Music adds flavor to practice

[TheClevelandSound]

http://www.clevelandbrowns.com/article.php?id=9597

 

Zac Jackson, Staff Writer

05.28.2009

It's tough to tell how much real pressure Brady Quinn felt during the final period of Thursday's minicamp practice.

 

He was hearing about it, though, and not from the likes of Shaun Rogers and Kamerion Wimbley.

 

Try Billy Joel, David Bowie and Queen. Yeah, that kind of "Pressure."

 

One of the new elements Eric Mangini has added to the Browns' practice sessions is the use of music in practice. Speakers are set up either off the sideline or behind an endzone, depending on which field is that day's main field, and the music starts playing when the Browns take the field to get loose and stretch. Pressure? Those were fitting selections later in the day as practice ended with the two-minute drill.

 

Though it's not constant -- the music plays during probably 40 percent of practice -- it's something Mangini said he used during almost every practice in his three years with the Jets and will continue to use here.

 

"Coaches on the field often want to help by sharing reminders, tips or adjustments," Mangini said. "But that doesn't happen during games. They had time in classroom and walkthrough periods and now the players have to go play. The music makes that communication tougher, and communication is one of our core values. The best way to increase that is to make communication harder to do."

 

Mangini said he only chooses music with "clean" lyrics and songs that might encourage "movement," whether it's an up-tempo rock or country song or hip-hop.

 

"We like to create a little bit of reaction," Mangini said. "Dancing isn't necessarily bad."

 

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as is musical taste. Because finding a set of songs every player and coach might like is most certainly a challenge, the playlist has varied. So far, the selections have ranged from Kenny Chesney to Godsmack; from DMX to Prince; from as old as early Aerosmith to as new as Young Jeezy or Jason Aldean.

 

"When you're out there playing, you don't know if it's AC/DC or Run DMC," D'Qwell Jackson said. "All I know is that it's noise and I like having it. It's new, and I think it's good for us. It makes it feel like it's game time."

 

"When my vote comes, it's going to be country," Joe Thomas said. "I like Kenny Chesney, but there are a lot of other good country singers out there, too. Probably most guys on the team would vote for rap, so we'll see how that goes -- if my vote even comes. I think it's up to Coach."

 

He's right, though Mangini said he's open to suggestions and in the past has let weekly award winners choose their favorite songs. But whether it's 50 Cent or something from the 50's, the goal of the music is to help the Browns get any preparation edge they can.

 

"At home the defense is going to have to deal with noise and the offense is going to have to deal with it on the road," Mangini said. "If you do it on a consistent basis it becomes a non issue. It becomes another distraction eliminated."

 

For the sake of routine, Mangini said he's even interested to know the pregame playlists the Browns' road opponents use so the Browns can set their game-week stretching playlist back in Berea.

 

Rock on.

 

"I don't really notice the music while we're going," Jackson said. "It's not something I'm thinking about while it's going on, but to think about it later, yeah, it's good. Especially when we're playing speedball -- the two-minute drill -- I think it helps with tempo. It makes me make my calls louder.

 

"Your whole thought process speeds up and it makes it a lot more like a real game situation. Because on a Sunday, home or away, it's going to be loud in the last two minutes of a game."

 

[Gips]

Music is definately a good thing i like the way mangini thinks...coach should play more bluegrass and country to really distract the rappers and the rockers which would be most...and play rap/rock when thomas is on the field...hehehehehe

[choco]

im kinda confused here?

 

did we stumble upon a real coach?

 

these feelings are new to me....

[TheClevelandSound]

Haha same here.

 

Seems the small facility in Berea actually is conatining some chemistry

[PlaygroundLegend]

At first I was really against the whole Mangini thing, I was for Mcdaniels, but now Im definitely starting to like the way Mangini does things.

[Kosar_For_President]

I just lost some respect for Joe Thomas.

[sisky fringo]

instead of songs during 2-minute i propose they simply use white noise, at a very high level. if it's blaring and you can tune that out it would definitely translate to the field, on both sides of the ball.

 

i still like the philosophy though.