Former University of Kansas football coach Mark Mangino is talking for the first time since he was forced out of the job 17 months ago. In an interview with his hometown paper, the New Castle (Pennsylvania) News, Mangino refuses to his acknowledge that his inability to control his emotions may have played a role in his firing.
Mangino, for instance, blames the media for his becoming a YouTube sensation in 2007. During a game against Central Michigan, the coach tore into a player ("Look at what the fuck you did!") who drew a celebration penalty. Mangino said the TV reporter who captured the tirade "broke an unwritten rule" by recording and releasing the audio. "That should never even have been an issue," Mangino says.
New Castle News sports editor Kayleen Cubbal's story puts a Mangino-friendly gloss over the allegations that the coach was abusive toward his players, the university employees and anyone else who irritated him. The 2002 incident in which Mangino berated a referee after his son's high school football game was one of a "couple of hiccups," in Cubbal's words.
Mangino's choice to open up to the New Castle News and not a writer with a national profile -- Sports Illustrated's Stewart Mandel, say -- says a lot about the guy. Mangino wanted soft treatment, and he got it. Cubbal describes the KU players who complained about Mangino as "disgruntled." The Jayhawks who came to his defense, meanwhile, included the "star wide receiver" Kerry Meier and "record-setting quarterback" Todd Reesing.
Mangino tells Cubbal that he does not dwell on the negative when he thinks about his time at Kansas. But he seemed to want to take a shot at the university when he discussed his possible return to the sidelines. Mangino says he wants to find a "football environment -- in other words, I would only go to a place where football has a high level of importance. I don't want to go someplace where football is an afterthought or a hobby. That just would not work for me."
Mangino, it appears, has not used his time away from football to address his dangerous obesity in a meaningful way. He looks pretty hefty in the post-Lawrence photos that accompany the story. The story, however, indicates that Mangino is "committed" to an exercise regimen. "I feel good," he says.
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The rumor is he had the lap-band surgery and it did not work. Maybe he should try the "stop eating so much" diet.
He owes it to the whole country to stop eating so much and to save some for the next five people in line.
Looking back, it was the beginning of the end for Lew Perkins. Perkins was all-powerful at the time the forced Mangino out, then came the disastrous Turner Gill hire, followed by the ticket scandal the exercise equipment etc. I think Mangino may have ended up with the better end of the deal here.
If you are preacher or teacher anything else the weight issue would not be relevant. But I do think anyone looking to hire a coach has to look at that weight issue and wonder about self-discipline as well examples to the players.
Everybody noticed his weight when he was at KU, everybody talked about it. Jason Whitlock of all people "weighed" in on the issue at the time stated that Mangino was a terrible example and questioned his coaching disciplined because of the weight.
I do not think the Pitch erred by discussing what everybody wanted to know. Has he changed? Evidently not.
Yeah, we would. He was only a year removed from wins in the Orange and Insight bowls.
If he were, say, an alcoholic and hadn't done anything to manage that addiction, would that be fair game? Or can we not mention that either?
His disgusting appearance is certainly relevant. Here is a man that is (or was) part of an athletic program, but he is morbidly obese. The only sport that he should be associated with is competitive eating.
Still not clear how Mangino's size and/or health is anyone's business but his own. Does he somehow owe it to you to make it a priority?
If he wants to eat his way to death that's his problem. I wouldn't choose that, but it is his life. Maybe you ran out of things to write or just wanted to add a zinger at the end of the article, either way it just sounds like a cheap shot.
Coach Mangino has had no professional responsibilities for the past 17 months. I think it's noteworthy that he hasn't made weight loss a priority (or at least it appears that way). We're not talking about an individual who is a little on the heavy side.
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