John Madden found time out from reading Brett Favre’s text messages to speak on Mike Singletary coaching style.
Here is what he had to say:
“That’s really not part of coaching, that’s sometimes I worry about that. I see youth football and I see high school football and coaches yelling at players and I cringe when I see it. I think people get the picture that’s what coaching is and believe me, that’s not what coaching is.”
“You have to coach, you have to teach, you have to strategize, you have to encourage,” Madden said. “That’s what coaching is, not the opposite.”
Mike Singletary is like the rapper Plies.
Plies found a niche, raps of gangster tales, does the mini Tupac thing and it has been very successful for him.
The reality is Plies is college educated and from the suburbs.
Not to knock on him—he is playing to his audience while masking the truth.
Mike Singletary does a lot of colorful talking, is a great soundbite and that episode with Alex Smith on the sidelines was straight out of Melrose Place (Amanda and Sidney would be proud).
But all it does is mask the fact that at his core, Singletary is more of a motivational speaker than a head coach.
That is fine if it works, you have top flight assistant coaches to assist you in your lack of Xs and Os skills, but being 0-5 means that it isn’t working.
Because the 49ers are in the NFC West, he might able to hide behind some gold teeth and Ne-Yo choruses, but if he doesn’t go platinum when the year is out, don’t be shocked if he is dropped from the label.