¡°We all love Cribbs,¡± one Browns veteran said Thursday of the speedy fifth-year receiver, who might also have a future as a defensive back. ¡°He¡¯s the guy who always throws the Halloween parties and the Christmas bashes, so yeah, he¡¯s very popular.¡±

With three Super Bowl titles as a head coach and a prior record of success as a brainy defensive coordinator, Belichick, a future Hall of Famer, can get away with his power trip. Whether Mangini, Pioli and McDaniels are able to pull it off will depend upon how many football games their respective teams win, something that often depends upon the men in uniform buying into the program.

In the meantime, in Cleveland, Kansas City and Denver, the new guys in charge seem to be consumed with winning mind games, a strategy I¡¯m not so sure will serve them well over the long haul.

In Denver, McDaniels¡¯ sloppy handling of his interactions with Jay Cutler(notes) after an unsuccessful attempt to trade him at the start of free agency led to the loss of a franchise quarterback, largely because the 33-year-old coach was obsessed with demonstrating his unquestioned authority.

In K.C., Pioli¡¯s arrival as the all-powerful general manager after years as Belichick¡¯s right-hand personnel man was soon followed by a less-publicized incident involving a star player. According to Kansas City Star columnist Jason Whitlock, perennial Pro Bowl guard and locker-room leader Brian Waters(notes) asked to be traded or released after becoming offended by the arrogant attitudes of Pioli and his newly hired coach, Todd Haley.

Waters, a source told Whitlock, flew to Kansas City in February specifically to meet with the new GM and coach in an effort to become familiar with their leadership plans. The source said Pioli told Waters he had no interest in meeting and that Haley began a hallway conversation with the player by proclaiming that 22 guys off the street could win two games, as the Chiefs had in ¡¯08.

Mangini, fresh off a 1-4 finish with the Jets that got him fired after three seasons ¨C he had a 23-26 overall record (including a playoff loss) in New York ¨C arrived in Cleveland with a similar swagger. One of his first moves was to orchestrate the firing of director of pro personnel T.J. McCreight, the highest-ranking personnel man remaining after Lerner¡¯s dismissal of general manager Phil Savage, and one of the people who¡¯d interviewed to replace Savage. (Mangini, hired while the GM job was still open, successfully lobbied Lerner to choose Ravens personnel executive George Kokinis.)

McCreight, a source said, was called into the office of team president Mike Keenan, who pulled out cell-phone records showing that McCreight had engaged in conversations with reporters ¨C an act frowned upon by the paranoid Mangini. McCreight explained that speaking with the media was among the duties with which he¡¯d been entrusted by Savage, but he was nonetheless terminated; he has since been hired as the Cardinals¡¯ director of pro personnel.

A team source said Mangini, upon his arrival in Cleveland, was brusque when dealing with other Browns employees and spent most of his time in his office with the door closed. Early on Mangini, according to multiple reports, alienated the team¡¯s top performer from 2008, Pro Bowl defensive tackle Shaun Rogers(notes), by failing to acknowledge him on a pair of occasions: once in the team¡¯s training room and once at a local awards show.

Rogers reportedly asked the team not to pay him a $6 million bonus and to trade or release him. Mangini, who claimed he didn¡¯t notice Rogers at the awards show, apparently patched up the relationship; Rogers recently said the two had put aside their differences ¡°just like grown men do.¡±

It¡¯s unclear how another Browns defensive lineman, Shaun Smith, feels about Mangini, who a source said told the player during their first interaction at the team¡¯s facility, ¡°Lose some weight and lose the attitude.¡±

The latest coach-player dustup involves Cribbs, who signed a six-year, $6.7 million contract extension in 2006 and, after a Pro Bowl ¡¯07 season, began earning comparisons to the Chicago Bears¡¯ ultra-explosive breakaway threat Devin Hester(notes). Last July Hester signed a four-year contract extension worth a reported $40 million, which did not go unnoticed by Cribbs.

When Cribbs¡¯ representatives at All-Pro Sports and Entertainment approached Savage last summer about their client¡¯s desire for a new deal, they were told the team was amenable to adjusting his salary following the ¡¯08 season because Cribbs was deserving and was a positive locker-room influence.

Two sources say Lerner, too, was on board with the decision and that the owner, after firing Savage and coach Romeo Crennel immediately after a season-ending defeat at Pittsburgh last December, called Cribbs on the team bus to assure him that regardless of the moves he would honor his word and address the player¡¯s contract situation.

honoring.

On Thursday, Cribbs was asked to come to the facility for a meeting with Mangini. The player complied, explaining to the coach that he wouldn¡¯t participate in voluntary offseason activities until the team honors its promise to adjust his contract. Mangini, according to a source familiar with the conversation, said little in return. Cribbs then attended a team meeting before departing the facility, leaving teammates wondering if a resolution is in sight.

¡°They need to figure out a way to get that fixed,¡± the aforementioned unnamed Browns player said Thursday, ¡°because the guy is a special player.¡±

Could the situation be handled any more clumsily? Whatever Mangini¡¯s perception of Cribbs¡¯ value, he should be especially sensitive to the player¡¯s contention that the team broke its promise to upgrade his deal. During Mangini¡¯s tenure with the Jets, three players no longer with the team ¨C guard Pete Kendall(notes), tight end Chris Baker(notes) and wideout Laveranues Coles(notes) ¨C went public with similar accusations.

Why would a team do business this way? Why did Lerner, with no other NFL franchises in pursuit of Mangini as a head coach, rush to make the hire before naming a GM and then grant him so much control over the team¡¯s football operations? Why is a franchise, whose powerbrokers are paranoid enough to check an employee¡¯s cell-phone records, be so rattled by a player¡¯s absence from a voluntary minicamp that it put out a public statement essentially calling one of its model citizens a greedy liar?

¡°The whole thing is so screwy,¡± said one former Browns employee. ¡°I think it¡¯s about control. If the fans knew what was really going on over there, they wouldn¡¯t even buy a ticket.¡±

Football, of course, is a bottom-line business. Fan support will persist if Mangini, despite his warped methodology, turns the Browns into a winner, as he did with the Jets in his first season. The same goes for Pioli and Haley in K.C. and for McDaniels and his handpicked GM, Brian Xanders, in Denver.

I wonder whether Mangini, Pioli or McDaniels can attain the type of immediate success enjoyed last year in Atlanta under first-year general manager Thomas Dimitroff, another former Pats employee who approached his new job with a far less contentious management style.

If not, it won¡¯t be a very merry Christmas for them or their affronted employees. It¡¯s safe to say that in Mangini¡¯s case, there¡¯s one popular party to which he likely won¡¯t be receiving an invitation.