Eric Mangini

Super Bowl Champion Coach

Eric Mangini is a former NFL head coach and assistant on both sides of the ball. He is best known for winning three Super Bowls as defensive backs coach of the New England Patriots. For the 2006 season, he became the then-youngest head coach in the NFL with the New York Jets at 35 and then was head Coach of the Cleveland Browns.

Following his time as head coach in Cleveland, Mangini moved back to the offensive side as an analyst and then tight ends coach for the San Francisco 49ers before becoming a DC once more.

Mangini began his career as a protegé of Bill Belichick. He started as a ball boy and then worked as a public relations intern before becoming an offensive assistant under Belichick in Cleveland in 1995. He spent a year in Baltimore before reuniting with Belichick with the Jets under Bill Parcells and then joined the Patriots with his mentor. In his time with New England, he notably turned down offers to become a defensive coordinator elsewhere before getting that promotion with the Patriots in 2005.

During his NFL career, Mangini was considered one of the smartest coaches in the game. His defenses were typically 3-4 fronts, but the multiple nature of everything Mangini did based on game plans created confusion for opponents.

Mangini made his way to the NFL after playing nose tackle at Wesleyan, a Division III school that boasts Belichick among its graduates. Mangini holds the school’s single-season and career sacks records. Belichick and Mangini were members of the same fraternity, albeit decades apart. During college, Mangini coached the Kew Colts, a semi-professional team in Australia, and discovered a love of coaching.

Mangini lives in Connecticut with his wife. They have three sons. He runs the Carmine and Frank Mangini Foundation, which creates opportunities for under-resourced kids, and hosts an annual football camp at his alma mater, Bulkeley High School. He has also been a broadcast analyst.