Posted on 12/29/2010 11:41:45 AM PST by flowerplough
(sub-headline: Michael Singletary's coaching style clearly doomed him as head coach of the 49ers, and here’s why.)
Former San Francisco 49ers head coach Mike Singletary's skills with the X's and O's -- the nuts and bolts of coaching football teams -- were suspect enough. But even if he was deemed adequate in that regard, his persona made his suitability as coach of the 49ers questionable. Society has not reached the point yet where the "fiery black man" approach is acceptable for CEO-type positions, especially when it doesn't deliver positive results, as evidenced by San Francisco's 0-5 start this season and its current record of 5-10.
Unfortunately, the same attributes that led Singletary to a Hall of Fame career as a Chicago Bears linebacker practically doomed him as the 49ers' head coach and helped lead to his firing on Sunday. We can never forget pictures of Singletary as the wild-eyed tackling machine, anchoring the Bears' defense with ferocious intensity and passion. One reason the memories remain fresh is that he kept much of that same demeanor in leading the 49ers. And it couldn't be more out of place in the NFL, which embraces its image as a button-down, Fortune 500 conglomerate.
... Nicknamed "Samurai Mike," he became a pop culture phenomenon in his very first game at the helm. While he was interim coach, Singletary sent star tight end Vernon Davis to the showers with more than 10 minutes remaining in the game, and issued a classic rant -- "I want winners!" -- in his postgame news conference. It was later reported that Singletary mooned his players at halftime as a motivational ploy, though a team spokesman stressed that the coach never dropped his drawers.
(Excerpt) Read more at theroot.com ...
Absolutely correct. If the 49ers were 10-5 instead of 5-10 MS would still be the coach.
I kinda hate to break it to the author, but fiery doesn’t cut it for a coach of any color whose team dramatically underperforms, losing more than it wins (in a weak division no less) and appears to be both outmanned and outcoached on an almost weekly basis.
Society is more than ready for any approach that produces tangible results.
As one poster said, if Singletary were 10 - 5 his coaching style wouldn't be criticized.
Mike Singletary was fired as coach, because of a white person: Alex Smith. If Singletary had gone into the season with any other quarterback, he would still be coach.
Why bring race into EVERYTHING? Singletary was canned because the 49ers were terrible. A “fiery” white coach would also have been shown the door if his team was this bad.
A lunar eclipse
In most sports, the HoF and first tier players only rarely become great coaches. The workman type student of the game who can identify with the prototype gifted athlete does a better job in developing talent and getting the players to work together.
HALL-OF-FAME PLAYERS WHO BECAME COACHES BEFORE 1970
Player (coaching debut) / Overall record
Sammy Baugh (1960) / 18-24
Jack Christiansen (1963) / 26-38-3
Turk Edwards (1946) / 16-18
Otto Graham (1966) / 17-22-3
John McNally (1937) / 6-19
Wayne Millner (1951) / 2-8
Ernie Nevers (1927) / 16-26-2
Joe Schmidt (1967) / 43-34-7
Joe Stydahar (1950) / 20-27
Jim Thorpe (1920) / 11-24-1
Bulldog Turner (1962) / 5-9
Norm Van Brocklin (1961) / 66-100-7
HALL OF FAME PLAYERS WHO BECAME COACHES AFTER 1970
Player (coaching debut) / Overall record
Raymond Berry (1984) / 48-39
Mike Ditka (1982) / 121-95
Forrest Gregg (1975) / 75-85-1
Mike McCormack (1973) 28-52-1
Jim Ringo (1976) / 3-20
Art Shell (1989) / 56-52
Bart Starr (1975) / 52-76-3
Larry Wilson* (1979) / 2-1
I don’t see too much of the 49ers, living down here in FL, but from what I have seen, Mike looks like he’s trying to coach 21st Century players the same way he was coached in the ‘80’s by the likes of Mike Ditka and Buddy Ryan.
Those guys had plenty of success and Singletary was a big part of it. But these gazillionaire prima donnas of today aren’t used to the kind of heat that old-style coaches can bring down on players.
I have no idea of Mikes X’s and O’s skills but his on-field Patton-like persona must flip out some of the young flakes he’s supposed to be developing into champs.
Singletary’s immediate mistake was arguing, being “fiery,” on the field. Worse, on t.v.
The Dallas coach was fired midseason too for his emotional and facial antics on the field, caught on t.v.
Things need to be kept in the locker room. I believe a coach should never go ballistic on the field unless his player made a severe intentional personal foul or started a fight. Then the asst. coach should do the yelling.
Great players don’t make great coaches.
You want outmanned and outcoached, try suffering through Brad Childress on a weekly basis. He makes Singletary look like Vince Lombardi.
A #1 draft pick and a Heisman winner.
The New England Patriots wouldn’t be 10-5 if Singletary were their coach. The guy was totally incompetent. His “fiery” personality had nothing to do with it.
His race had nothing to do with it. His incompetance did.
He was a great coach- not great enough for the NFL. That’s all there is to it.
That is abundantly true in any sport and may be part of Mike’s problem. He was an excellent middle linebacker and the game probably came easily to him which means that some of the sloppiness he sees in less-than-great players must really piss him off.
I understand. I have a grandson playing in Pop Warner. He is a 128 lb cornerback in a 160 lb limit league. It is not unusual for him to make 15 tackles a game on running plays, which is too many and due to the failure of the front 7 to make enough tackles. Well, I’ve been asked to stay away from the games and practices for “berating” the linemen and linebackers(All I did was call them a bunch of goddam cowards, so what?). My grandson comes home looking like somebody tried to lynch him from all the physical punishment and that’s OK...but we can’t talk tough to the little darlin’s, now can we?
I’m sure that Mike is running into some of the same thing.
If I could have the personality of any one coach it would be the class and dignity displayed by Marv Levy during the winning Jim Kelly years.
He was a great coach and a great guy. He was blessed with the best defense that ever existed, so that helped.
Troy Smith played pretty well in his few games. They had terrible play calling in most games.
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