Mangini spoke to the press yesterday about Mike Westhoff, and expressed his respect for him professionally, but his concern for his medical well-being.  He didn’t rule out a return, but didn’t give it a timetable either.

On if Mike Westhoff will be returning as a coach…

When he left, he didn’t leave because of anything in terms of him not being happy with the organization or me not being happy with Mike. Mike is a great coach, and I really like Mike a lot. He was in a very serious medical situation and that’s what he’s been focused on all summer. I’ve been in touch with him sporadically. It’s hard during training camp to keep in real touch with people that are outside the building. I respect Mike a lot. He helped me a lot and I’m not opposed to Mike coming back in some capacity.
On who reached out first…

It wasn’t really reaching out. It wasn’t like that. Mike had to take care of things that he had to take care of. I respected that, and that’s what I wanted. He was in a lot of pain last season. He’s a model of toughness when you look at the things that he went through. He had to take care of that. It wasn’t like he was off the Christmas card list or anything like that [smiles]. He was still in the loop. It’s just difficult when you’re not here.

On if the door was left open for his return…

It never really got to the point of conversation about open door, closed door or any of that stuff. It was more a function of “Go and get healthy. That’s the priority and that’s what you have to take care of. Don’t worry about things here. You need to take care of this. This is the most important thing, because without your health, none of the other stuff matters.”

Filed under: Main Page