Eric Mangini, the former Patriots assistant and Jets head coach who was involved in busting the Patriots over Spygate, now says he regrets that the Patriots and his old mentor, Bill Belichick, got in trouble over the matter.
“It’s one of those things where the end result wasn’t the goal,” Mangini said on WEEI. “I owe so much to Bill, I appreciate what he’s done for me and my intention was never to hurt him or the [Patriots] organization, the Kraft family. Yeah, there’s a lot of regrets, I didn’t want to hurt him or the Patriots by any stretch.”
Belichick was once Mangini’s boss and friend, but the two have had a strained relationship since the Patriots were caught taping the Jets’ defensive signals in 2007. It’s a relationship that Mangini now refers to as “a work in progress.”
As for the repercussions of Spygate -- Belichick was fined $500,000, the Patriots were fined $250,000 and docked their 2008 first-round draft pick -- Mangini indicated that that wasn’t his goal.
“I wasn’t happy where the end result,” Mangini said. “How it could have been different, how different decisions and events could have taken place, I’m not sure how it would have played out differently. I just didn’t want it to play out the way it did.”