A word before you go

Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. If you're in control, they're in control.  - Tom Landry

If Mr. Singletary is indeed not long for his job, that's a shame, albeit not all that suprising.  The coaching philosophy of Singletary's mentors - Ditka and Ryan - was always been long on emotion.  Both men's teams reflected this, with high highs and low lows (and even lower lows) perhaps best left to clinicians.  As often as not, their teams were disappointments (Ryan's lifetime record was 55-55-1, Ditka's was 106-62 with the Bears, but 15-33 with the Saints).  Singletary's 49ers this year certainly fit that profile.  Motivation, yes.  Emotion, yes.  Execution, not so much.

And the media...forget it.  Ditka is famous for his pants-less interview (who among us...?).  Singletary has followed in his mentors' footsteps in that unfortunate regard, blowing up and then having to apologize on several occasions.  And, of course, he has also been legendarily pants-less.  Ditka's mentor, Tom Landry, would have counselled otherwise.

But I also come to praise Mr. Singletary before...well, you know.  Have a look at this video.  Late in his career, NFL Films wired him for sound in a game against the Packers.    The Bears lost.  What's interesting, to me at least, is that at 2:36 Singletary tells his teammates exactly what's about to happen. 







I wonder if he really said "shoot" afterward.  A good question for NFL historians of the future.