A Welcome Change

Remember growing up, playing football at that high school and younger level? Remember when you'd make a mistake -- jump offsides, run the wrong route, fumble the snap -- and the coach would make you run a lap or do calisthenics? Remember that?

If you didn't want to run laps, or do push-ups, then you were going to try your best not to make those mistakes. And it worked, didn't it? Seemed like a pretty effective learning tool.

By the time you get to be a pro football player, however, this type of treatment is almost non-existent. Well, not in Mangini's training camp.

Mangini seems to know exactly what he got into by taking over the Browns: a soft team that's at least three steps behind the rest of the league. Romeo Crennel coddled the team at training camp and practiced. No such luck for the team with Mangini at the helm.

A player fumbles, he runs. A player jumps offsides, he runs. A player makes a boneheaded mistake (typical of the Browns), he runs. It's about time someone started holding these players accountable for their actions on the field.

If the Browns are going to play like a bunch of undisciplined high school kids, then they should have to practice like high school kids and run when they screw up. Mangini's training camp thus far is a welcome change of page from Romeo's camps.

Yesterday's morning practice was so bad, Mangini went off about it during the break to reporters. The players looked sluggish and Mangini ripped them to reporters for wasting the morning session:

In any game you're going to feel tired. During the course of the season, you're going to feel tired. You have to push through that and accomplish the things that need to be accomplished.

Any time you think you have it hard, look over at some of the visitors we have from the different community groups who are struggling to get some of the basics, like school supplies. That's difficult.

What we do to get ready for football games in relative terms is not hard at all.

When the players came back out for the afternoon session, it seemed they'd heard the message loud and clear. They practiced harder and performed better than they did in the morning ... that is until the two minute drill at the end of practice.

Both Brady Quinn and Derek Anderson failed to lead the team down for a score and mistakes were made all around. Mangini wasn't afraid to call it like it was:

That's bad football. That's bad football and it's under our control if you look at the scoreboard and understand what we have to do.

We have to put the plays in the context of the game; know the situation, be able to react, understand the human being you're playing against, what his traits are and adjust. Anything short of that, you're just running plays. You can't waste plays. You can't waste practices.

I'm telling you, I'm really beginning to like this guy. A big complaint against Romeo was that he was emotionless and the players liked him too much because he was easy on them. We all see how well that worked out. Mangini is almost the complete opposite. Like I said, he's a welcome change at training camp.

Blackout Averted

WKYC television and the Browns reached an agreement to buy the remaining tickets to ensure Channel 3 can televise the preseason game Saturday night against the Lions. Phew!

Go Browns!

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