Thanks to Vernon Davis former Niners head coach Mike Singletary has the one of the great NFL rants of all time after sending Davis to the showers early during a regular season game.
Davis who was displaying a poor attitude and had a penchant for being a team cancer finally caught the ire of Singletary who famously said “I’d rather play with 10 than have one out their who doesn’t have the best interest of the team at heart.” Singletary ended that with “can’t win with ‘em,” can’t do it.
Davis spoke to Mike Silver of Yahoo Sports, and admitted he’s had a frustrating year at times due to lack of involvement in the passing game.
Vernon admitted had this been prior seasons he probably would have went off. He explained to Silver “he is a changed man, and stated that he’s no longer a team cancer.”
“As the team was winning and having success, I’d probably have been the one complaining,” Davis said Thursday as he sat in a small office at the 49ers’ training facility, where he and his teammates were preparing for the franchise’s first Super Bowl appearance in 18 years . “I would have probably been in the media, making a scene, going to the coach and just being a cancer to the team.”
Davis says he’s now less concerned about his own numbers, and more concerned about what he can bring to the team.
“I didn’t go into that game thinking I was gonna have a big day,” Davis said. “A big day for me isblocking. Throughout the season, I had a chance to relate to that – the blocking game and pass protection. It took time, but over the course of the season it kind of grew on me. I was like, ‘We’re winning, and I am a big piece of this.'”
Davis is honest in saying that getting to sent to the locker room that day, and Singletary’s rant changed his career.
It was pretty embarrassing for me. I’m not gonna lie about that. I know everyone was thinking, ‘Hey, where’s Vernon going? Why is he sending him to the locker room?’I was like, ‘These guys might really kick me out of here if I don’t get my act together.'”
“As I think back, I think I was more concerned with the guys before me … guys like Steve Smith and Chad Johnson [who] wanted the ball,” Davis says. “It was like, ‘Throw me the ball.’ So I looked up to those guys and figured that was the way to go, that was the route. But it wasn’t. It definitely wasn’t the route.”
“I just had to realize that the team was bigger than me,” Davis says. “It wasn’t just about me. This is not a one-man game. And as far as making me realize those things, we had Coach Singletary here to point ’em out to me, and he stayed on me – man, he was always on me. He was like, ‘Vernon, you won’t take off, you won’t succeed until you put the team first.’
“So I started to realize that portion of it, and I took it one step at a time. I put the team first and everything started to happen for me.”
Kudos to Vernon Davis for changing his attitude, and becoming one of the top all around tight ends in the game.
here is that epic rant that changed Vernon’s life.
http://youtu.be/EB5-yJM3vJc