Chicago Bears Must Avoid Mike Singletary at All Costs
Published by Chris Trapasso on January 8, 2013
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears
Mike Singletary—legendary linebacker, overwhelmed head coach.
Among the myriad of head coaching candidates the Chicago Bears have interviewed or plan to interview, Singletary jumps out as even more of a reach than Keith Armstrong, Mike Sullivan or Mike Priefer.
But then, he doesn’t.
Singletary was the wide-eyed, persevering heartbeat on the most famous and successful Bears team in the modern era, which made him an icon in the Windy City.
However, despite his on-field greatness, Chicago’s Phil Emery must make his meeting with Singletary nothing more than a token of the general manager’s appreciation for what the linebacker did for the Bears as an organization almost 30 years ago.
In other words, Chicago’s front office has to avoid Singletary at all costs.
Though Singletary’s unrelenting passion and old-school football roots clearly translated from the gridiron to his sideline job, he was a humiliating failure in San Francisco, a guy in over his head who ultimately could not relate to his players.
Starting his head-coaching career with a 34-14 loss at home to the Seattle Seahawks would have been unceremonious enough.
However, to illustrate the way his team played in the first half, ESPN reported that Singletary dropped his pants during his halftime speech.
Also, he sent Vernon Davis to the locker room before the game ended after the tight end was flagged for a personal foul and then delivered a powerful post-game press conference that many laughed at in the following weeks and months.
After a 5-4 end to the 2008 season and a 3-1 start to 2009, Singletary went 11-16 the rest of the way, and never tapped into Davis’ or Alex Smith’s full potential.
Frankly, his ultra authoritative coaching style never materialized into a winning approach.
Sure, there’s a chance he has learned under the reserved yet assertive Leslie Frazier in Minnesota, but are the Bears in a position to take a chance on a guy who flamed out in his last stint as a head coach three years ago?
Chicago Tribune writer Steve Rosenbloom said it best in a recent column, “Singletary didn’t get a sniff in past Bears coaching searches, and his embarrassing legacy in San Francisco backed up the wisdom of that decision.”
Chicago has many more capable candidates from which to choose.
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