Tony Soprano had just entered the Nuovo Vesuvio, a swanky New Jersey Italian restaurant, when the owner of the establishment walked over with some news.
“Tone, you know who?s in tonight?” the owner asked excitedly. “Mangenius.”
Over in the corner, there was New York Jets coach Eric Mangini sitting at a table, dining with his wife.
Soprano, one of the most notorious men in the entire Garden State, was starstruck. He had to meet the latest legend of the Meadowlands.
“It?s the Jets coach, sweetie. I should go say hello,” the mobster told his wife, Carmella.
While the world of the Sopranos family is pure television fiction, the love for Mangini in the New York-New Jersey area is based in reality. In just one short year, Mangini became a sports idol for turning the Jets from an NFL also-ran to a 10-6 playoff team.
The June 3 cameo in the second-to-last episode on the HBO drama was perhaps the apex of hisnewfound stardom.
“The Sopranos is a show that Julie and I watch from the time it came on,” Mangini said Wednesday in a conference call. “From the time it came on, I?ve loved the show. I thought it was well-written and looked forward to it each week. When the opportunity came up [to be on the show], at first I thought someone was kidding around. It was just a great opportunity and then they give me a role I?d be good at: eating dinner.”
There?s a reason for Mangini?s success, his players said.
“He?s a great coach,” linebacker Jonathan Vilma said. “He?s been very detailed. He knows what he wants and knows how to get it done.”
Mangini will bring his team to Baltimore this Sunday for a game against the Ravens, the team that gave him his first major coaching job in the NFL. The now 36-year-old served as a quality control/assistant coach during the franchise?s first year in Baltimore, coming with the team when it moved from Cleveland in 1996.
Mangini was also man who called the league on April 20, 1996 to say the team was taking UCLA offensive tackle Jonathan Ogden with the fourth overall pick in the NFL Draft. It was a day that prepared him for his future in front of the camera.
“I have a lot of great memories from my season in Baltimore,” Mangini said. “I remember [former Ravens owner Art] Modell giving me a hard time. It was filmed. I wasn?t exactly used to that.”
After his one-year stint under former Ravens coach Ted Marchibroda, Mangini served as a defensive coach with the Jets and Patriots, carving out a career as one of New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick?s most trusted assistants.
That relationship might have been put to the test this past weekend. During the Patriots 38-14 win over the Jets this weekend, New England was allegedly caught filming defensive signals by the Jets? coaches throughout the game. The matter is being reviewed by the NFL.
Mangini chose not to comment on the issue Wednesday, saying it was simply a “league issue.” If the NFL doesn?t follow through with punishment for the Patriots, maybe Mangini?s friend, Tony Soprano, can offer assistance.
