Some People in Sports Just Never Learn

With Terrell Owens starring again as The World's Biggest Drama King, here's a quick thought: More than a few bosses in sports have heard of Albert Einstein, but they likely don't know that he opined, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

Actually, they just don't care. Otherwise, Eric Mangini wouldn't keep getting jobs, especially as somebody's head coach.

What were those who run the Cleveland Browns thinking?

They weren't. Mangini was always one "something" away with the New York Jets from having somebody splatter him against the locker room wall, but it didn't matter. Nearly a week after he was fired by the Jets last December, he was zapped up by the Browns, and guess what? Several of his Cleveland players already would rather drink out of Lake Erie than spend another moment with this guy.

The list of athletes, coaches, managers and executives who continue to pop up on teams despite showing little-to-no signs of changing their previous ways of woe is long, growing and historic. That said, some on that list of folks are put out of their misery when they leave by choice or by force (Matt Millen comes to mind). It's just that most stick around (Stephen Jackson, Jim Riggleman, Manny Ramirez, Tony Romo, Dave Wannstedt), because the naive won't stop hiring them.

No way should the stunned decision makers of the Chicago Cubs have been stunned by another meltdown by Milton Bradley. What? They thought they were getting a clone of that Milton Bradley whose company invented Battleship, Twister and Yahtzee? Instead, they got the Milton Bradley who always was an explosion waiting to happen with the San Diego Padres and the Texas Rangers.

Earth to the Los Angeles Dodgers: "Manny Being Manny" means the same iconic player you fell in love with down the stretch of last season after he dogged it with the Boston Red Sox is the same ordinary (and steroids tainted) player you have now.

So the Tampa Bay Buccaneers just discovered that Byron Leftwich isn't a starting quarterback anymore? Didn't see that one coming. The Jacksonville Jaguars dumped him and his wacky delivery in September 2007 for the obscure David Garrard. Not only that, Leftwich was whacked the next year when the Atlanta Falcons also discovered that he wasn't anybody's starting quarterback of the future. He was a good backup last season with the Pittsburgh Steelers, but you heard correctly.

He was a good backup.

Every time John Daly loses a few pounds and has anything close to a good round, he supposedly is back, but then he evolves into P.J. Carlesimo, Isaiah Rider and all the others we should never hear from again on a major stage.

What's happening here is simple -- stupidity.

That, along with ego, as in, "They couldn't make it work with that guy, but they don't know what we know."

Plus, too many of these bosses in sports convince themselves that the Randy Moss of the New England Patriots is the rule, and that the other Randy Moss was the exception. For instance: the Randy Moss of the Patriots plays hard, keeps his mouth shot and promotes a team concept. The other Randy Moss did everything from dogging it during games and leaving games early to staging a fake mooning in front of opposing fans and abusing law or game officials.

Wait a minute. What did we just say about the Randy Moss of the Patriots? After two relatively controversy free seasons in New England , some are wondering if he really is suffering from an aching back these days.

Maybe Moss is. The problem is, who knows?

This is what we do know: if you're among those who don't mind covering your eyes, holding your nose and bringing these people to town anyway, you get what you deserve -- and that's predictable grief.

Terence Moore is a national columnist and commentator for FanHouse. He is a frequent panelist on "Rome Is Burning," an ESPN show hosted by Jim Rome, that is seen Monday through Friday at 4:30 PM ET. Moore spent more than three decades working for major newspapers, including 26 years as an award-winning sports columnist for the San Francisco Examiner and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He resides in Atlanta.