The New York Jets fired head coach Eric Mangini, but did he deserve to go? The team had a winning record and just narrowly missed out on the playoffs after an up and down season. Additionally, most of the "down" of the season came from the interception happy throwing hand of Brett Favre, not from the play calling or coaching of Eric Mangini.

In his first season with the New York Jets he was instantly hailed as the "Mangenius". After a miserable 2007 campaign, the team spent a great deal of money on free agent players and of course made the last minute move to bring in Favre. Without a full training camp, and with his perma-gunslinger mentality, it never seemed like Favre was completely tuned in with Mangini's play calling or head coaching.

Some of the blame for that can fall at Mangini's feet, certainly. If a player can't get with your program, as the head coach, you have to be able to make him. The talent level at the NFL is so tremendous, that personnel only accounts for a small percentage of winning football games. A much larger percentage is getting that personnel to buy in to your system and putting them in the right position to excel and make plays to the best of their ability.

So clearly, in this instance with the New York Jets firing Eric Mangini, the coach has to have some fault. But the majority of players stood up for him and if not for the Hall of Fame status of Favre, more players likely would have been more outspoken and vocal in support of the head coach.

I never believed in the "Mangenius" hype, but this is a tough break for the head coach to be fired after a bit of a crazy - and still moderately successful - season. I don't think a different coach would have seen better results with the 2008 New York Jets. Maybe the Jets management feels a different way, or maybe they just wanted to cut ties and start in a new direction regardless.

But I do not think that Eric Mangini deserved to be fired from his head coach spot with the New York Jets due to the team's performance or finish this year.