Three NFL coaches are fired

New York Jets Coach Eric Mangini was fired Monday, a day after the Jets failed to make the playoffs despite an 8-3 start and having an NFL-high seven Pro Bowl selections.

“I feel that we let him down and we could have done a better job of making plays,” wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery said. “It’s tough.”

Behind quarterback Brett Favre, the Jets beat New England and Tennessee on the road in consecutive weeks, raising visions among fans of the team’s first Super Bowl trip since 1969.

“I don’t think it was one thing,” owner Woody Johnson said. “We had to go in a different direction. There’s nothing specific. It’s just a call we made. Hopefully, it’s correct.”

Mangini, 37, had a 23-26 record in his first head-coaching job, and had another year remaining on his contract.

Mangini held a team meeting Monday morning to say farewell.

“I appreciate the opportunity that Woody . . . gave me for the past three years as the head coach of the New York Jets,” Mangini said in a statement. “The organization has terrific people and I wish the Jets nothing but success. We worked hard to achieve two winning seasons out of the past three. I regret that we could not reach our goals for this year.”

After a 4-12 season that began with Cleveland pegged as one of the NFL’s rising teams, the Browns fired Coach Romeo Crennel. The ouster came one day after General Manager Phil Savage was fired by team owner Randy Lerner.

Lerner has begun interviewing for both openings and met with Bill Cowher on Saturday night in New York. The former Pittsburgh Steelers coach and current CBS analyst told him he has no intention of returning to coaching in 2009 and asked Lerner to remove him from his list of coaching candidates.

Crennel had a 24-40 record in four seasons with the Browns, who began 2008 with huge expectations but collapsed amid injuries and uneven play on offense and defense.

The Detroit Lions fired Coach Rod Marinelli, a day after the team became the first in NFL history to finish 0-16.

“You can’t go 0-16 and expect to keep your job,” Marinelli said.

Marinelli, though, said the team was not the worst ever in his opinion because the players didn’t quit, pout or point fingers.

Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger did not stay in a hospital overnight after receiving a concussion Sunday against Cleveland, but it was uncertain whether he would practice this week. . . . Tampa Bay running back Carnell “Cadillac” Williams tore the patellar tendon in his left knee during Sunday’s game against Oakland, but the fourth-year pro said that, unlike last season’s knee injury, which kept him out for more than a year, this injury will require less recovery time. . . . The Pro Bowl will be played one week before the Super Bowl in 2010 and both games will be staged in Dolphin Stadium, a person directly involved in the decision said on condition of anonymity. The league’s plan is for players on the AFC and NFC championship squads not to take part in the Pro Bowl.

San Diego Chargers owner Alex Spanos has announced in a letter that he suffers from dementia.

Spanos, 85, who was in the owner’s box for the Chargers’ division-clinching win over the Denver Broncos on Sunday, wrote in a letter published in the San Diego Union-Tribune that his memory is fading, but that physically he feels strong.

WINTER SPORTS

Riesch wins women’s slalom

Maria Riesch of Germany won a women’s World Cup night slalom at Semmering, Austria, for her second victory this season and eighth overall, and American Lindsey Vonn placed third to stay atop the overall standings.

Heather Richardson won the women’s 500 and 1,000 meters and Shani Davis won the men’s 1,000, each taking the overall sprint lead at the U.S. long-track speedskating national championships at West Allis, Wis.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

Lee’s exam is inconclusive

UCLA freshman guard Malcolm Lee, who injured his left knee in practice last week, had his MRI exam read again and the results were inconclusive.

The team has yet to decide upon a course of action for the freshman, who was averaging 5.1 points and 1.1 assists as a backup to starting point guard Darren Collison.

-- David Wharton