Vernon Davis on Mike Singletary: "Best thing that ever happened to me in my life."

I think Vernon has him in size, speed, reach, strength, flexibility, and dredlocks.

Which just goes to show that sometimes those things don’t mean much, because I would bet a fair amount of cash that Singletary would wipe the floor with him.

Speak of which, I think VD is great, but I’d also add that I’d put money on Lott to wipe the floor with him too, if it came to that. I met Ronnie Lott back when I was in high school, and the dude was friendly, but he just radiated whoopass, the same way Singletary does.

Quote of the Week III

“My goal is to be the greatest coach of all time.’’
— San Francisco coach Mike Singletary to me Wednesday.

We were in his office at the 49ers training facility, and I asked him about what was on the wall behind his desk — a list of every Hall of Fame coach in NFL history — and why he had it there. Basically, he has it there to remind him how far he has to go to get to his goal.

Now, you can laugh at or criticize Singletary (career record: 13-12), entering his second full season as a head coach, for an outlandish quote. Not me. What’s wrong with having a goal to be the best at something and let everyone know that’s what you’re striving for?

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/peter_king/08/08/mmqb/3.html#ixzz0wB5uMxfz

Singletary is one tough old bird. I dont know if that gains him any more respect with the players (on top of his career as a super HOF linebacker), but it sure makes me respect him just a little bit more. I’d be willing to bet that Sing would have given that young pup a run for his money in a fight !! But I seriously dont think Mike would really have fought Davis. Maybe put one of those MMA submission holds on him till the trainers got a hold of him. Cant go around hurting your star Tight End. Maybe Singletary should smack Alex Smith a coupla times if he throws a dumb pick or fumbles the ball ?? Kinda like Jerry said during his HOF acceptance speech. Fear can be a very effective motivation tool. Fear of failure…or fear of your coach beating the SNOT out of you for playing crappy can be VERY motivational. Mike was a motivational speaker before he got back into coaching, so perhaps he can use fear as one of his motivational tools. He already has that stare that probably instills fear into players that are the target of his ire. I like a tough coach, as long as he can back it up with coaching ability. Ditka was a tough coach. So were many famous successful coaches in the past. There aren’t as many TOUGH coaches as there used to be. These days, coaches are all “Player” coaches. More buddies than coaches. The coach has to be part daddy, part psychologist, part confidant, and part chaperon. The Tough Coach has all but disappeared from Pro Sports. Now there are still some tough old birds in the college game, but even in college the tough guys are in the minority.

The way the Niners have changed since Singletary took over, it seems that some of his toughness has rubbed off on his players. They may not always outplay the other teams, but I dont remember a game where they were out muscled or out toughed by the other team. Toughness is an important element to a successful team, but without talent and execution it will only get you so far. Lets hope the Niners were tough enough this off season to work hard enough to improve their skill and ability and achieve even a fraction of the success that their coach did when he played. You need to be tough minded to make the sacrifice necessary to achieve success in the NFL. With a tough coach like Singletary, I’m pretty sure there wont be any weak minded players on the Niners any time soon.

One last thing. I believe that Alex Smith must also be tough if Singletary is still backing him up. Singletary ONLY likes tough football players. So that would lead you to believe that maybe Smith is tough minded and has that inner toughness necessary to play pro football. Maybe he was tough enough this off season to make those sacrifices needed to improve and maybe he will succeed this year after all. I dont have any proof to back up this claim other than the kid did play several games with an injured shoulder and did not complain. I guess the proof will be there for all of us to see on the field this year. Alex certainly better be tough both physically and mentally, and he better have put all the work in that was necessary for him to succeed, because if he doesn’t have a career year in 2010, he will need that toughness to handle getting handed a PINK SLIP!!