A Nice Change For Belichick And Mangini

In the first round of last season's AFC playoffs, the New England Patriots beat the Jacksonville Jaguars by 25 points on a chilly night in Foxborough, Mass. The outcome was sealed when Patriots cornerback Asante Samuel returned an interception for a touchdown early in the fourth quarter. On the Patriots' sideline, Coach Bill Belichick and his first-year defensive coordinator, Eric Mangini, smiled and slapped hands, celebrating the successful outcome of a play that had begun with them debating the defensive call.

It is highly unlikely that there will be a repeat performance of that warm exchange between Belichick and Mangini in the first round of this season's playoffs. Their relationship has been uneasy and, at times, downright combative since Mangini left the Patriots last January to become the coach of the New York Jets, and their teams will meet for the third time this season Sunday at Gillette Stadium.

The game comes one year to the day after the win over the Jaguars that was Mangini's biggest triumph in his one season as Belichick's top defensive lieutenant after being promoted from secondary coach. The Patriots followed that victory with a loss at Denver in an AFC semifinal a week later to end their season. Mangini's friend, Jets General Manager Mike Tannenbaum, persuaded Jets owner Woody Johnson to make Mangini an NFL head coach a few days shy of his 35th birthday.

Mangini accepted the Jets' job against Belichick's wishes, people who know both coaches say, and things haven't been the same between them since. Belichick reportedly had the security code at the Patriots' headquarters changed while the Jets were recruiting Mangini. The Patriots accused the Jets of tampering when New York tried unsuccessfully to trade for New England's holdout wide receiver, Deion Branch, in September, and Belichick and Mangini exchanged less-than-hearty handshakes after their two regular season games.

Both, however, have put on their happy faces this week, something that doesn't come particularly easily to either because one of the many ways in which Mangini has copied his longtime teacher is by adopting Belichick's grim public demeanor.

"Eric Mangini and his staff have done a great job with their team," Belichick said during a midweek conference call. "We know we're going to have to play our best game of the year on Sunday to be competitive. I'm sure it will be a dogfight like it always is in this division between these two teams."

Belichick referred to Mangini as "Eric" several times during the conference call. Earlier this season, he had refused to use Mangini's name. But Belichick only can be so warm and fuzzy. Three times during the conference call, reporters asked him about this season's two postgame handshakes with Mangini. And three times, Belichick said only, "I never said anything negative about him."

Mangini was not going to be outdone. He said during a conference call that he respected Belichick and cared deeply about him. He said during a news conference that Belichick "obviously" is headed to the Hall of Fame. After referring to New England as that "other place" throughout the season, he told reporters it was okay to "say New England now." He added: "We can say 'playoffs' now, too. I think there's a lot of words we can talk about now."

He was asked if the words "Super Bowl" were among them.

"No," Mangini said, sounding very Belichick-like.

People who know both coaches said this week's public gestures to defrost their relationship were mere gamesmanship. Belichick, they say, feels betrayed by Mangini, the eager young coach to whom he first gave an entry-level chance in Cleveland and then brought along to New England, first as a defensive backs coach and then as the replacement for departed defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel. Mangini, associates say, can't understand Belichick's bitterness after he served as a dutiful assistant for three Super Bowl-winning teams.

Part of it, it seems, is just the competitive nature of coaching. Belichick had to put aside his friendship with his former Browns assistant, Nick Saban, for the past two seasons while Saban was coaching another AFC East rival, the Miami Dolphins, before bolting Wednesday to accept a $4 million a year contract offer from the University of Alabama. Mangini immediately established himself as an even bigger threat to Belichick and the Patriots than Saban was, notching 10 victories as a rookie head coach and winning in New England in November. Mangini turned around a Jets team that won only four games last season, although Belichick pointed out this week that the club was a field goal away from reaching the AFC title game two years ago under Mangini's predecessor, Herman Edwards.

Mangini's defense kept Patriots quarterback Tom Brady under heavy pressure during the Jets' win earlier this season, but former Oakland Raiders coach and longtime broadcaster John Madden said during a conference call yesterday that Mangini will have to come up with some new wrinkles to beat the master again.

"You not only know the team and you know the players, but you know them personally and you know the inner workings of everything and you know their thought process," Madden said. "The last time up there in New England, Mangini got them -- that heavy blitz going after Tom Brady, knocking him down. [But] one thing I know about Bill Belichick and a Bill Belichick-coached team is you may get them once on something, but you're not going to get them again with the same thing.

"So I'm not saying the Jets don't have a chance to win. They do have a chance to win. What I'm saying is they don't have a chance to win the same way that they did the last time they played them up there."