Spygate will forever go down as the bill where the former assistant coach turned head coach fires off at his former boss. Eric Mangini came up under Bill Belechick, and then opted to throw him right under the bus with alleged use of recording equipment during game situations. And since that went so well, Mangini has opted to turn his focus towards current Lions coach Jim Schwartz – a coach Mangini worked with in the 1990s.
Responding to allegations from Eric Mangini, Schwartz claimed that the Browns head coach was “way out of bounds.” On six different occasions, all during a no-huddle portion of the game, Lions defenders had to leave with injuries only to return shortly thereafter. During yesterday’s press conference, the media repeatedly asked Eric Mangini about the vast amount of Lions injuries during no-huddle attempts.
Mangini replied with, “There were multiple, multiple, multiple injuries throughout our no-huddle process, [there is] nothing you can do. It’s so subjective. How do you know what is and what isn’t, just completely subjective. I’m just saying there were a lot of them.”
Hinting that the Lions could have been faking injuries to slow down the game, Mangini was then asked if he would have his players do the same thing.
“If they have injuries, they need to take a breather or get revaluated during no huddle, I think that is something that I would consider.”
In his own press conference, Schwartz claimed, “That couldn’t be further from the truth. There was no need to do that to slow the pace down because the officials were doing a really good job of standing over the ball — for us and them.”
Browns players Alex Mack, Brady Quinn and Derek Anderon shared Mangini’s sentiments, so the head coach speaking his mind in a press conference may help bridge any gap that may exist between the two parties. A head coach going to battle for a team is something that Browns fans have not seen in Cleveland for quite some time – while possibly ruining a relationship with another head coach, it cannot hurt the relationship with his 53 men.
Naturally, this may just come down further on Mangini for sparking even more controversy within this 2009 season. Fined players, water bottles, Brett Favre’s injury, bus trips, and now allegations of other teams. There will likely be fans on both sides of the fence while the Browns continue to be one of the most publicized one-win teams in recent history.
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Fakegate? Browns’ Eric Mangini sparks controversy [Cleveland.com]
