chiefsinformer.com

Brandon Spano
December, 16 2009

Just in case anybody forgot, Eric Mangini was the coach of the Jets when the whole “spy gate” situation went down. A member of his staff just happened to see a member of the Patriots staff,  recording their defensive coordinator’s signals (I wonder how they would know that?) and that led to 750,000 in fines and the stripping of the Patriots first round pick the following year. That, in turn, led to the ridiculously uncomfortable post game hand shakes between Mangini and Belichik, which happens to still be one of my favorite sports moments ever. Still laughing.

For a full year afterwords, the validity of the Patriots championships were questioned a long with all of the other success that was tied to that team. This, no doubt, gave the team that Pioli had worked so hard on building, a giant black eye. A few years later, most of us have put this behind us and the story hasn’t really gone much further. But if you think that for one minute, Scott Pioli has forgotten about the guy that almost  ruined everything that he had worked for, your crazy.

I’m not suggesting that the Patriots players and staff are holding a life long vendetta against Eric Mangini. These men are professionals and they know that the past is the past. But I am gonna go out on a limb and say that everybody involved with the Patriots when this went down, would like to beat Eric Mangini when they have the chance to do so. For Mike Vrabel, Matt Cassel, Ryan O’Callaghan and Scott Pioli, they now have a chance to do so. If you think that at least one of these guys hasn’t mentioned this during the week, once again, your crazy.

In my own day dreaming, false reality, I can see the Godfather, Scott Pioli calling up a few of his made men, Mike Vrabel and Matt Cassel. As they enter his room, he tells them to have a seat and relax. After a few sips of cognac, followed by the puff of a cigar, he begins to talk about “some business that needs to be taken care of.” He wants to make sure that they remember when this one time “good fella” betrayed the family and nearly destroyed the tradition and reputation of everything that they stand for. After a toast and a peck on the forehead, Mike and Matt are off to “take care of some business.” OK fine, so maybe I’m taking this a little too far, but you have to admit, it sounds cool.

I’ll end it with this. Coaches and players take this NFL fraternity very seriously. Talk to anybody that was, is or about to be involved in it and they will tell you the same thing. The men that I mentioned earlier are going to do everything possible to burn this man on Sunday and if the score gets a little out of hand, I would love for Todd Haley to look up to the owners box on 4th down and see Scott Pioli giving him a thumbs up in the fourth quarter that means ” go for it .”