Just Between Us, Mike Singletary Has Missed the Point

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- He is wrong. Yes, Mike Singletary is when it comes to something involving his San Francisco 49ers, but you didn't hear it from me.

I wish to keep all of my body parts.

Not only does this 51-year-old former linebacker look decades younger, but he is scary when agitated, and he still has those wild eyes.

But he is wrong.

Let's start with this: for the longest time, Singletary was so emotional that he couldn't speak the other day inside a back room of the 49ers' headquarters after I asked him a question. There were no tears, but the lump in his throat was nearly as large as the expectations for his team that is sprinting into the second full season of his regime.

Image. Every successful team has one, and that image always centers around the head coach. Thus my question: since the 49ers are on the verge of escaping mediocrity for the first time in years, what image does Singletary see when he faces a mirror?

He sighed. Ten seconds passed as he sat behind a desk while studying a spot on the floor. Then he said, "I think it's kind of like uh ..."

Twenty-four seconds passed. During the silence, with his head still bowed, Singletary's mind raced from his prep days in Houston to his All-America honors at Baylor to his Super Bowl ring with the Chicago Bears to his role as the Dick Butkus of the 1980s to his bronzed bust in Canton.

Finally, while choking on his words, Singletary said, "It's kind of like the Hall of Fame."

Ten more seconds passed.

"You have so many people who pour into your life. I was so fortunate to have the coaches that I've had Every one of them. From high school. To college. To the NFL. I'm a combination of all of them."
-- Mike Singletary "You have so many people who pour into your life," Singletary continued, with his voice becoming steadier by the syllable. "I was so fortunate to have the coaches that I've had. Every one of them. From high school. To college. To the NFL. I'm a combination of all of them.

"I've learned well from them, whether it be coach (Mike) Ditka, Buddy Ryan. Whether it be Dan Reeves, whether it be Pete Carroll, whether it be Grant Teaff, coach Oliver Brown, Corky Nelson, Bill Walsh, Bill Parcells. I am indebted to all of them for the time they took with me in an effort to help me to be the coach that I'm trying to become."

The 49ers have become the Singletarys, which is to say they are a talented bunch with a striking edge, a thirst for victory and a desire to please the guy with wild eyes at all times.

It's just Singletary won't admit as much.

Instead, he prefers to mention the collective strengths of the 49ers. For instance: they have a stifling defense, and its leader is Patrick Willis, a three-time Pro Bowler who has evolved into this decade's Butkus and Singletary as an inside linebacker.

The offense has efficient running back Frank Gore, and tight end Vernon Davis is a splendid piece along with wide receivers Michael Crabtree and Ted Ginn Jr. There also is an improved offensive line. Plus, wobbly but capable quarterback Alex Smith has the same offensive coordinator (Jimmy Raye) for back-to-back years for the first time since he joined the 49ers as a hot-shot prospect from Utah in 2005.

More impressive, Willis, Gore and the rest flashed a pulse by going 5-4 after Singletary was elevated from assistant coach to interim head coach following a 2-5 start in 2008. Then Singletary got the job on a permanent basis, and the 49ers responded to his motivational ways with the promise of last year's 8-8 finish that actually felt better than that.

There's that man and his image again.

Whether Singletary likes it or not.

"In all honesty, I think the team has enough character, enough great football players to be in its own image, and I don't know what that is yet," Singletary said. "The only thing I'm trying to do is, give them a point of reference in terms of what greatness is and what greatness looks like, and then let them develop it in their own right.

"I don't put it in my image. I put it in their image, because if it's in my image, it's not going to be what it needs to be. But if it's in their image, it's going to be great. It's going to be special."

Sounds nice, but you've guessed it.

He's wrong. Just take it from Eric Davis, a Pro Bowl cornerback during the backstretch of the 49ers' run to five world championships through the early 1990s. "Before Coach Sing came, these players didn't have a philosophy, and they didn't have an image, and whether Coach Sing wants it to be that way or not, they are taking on his personality," said Davis, who has studied the 49ers up close and personal for the past four years as a member of the San Francisco media.

Added Davis, "They're doing what Coach Sing wants them to do, and before, they were just talking about it. They aren't talking about it anymore, because they don't need to. Which gives me the sense that they get it now, that they have taken on the coach's personality."

Such is the NFL's pathway to goodness and beyond.

In recent years, the New England Patriots have been as much Bill Belichick as the Indianapolis Colts have been Tony Dungy. Long before that, the Green Bay Packers were Vince Lombardi. And no way you could separate the old Dallas Cowboys from Tom Landry or the old Miami Dolphins from Don Shula ...



Or the old Bears from Ditka.

I mean, during Singletary's stint as an NFL player -- from 1981-1992, all with those Bears -- he witnessed how one man in the lead position could spur the renaissance of an entire franchise. So why wasn't he nodding or smiling with my observation?

"There was a tradition that the Bears had when Coach Ditka was a player with the Bears (during the early 1960s), and when they won a world championship in 1963, and he was trying to bring that back," said Singletary of the Chicago icon, who turned a dreadful team into a consistent winner within three years after he took over in 1982. "He said, 'Let's act like champions.' We were tough. We were physical. We were mean. We were nasty. We were all of those things, and we had a lot of pride, and before he came, we had none of that.

"What he did was help guys remember what the Bears were all about, and to bring that spirit back of George Halas."

Which makes you wonder ...

If Singletary doesn't wish to mold the 49ers in his image (at least not publicly), why doesn't he try to bring the spirit back of San Francisco's George Halas named Bill Walsh, the late coach who built the foundation for a 49ers dynasty when he led the franchise from sloppy to spectacular after his arrival during the late 1970s?

"I'm not trying to get back to what the 49ers were. I'm trying to take it to the next level," Singletary said. "I don't want to put this team in a box. I don't want to put boundaries around them. I think it's endless where this team can go. I think you have to be careful about painting a picture about what greatness is to your team, because they might live up to it, and it might not be good enough.

"We just have to get there by developing the courage, the work ethic and the attention to details."
You know, as in all of the wonderful things that comprise Singletary's image.

Follow me on Twitter @TMooreAOL

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