Sports PR| 49ers’ Mike Singletary Brings Change, But Will It Work?
NFL Coach’s First Post-Game Conference Leaves Niners Fans With More Questions Than Answers
Fans of the San Francisco 49ers, who were back in familiar territory with a 2-5 record coming into Sunday’s game, might not have been surprised by the decision to fire head coach Mike Nolan Oct. 20. The move to promote assistant coach Mike Singletary, who also served as linebackers coach, was met with some relief.
But Singletary’s first game at the helm, a 34-13 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, saw the coach bench starting quarterback J.T. O’Sullivan for backup Shaun Hill. He later sent tight end Vernon Davis to the locker room early after Davis drew an unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty during the fourth quarter.
But both instances took a backseat to Singletary’s post-game press conference performance. The coach appeared both confident that his practices would shape up a chaotic team and bewildered that the early implementation of those practices hadn’t slowed the Niners’ tailspin at all.
Lively, off-script press conferences certainly are nothing new to football. (My personal favorite: Come after Mike Gundy. He’s 40!) And there are promising flashes of legit regime change in Singletary’s tirade. But Singletary should take a cue from the old politician’s advice and stay on message. Implementing sweeping changes is great, but if improperly articulated, they’ll fall on deaf ears. Plenty of coaches have come and gone promising discipline to wayward teams, only to fail in actually establishing some tangible evidence.
Running an NFL team seems an awful lot like running a political campaign. Your most ardent supporters want to hear a well-crafted approach, and Singletary’s rambling conference, even if fundamentally sound, didn’t quite hit the mark. He will have to work harder to sway perceptions both in the locker room and out of it.
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