The bus stays in the garage: No 'voluntary' trip to Eric Mangini's high school football camp for rookies this season.
A Hartford Courant photo captures Browns coach Eric Mangini autographing the shirt of a high school football camper at his alma mater in Connecticut last year, when Browns rookies essentially were required to attend to help out. This year, while most of his current staff and some current and former players are helping out, there's no bus trip from Berea to the camp.
Cleveland, Ohio -- In 2009, Browns coach Eric Mangini made a rookie mistake. Or was that a mistake with rookies? Yeah, it was the latter.
That was when he basically required first-year players to "volunteer" to help out at the football camp he runs at his high school alma mater in Connecticut. And to get there, they had to ride a chartered bus for 10 hours each way.
Uphill. Through the snow. Barefoot. At least that’s the impression that was created in the maelstrom of coverage when the rooks got hold of their agents.
Yeah, well, whatever. This season, it's not happening. Mike Florio, writing for profootballtalk.com, didn't say for sure that was because of the outcry over last year's trip. But that's like not saying the glowing ember in your barbecue grill is hot. Ya pretty much can feel the heat without having to grab the thing.
This year, he didn't make the mistake of loading up a bus and hauling his first-year players to Hartford, which shows that he's capable of and willing to make changes. Whether more substantive changes will be made as to tactics that gave rise to complaints like practices that went on for too long and post-practice "opportunity periods" that resulted in at least one season-ending injury (to running back James Davis) remains to be seen.
The reality, in our view, is that Mangini's methods come not from malice but from a genuine belief that his way will lead to winning. The problem is that the means won't be accepted until justified by success of the kind that his mentor, Bill Belichick, has experienced.
OK, Starting Blocks will stipulate that. Especially in light of what follows, which is the account by Zac Jackson, who last year worked for the Browns and this year is writing about the camp for FoxSportsOhio.com.
There was no bus ride this year, but another camp is taking place today. From what I've gathered via computer and cellular device, it's the biggest one yet with nearly 1,000 participants. And that's the shame of last year's controversy, that a truly good deed that helps kids who could use a little boost was overshadowed.
Bulkeley High, Mangini's alma mater, is a city school. Most of the campers are city kids; boxing trainer and analyst Teddy Atlas charters a bus for New York City kids, many of whom have never been out of the city. Kids from all over New England come to compete and learn, many on "scholarship" to cover the $45 fee. Outstanding campers are awarded scholarships to camps on college campuses this summer, the kind of camps that lead to college scholarships.
This is not Mangini writing a check or making a token appearance to wave and sign autographs in his hometown. This is an all-out effort to make sure kids get high-level coaching -- they run the same drills the Browns do in practice -- as well as the chance to be taught by NFL coaches, players, scouts, successful high school coaches and a variety of people. Mangini has more than 120 coaching volunteers including a few of his current players, most of his current assistants, a bunch of former Jets players and coaches of various backgrounds.
Listen, while it would be nice if Mangini did the same thing in Cleveland -- and eventually, he may -- but the obligations of a native "favorite son" vs. those of an adopted one, especially one whose head is called for on every other blog, aren't necessarily the same. It's clear he helps out Bulkleley because he wants to, not because he has to. So in that end, perhaps it falls on Cleveland to make him "want to."
Veterans dayThe author of browns.football-news-update.com, whoever he or she is, makes a pretty good point. This time of year, everybody's excited about what newbies like Colt McCoy, Joe Haden, Montario Hardesty and the rest can do.
After all, the Browns are undefeated and no rookie DB has been burned for a bomb, no wet-behind-the-ears quarterback and thrown a pick and nary a pass that matters has been dropped by a kid who skipped his junior prom to turn pro.
But the thing to remember is that it's the veterans who are the core of a football team. When a rookie does well, it's news because it's pretty much unexpected, sort of like a crash of a commercial plane is front page news because the other 28,536 commercial flights air traffic controllers in the United States handle ever day landed safely.
Starting Blocks doesn't know about you, but we'd sure prefer to have a veteran ATC watching the radar.
Or covering Heinz Ward on a slant.