Cool Story in LA Times about Coach Sing

Mike Singletary a single-minded inspirer
Jed Jacobsohn / Getty Images
Mike Singletary has been ramping up competition within the San Francisco squad.
The San Francisco 49ers coach, whose workouts are as tough as his candor, tries to turn around a down-on-its-luck franchise.
Sam Farmer
August 6, 2009
The San Francisco 49ers used to count rings.

Now they count rungs.

Down the ladder of success they've gone, finishing with a losing record six years in a row and pushing those five Super Bowl victories further and further into the past.

Coach Mike Singletary is pushing back, in part by staging one of the league's most rough-and-tumble training camps.

"We just have to be better in everything we do," said Singletary, who had a Hall of Fame career as a middle linebacker for the Chicago Bears. "We can't waste a drill; we can't waste a practice. We're too far behind the elite teams in this league, and we have to earn the right to be amongst them.

"Before we can talk about a championship, we have to practice like a championship team. And we're just not there now."

Heaven knows they're trying. One of Singletary's favorite workouts is the so-called "nutcracker drill," which pits teammates nose to nose to see who can run over the other. And the 49ers will have more than their share of drills. San Francisco has scheduled 15 consecutive days of practices, most of them double days in pads. (The Oakland Raiders, by comparison, opened their camp with four days of walk-throughs before any contact.)

But it was Singletary's ability to lead and inspire his players that prompted the team to remove the interim designation from his title in December, making him the full-time head coach. The man he replaced, Mike Nolan, had gone 18-37 in parts of four seasons, missing the playoffs each time.

In his first game, Singletary's passionate “I want winners” postgame speech became a YouTube sensation. It came after he banished volatile tight end Vernon Davis to the locker room with 10 minutes left in a 34-13 loss at home to Seattle. Initially humiliated and fuming about the very public rebuke, Davis would later become one of the coach's adamant supporters.

"It's the first time I've had a coach that really stayed on me like that," Davis said. "I looked into his eyes and from that day I could tell where he wanted to go with things."

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[ Edited by StOnEy333 on Aug 6, 2009 at 21:31:36 ]

Great read !

49ers and Sing getting love across the state and the country.

Now, they just have to prove it on the field!

Nice article; thanks for posting it.

I think its interesting how half the media isn't sold on Sing and the other half really likes the direction he is taking us. I guess that's today's media for you. They right opinions and hope they come true.

["If you want to put a visualization on it, you've got Tiger Woods walking down the fairway, and you've got hundreds of people in his army behind him. That's kind of the way I feel with this thing. It's Coach Singletary walking into battle and he's got his guys, his loyal constituents right there with him and believing 100% that he's right."]

can anyone say 'chicken skin'???

wow, it's from the LA Times

thankyou for posting!

I can't read the full story?

-9fA

The writer kind of took that "leader" quote out of context, applying it to just Smitty. Otherwise it was a great article.

Originally posted by 9erfanAUS:
I can't read the full story?

-9fA

Yeah, me either

This was a good read! He started something good 2nd half of last season. With this off season rigorous trainning and workouts! Our niners should be a whole new breed this yr! I feel this to be true no matter who is at qb between smith or hill!