Source: Browns players protesting fines

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Last week, Cleveland Browns head coach Eric Mangini addressed fining one of his players $1,701 for not paying the hotel bill for a $3 bottle of water. Now, some of Mangini's players are addressing the fines in their own way.

To protest Mangini's fines against players, two grievances already have been filed with the NFL Players Association, said a league source, and three more are in the process of being filed now on behalf of Browns players.

All together, at least five grievances will be filed within the next 24-48 hours, and one NFLPA source predicted more could be coming.

Mangini has fined players for such offenses as not paying their hotel bills, players parking in the wrong spots, and having their cell phones go off in meetings. Mangini is trying to deploy structure and discipline to the Browns, just as he did in New York with the Jets, where he also encountered similar circumstances.

An NFLPA source said multiple Jets filed grievances against Mangini, but Mangini has said he won each of those grievances.

In the beginning of the season, Mangini passed out rules to the players of what they can and can't do and each of the fines he has imposed is for something that players were warned they couldn't do. It is why the organization believes it will prevail in their grievances and why what they are doing is necessary to get the organization operating in a proper and efficient manner.

Adam Schefter is an NFL reporter for ESPN Insider.

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Adam Schefter

NFL

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• ESPN NFL Insider
• Joined ESPN in 2009
• Former president of the Pro Football Writers of America and the author of four books