Dec 30 2008
Mangini Fired, was it right?
Less than 24 hours after the Jets lost the game that eliminated them from the playoffs, head coach Eric Mangini was fired. In a press conference on Monday, team owner Woody Johnson and General Manager Mike Tannenbaum announced the firing of Mangini. It was about 1 month ago, when the talk was centered around Mangini getting a 4 year contract extention, but after losing 4 of the last 5 games, the coach is out.
This leaves me with 2 questions and my opinions on each:
Question 1) Did the Jets handle this right?
My Answer: NO. This move undoubtedly had to happen, however the Jets handled this poorly. It wasn’t quite as bad as how the Mets handled the Randolph situation, but it was up there. The dust had not even settled on the loss from Sunday, and Mangini was gone. There was also no evidence that the Jets management met with Mangini to discuss other options of changes in the coaching staff, areas of improvement, etc. He was just axed… You could almost hear the crowd yelling “Off with his head!” if you listen close enough.
Question 2) Was Farve to blame in Mangini’s firing?
My answer: Partially. It was clear, dating back from even preseason that Farve and Mangini did not see eye to eye. Mangini’s style is more of managing the game while Farve likes to make big splashy plays. Well, those big splashy plays no doubt led to many turnovers, and cost the Jets at least one game during the season…. that one game is why I am writing a post about Mangini getting fired, instead of about the Jets and their opponent in the first round of the playoffs. If Brett had learned to manage the game instead of trying to be a superstar, Mangini may still be around. Also, it was apparent that the Jets favor Farve over Mangini and made this move so swiftly in order to send a message to Brett that they want him back next year. Let’s hope he comes back or this compounds this bad decision and makes it much worse.
Next Jets Post: Who should be the Jets next coach?
