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Mike Singletary deserved better from the 'Niners

One of the frustrating things about life is how little is under our control. Of course, if one is an owner or a general manager of a sports team, there is a tried and true strategy for dealing with bad situations which are beyond one's control.

One firest the manager. Or the coach.

It doesn't matter if the manager or the coach isn't the problem. The point is that firing him is something you can do. It creates at least the illusion of control, and makes an out-of control situation more bearable thereby.

Mike Singletary was a good coach, by all the evidence. Certainly his players regarded him as such. But the San Francisco 49ers had a tough season, so the team's owners fired him, whether he deserved it or not. Hopefully having done so will help them feel better; it certainly isn't likely to help the 49ers win more games next season.

Singletary- the middle linebacker for the 1985 Super Bowl champion Bears- is a class act, a smart man, and someone almost certainly destined for great things in NFL coaching. Hopefully when the time comes for Lovie and the Bears to part ways, DeAngelo will give "Samurai Mike" a call.

ADDENDUM: A commenter on this post-49ers fan- has entered a strong dissent from my praise of Mike, which praise I have to admit is based on perception from a distance and a few comments on ESPN along the way, rather than the kind of attention the commenter has payed to the Singletary-led squad this year. It seems, to be fair, that Bleacher Report agrees with the commenter.
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Brian Yamabe said…
Sorry, to disagree, but there was no evidence that he was a good coach and I have no idea where you saw that his players regarded him as one. Rotating your quarterback every other week and then yelling at them during games to see if they really wanted to be in there are not signs of a good coach. His teams were ill-prepared and could never make halftime adjustments.

He was a fine player and is an honorable man, but the fact is he was a terrible head coach and I find it doubtful he will ever get another shot, at least not without many years of being a coordinator. As a Bears fan, you experienced many fond years of Singletary as a dominant linebacker. As a 49er fan, I have experienced 39 weeks of a bad NFL head coach. No, he was not the 49ers problem, but he was a problem.
12/29/2010 05:17:00 PM
Robert Elart Waters said…
My comment about the players' attitudes was informed by a conversation on ESPN wherein that assessment was given- and concurred in by the commentators. I must admit that I haven't followed the 'Niners all that closely this season, though. As for the yelling business, I'm old school enough to prefer Buddy Ryan motivationally to a blissed-out type like Lovie, whom nothing seems to ever bother. And while sometimes if you don't have a good option at QB at least staying with the same guy has something to recommend it, a coach who wants to win can give way to the same urge owners and GM's have and fire the quarterback. Admittedly, it doesn't help much more if you don't replace the guy you have with somebody better.
12/29/2010 05:34:00 PM
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