BEREA, Ohio It's time to throw a flag for piling on.

Specifically for piling on Browns coach Eric Mangini, who's rivaling the father of ''balloon boy'' as America's favorite nonpolitical target.

Last week it was Matt Taibbi of "Rolling Stone," whose one-page rip job on Mangini compared him to the fat, greedy kid in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and was accompanied by a caricature of Mangini with chocolate smeared around his mouth.

	 In the article headlined ''Cleveland Chaos,'' Taibbi said that the Browns
might be the most messed-up franchise in all of sports and that every move made by Mangini has been the wrong one. Taibbi also accused the Browns of quitting on the field to get their coach fired and said they've done ''more laying down on national TV than Paris Hilton.''

Taibbi was not alone. Last Monday, WWE wrestler Mike Mizanin, aka ''The Miz,'' invited Mangini to attend a broadcast of Monday Night Raw, so he could take him down.

''A person I'd like to see and smack the (bleep) out of is Eric Mangini,'' Mizanin told ESPN.com. ''Brady Quinn (stinks). Derek Anderson (stinks). But the reason they (stink) is their offensive line is not giving them time to throw the ball. I want to smack Eric Mangini so hard he poops himself. The Browns are the new Lions. It's horrific.''

	 Mizanin might know more of what he speaks than Taibbi. ''The Miz'' is a
longtime Browns fan who grew up in Parma. Considered the outspoken bad boy of professional wrestling, Mizanin has also called out Dwayne ''The Rock'' Johnson and Alfonso Soriano of the Chicago Cubs.

	 Taibbi said by phone last week that he's from Boston and grew up watching
the New England Patriots.

	 ''I've been following Mangini for a long time,'' Taibbi said. ''What I
remember of Eric Mangini, when he became defensive coordinator of the Patriots in 2005, they'd consistently been in the top five in the league. As soon as he took over they became a very mediocre defense and they have been ever since. Somehow he parlayed that into a head coaching job and look at the results.''

	 Patriots coach Bill Belichick might beg to differ. The Patriots' defense
did slip to 26th overall in 2005, the only year Mangini served as coordinator before being hired to coach the New York Jets. But the Patriots improved to sixth and fourth the next two years and were 10th in 2008. In the four seasons before Mangini served as coordinator, the Patriots were 24th, 23rd, seventh and ninth in total defense.

	 Taibbi said he had no internal knowledge from which to base his claim
that the Browns had quit on Mangini.

''It's an opinion column, I didn't talk to anybody in the Browns,'' he said. When it was suggested that Mangini inherited a mess, Taibbi said: ''You guys are 1-5. He didn't get 'em there? Some other coaches are doing all right with less talent than he has.''

Months of criticism

	 Mangini's had a red circle on his forehead for months. In August, CBS