Mangini has to earn his hoodie first.

For much of the last five years, the New York Jets actually appeared to be headed in the right direction. For a team that has seldom made the right choices in its history, this was a big step.

But when the Jets decided that Eric Mangini was the right coach for the team, they reminded us why snap decisions and ill-conceived personnel movement have driven this team to mediocrity for such a long time.

When the relationship between head coach Herman Edwards and the Jets went sour at the end of last season, and with a rebuilding effort in their immediate future, the Jets had a long list of viable head coaching candidates to lead the team through that process.

So naturally, the Jets did what the Jets do best. They defied all logic and brought in a first-time coach, whose only head coaching experience was in Australia, and handed him a team that needs improvement and guidance. They went from a coach who was very personal and emotional in nature to one who probably would not give his players the time of day. Brilliant as always.

The Jets chose their new coach the way a spoiled three-year-old goes after a king-sized Hershey bar; they saw what they wanted for immediate satisfaction and refused to stop until they got that immediate satisfaction, rather than thinking of how sick that Hershey bar might make them in the long run. And they won’t even get the immediate satisfaction, making this move all the more ridiculous.

In the NFL, new young coordinators are developed every year. The rate of turnover among head coaches is so rampant that half the coaches in the league only seem to have their jobs so they can hold them just until a team improves enough to lure a respectable coach. The Jets certainly could have done the same thing.

Yet, once again, the Jets chose to jump at an opportunity to bring in someone because of his name, refusing to consider clubhouse chemistry or any of the other hundreds of variables that contribute to the success of a football team. Remember what happened when Gang Green threw money at Neil O’Donnell?

Mangini was brought in because his name is linked to Bill Belichick, the coach with the mind that everyone wants a part of. Former Belichick assistants Charlie Weis and Romeo Crennel have already shown great promise as head coaches of other programs.

The difference that Mangini conveniently forgets is that Weis and Crennel spent much of the past two decades as coordinators for Belichick and Bill Parcells. Mangini had exactly five years under Belichick, only one as coordinator. Only so much genius could have been passed off in that time.

Mangini also did not make the best first impression when he got here. The day he arrived he was brash and cocky, already thinking he was the king of New York. Naive and arrogant, he thinks he can keep the world on a string, despite the fact that he has yet to accomplish anything on his own.

He also seems unable to do something that is essential to coaching in the Big Apple, and that is deal with the media. For the rest of eternity, Jets fans will always know that “… you play to win the game.” Edwards was always good with the press, and it seems that we will be lucky if Mangini even drops a hint at whether he is pleased or pissed.

Mangini has yet to prove anything but still insists on acting like he has conquered Sparta, with the same defiance with which Adam Vinatieri makes his kicks. And he is doing this despite the fact that in his only year as New England’s defensive coordinator, the Patriots’ total defense went from being ranked ninth to being ranked 26th.

For a guy who seems convinced that wearing a hooded sweatshirt qualifies him to be the next genius coach in the NFL, he is sure to get a wake up call soon. Mangini has some big shoes to fill; Herm Edwards may not have been the greatest coach in the league, but he was the ideal coach for this team.

He was a good coach who communicated well with his players and handled the New York media as well as anyone. His teams were always disciplined, and he always knew exactly how to motivate his players to get the absolute best from a team whose natural talent may not have been as good as other rosters’.

He reached the playoffs in three of his five seasons as a Jet. He won two playoff games, and only missed the post-season in years when injuries to his quarterback proved insurmountable. He did have his flaws, but even the all-mighty Belichick has had his bad years.

Only the Jets would say that what Edwards accomplished was not good enough. Taking a good thing and wrecking it is what the Jets do best. The organization has proven itself to be like a mediocre comedian, the one who occasionally says something funny, only to go too far and lose all the momentum had been built up because he tried too hard to get that last laugh.

At least the Jets did their usual bang up job of getting compensation when Edwards went to Kansas City. That fourth-round pick they got from the Chiefs should make a huge difference.

Young blood in the NFL is valuable, and Mangini will be a good coach some time down the line. Belichick, Jon Gruden and Mike Shanahan are examples of former boy genius coordinators who went on to win Super Bowl titles; unfortunately for Jet fans, all of them captured the Lombardi Trophy in their second stint as head coaches.

Jet fans already seem to acknowledge that the upcoming season may lead to a Prozac shortage in the New York metropolitan area. The problem is that, unlike in past years, watching the head coach at the podium won’t do much to ease the suffering. Mangini has the personality of a tree stump, and that is only when he gets excited.

If he thinks that New Yorkers will get used to his current ways, he is sorely mistaken. He will have to adjust his ways, lose the arrogance and not just coach, but act in the way that he is expected to. Mangini is expected to be here for a long trip, but the early stages, already sure to be bumpy, may become impossible to bear if he does not take a sharp turn off Egotistical Boulevard.

Maybe if the Jets had any clue what they were doing, they would have given Edwards a chance to work with the roster he helped compile through the rebuilding process. But then again, if anyone thought the Jets really knew how to run a football team, Bill Belichick would have stuck around when this job was his in the first place.