Just a decade later, former New York Jets head coach Eric Mangini is living a much different life than he imagined. He's still coaching football, but it's his son's flag football team.

When Mangini became the Jets' head man, he took the Big Apple by storm. The Jets immediately became a playoff team under his watch, and the nickname “Mangenius” popped up.

His next two seasons disappointed in comparison, and Mangini was promptly fired. He served as the Browns‘ head coach from 2009 to 2010 before becoming an assistant in San Francisco from 2013 to 2015.

Looking back specifically at his tenure with the Jets, Mangini mostly expresses gratitude and fondness, but he does have a few regrets, including Spygate.

Mangini's connection to New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick goes back to their days with the old Cleveland Browns in the early and mid-1990's. Mangini became a disciple of sorts with Belichick, joining him once again in New England in 2000.

A year after moving over to the rival Jets, a once flourishing relationship between Mangini and Belichick completely disintegrated following Spygate.

On September 9th, 2007, Mangini told Jets security to stop the Patriots from recording their signals. Instead of simply stopping them, they alerted the NFL, and Spygate was born.

Looking back, Mangini wishes it had gone differently.

From Brian Costello of the New York Post:

“Spygate is a big regret,” Mangini said. “It wasn’t supposed to go down the way it went down.”

“There was no great value in what they were doing,” Mangini said. “It wasn’t worth it. It wasn’t worth it to me personally. It wasn’t worth it to the relationship.”

The relationship died. Belichick’s legacy was tainted. Mangini was seen as a traitor.

“I cared about him,” Mangini said. “I didn’t want to hurt him. I didn’t want to hurt the Patriots. They were a huge part of my life, too, and the Kraft family. The Krafts were always great to me. It wasn’t like I was thinking I really want to get these guys. My thought was I don’t want to put my team at a competitive disadvantage, no matter how small.”

The impact of Mangini's request is still felt today. The Patriots have a reputation as cheaters, amplified by the Deflategate scandal. Many people believe the punishment received by Tom Brady was much stiffer than it needed to be because commissioner Roger Goodell regretted not sticking the Patriots more for Spygate.

Regardless, it's interesting to hear these comments from Mangini. In the hyper-competitive environment of the NFL, it's understandable that he wouldn't want to allow his opponent to gain any advantages unfairly. But, he claims that the value of taping signals was minimal for the Pats. Essentially ending his relationship with a mentor just wasn't worth it in his mind, looking back.