Belichick makes both lists in NFL player poll

This past Sunday, The NY Times reported on the results of a poll conducted, to answer the question, "What do NFL players really think about the coaches for whom they play and the franchises for which they work?"

Last season, the N.F.L. players union commissioned the Wharton Sports Business Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania to conduct an unprecedented survey of players. It was the first time players had been asked about issues related to their coaches. The survey asked players to name names, and the players overwhelmingly obliged.

Asked which active N.F.L. coaches they would most like to play for, the players picked:

1. Tony Dungy (Indianapolis Colts)
2. Lovie Smith (Chicago Bears)
3. Bill Belichick (New England Patriots
4. Herman Edwards (Kansas City Chiefs)
5. Mike Tomlin (Pitsburgh Steelers)

Asked to name the coaches they would least like to play for, the players named:

1. Tom Coughlin (NY Giants)
2. Eric Mangini (NY Jets)
3. Jon Gruden (Tampa Bay Buccaneers)
4. Bobby Petrino (Formerly Atlanta Falcons)
5. Bill Belichick (NE Patriots)

While the NY Times article goes into a bit more detail on the six questions asked of each player and discusses the racial angle, Mike Florio at Pro Football Talk reminds readers that this poll was conducted during 2007, and has his own take on the results.

Belichick was likely on both lists because he was leading the Patriots to the first undefeated 16-game season in league history while at the same time being constantly (and in many cases justifiably) criticized for the videotaping of defensive coaching signals and for the perception that the Pats were running up the score in several games.  (The fact that rumors of skullduggery at Super Bowl XXXVI were sweeping through the league for much of the 2007 season likely didn’t help.) 

The most curious name on the list, then, is Mangini.  He had taken the Jets to an unlikely playoff appearance during his first year on the job.  So why in 2007 would players name him as a guy for whom they didn’t want to play?

The only thing we can think of is the perception that Mangini had bitten the hand that helped feed him a head-coaching job by famously blowing the whistle on the Patriots in Week One.

So while the media and the fans generally have glossed over this twist in the sordid Spygate story that consumed the 2007 football season, the players apparently get it.  And as we've heard time and time again the owners get it, too -- which is why Mangini likely will have a hard time landing with another NFL team if/when he's run out of New York.