couldn't hold a job in the NFL afterward, or that Kosar was replaced by a guy who went on to play another decade or more at a decent level.

Re: Mangini Paints Over Browns Mural
 

I was not pleased an dam not about how Cleveland fans treated CoachB...THAT was and is horrible...but on the other hand..I am a Celts fan..have been since I was very young..and if some GM or coach came in and tried to do something with the retired jersys for example..I would dislike THAT person immediately..and that is what I relate to what Mangini has done. Ohh..there WAS a person that TALKED about doing that...and that trial balloon was shot down fast...his name...Danny Ainge.

Re: Mangini Paints Over Browns Mural
 

The first comment after the article is gold:

Re: Mangini Paints Over Browns Mural
 

While the Browns are often trotted out as one of the teams 'to never win a Super Bowl', football and the NFL did not (as some Steeler fans believe) start in 1970. In fact, not only do the Cleveland Browns have more championships than the Steelers (or Pats), but only one other franchise has more championships than they do - the Green Bay Packers. Seems to me that it would be better to use that history as a positive; but then again none of the players on the field are old enough to remember Cleveland losing to Denver in 'The Drive', much less know that Jim Brown was even an actor - or a football player.

I do love this comment though . . .

Re: Mangini Paints Over Browns Mural
 

Yeah, this was a pretty stupid move on Mangina's part. Granted you don't want to be like the Packers where the fans all but live in the past, but why does he think getting rid of a big reminder of the Browns' previous success will motivate his team to be successful now? Were guys walking past it and saying, "Well, Jim Brown played for this team 40+ years ago and he was pretty good so I don't have to try very hard today"???

I'd also like to put in my $.02 about the championship stuff discussed earlier. There were a lot of teams that were winners before the merger and the Super Bowl era, as was mentioned. The Browns won the AAFC championship all four years of that league's existence, and when they were merged into the NFL the league immediately scheduled them to open the season against the defending NFL champion (I believe it was the Eagles, or maybe the Rams) as a way of showing the Browns how well they would do against a "real" team. The Browns won the game resoundingly, and then won some NFL championships besides.

Since the merger, the Browns haven't come near that level of achievement, so why do away with all reminders of a time when they were at the top? What's he going to do next, demand that they change their name so the players won't think of Paul Brown??? What a dope.

Re: Mangini Paints Over Browns Mural
 

One other thing I just thought of - if these people hate Belichick so much, why would they want a guy whose chief selling point is that he was Belichick's protegee???

Re: Mangini Paints Over Browns Mural
 

The irony ;)

They hate Belichick and they hate the way we was secretive, etc. And, yet, not only is Mangini one of his (ex) proteges but he's as secretive as Belichick; possibly moreso. I don't think anyone can answer this question other than to say "it is what it is".

Re: Mangini Paints Over Browns Mural
 

I read a great book about the final years of the original Browns club, Fumble!: Modell, the Browns, and the Move, to learn about what really happened with that mess, but ironically I learned a lot about why Belichick acts the way he does in New England. By the time he was hired in Cleveland there was a lot of public sentiment against Modell, particularly by the media. Because Modell was fond of Belichick, and because Modell was becoming less and less accessible to the media by then, the media focused their anti-Modell sentiments on Belichick. Before long Belichick found out he had no chance with the Cleveland media; no matter what he said, they'd spin it into something negative and blast him with it. Hence, Belichick doesn't give the media squat now that he's in New England.