Jump to content
THE BROWNS BOARD

Part I of the Joe Thomas Interview:


peterbell

Recommended Posts

Great stuff..The link to entire article on cleveland.com is below

 

 

 

DW: Word association -- Eric Mangini?

 

JT: (Chuckle) I don't want to get myself in trouble. ... He's smart.

 

DW: How would you get yourself in trouble?

 

JT: (Laughter) You never know.

 

DW: Mike Holmgren?

 

JT: Leader.

 

DW: D'Arcy Egan?

 

JT: Fun.

 

DW: Is D'Arcy a Pro Bowl angler?

 

JT: I would say yes.

 

DW: Do you believe in Mike Holmgren and Eric Mangini?

 

JT: No question.

 

DW: Take me inside the locker room of the 2009 Browns as they careened toward 1-11. Please live up to your reputation as an honest man.

 

JT: I thought the locker room was exceptional. We have tremendous people on the team. There was never a point where any of the players were bickering among themselves. We were upset about losing, of course, but we weren't bickering among ourselves. We were basically a team without stars -- you can call Josh [Cribbs] a star, but he's not a star in the traditional sense -- and that was one of the reasons we were able to turn it around and win the last four. We didn't have anybody give up or point fingers. We were searching for answers at 1-11, but we stayed together.

 

DW: Do you think most players believed in Mangini from start of camp to end of season?

 

JT: In the NFL, guys realize the coach is your boss and you've got to do what he says. If you don't, you're going to be gone. Every coach in the NFL is smart and has a good plan. It's just a matter of whether you're able to execute the plan.

 

DW: Did Mangini at any point work the players too hard?

 

JT: Every coach does what he feels is necessary. As players, it's not our job to tell a coach what we think about his practices. Some teams barely do any work during the week and win on Sundays. Some teams work for three hours and win. It's hard to say what's too much and not enough. I just try to work hard and do what I'm supposed to do every day.

 

DW: Did this team need Mangini's discipline after what happened the previous season?

 

JT: I felt one of the best things Eric did coming in here was to have rules that were enforced. One thing that is certainly important is discipline. Anybody can have rules, but if you don't enforce them, they don't mean anything. I was really happy with him having rules and sticking to them. There was punishment if you broke the rules

 

 

http://www.cleveland.com/dman/index.ssf/20...omas_inter.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sounds to me like he knows Mangini is Vince Lombardi tough, and

 

respects Mangini, though he's tough, but he's fair.

 

That isn't indifferent.

 

It's good that players have tough expectations put on them. Gets the best out of them.

 

Kinda like being in basic training.

 

We had two TI's that were mean as snakes, at times. But they were fair and tough, and

 

we respected them hugely.

 

Even Reyes. He'd be acting silly as we marched, and would make silly faces at me to get me to laugh,

 

Gomer Pyle style, so he could yell at me, and make me do push ups.

 

I actually had to do push-ups a couple of times, for grinning while I was doing push-ups.

 

dammit.

 

I respected him highly.

 

But other guys would start grinning, while I was doing push-ups and..

 

we were a goofy group. How we all got through basic, I have no idea.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well.. Actually its sounds like Thomas likes the fact the place has some discipline now. Players like coaches that are prepared and players like coaches when they know what to expect. Seems Mangini is quite clear on what his expectations of a Cleveland Brown are.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...