I was the third time 49er fans have seen this painful exhibition. Sing, challenging his starting quarterback by threatening a benching and expecting his starting quarterback to respond with some fire. It happened with Shaun Hill, Alex Smith and now Troy Smith.
The scene, and the fact that it happened three times, placed the fundamental fractures of Singletary's head coaching tenure in plain view. In a league dominated by quarterbacks, (Sam Bradford made that painfully obvious today) Sing has no clue how to handle the leagues marque position. It was the same problem his mentor, Mike Nolan, suffered from.
The larger issue, though, is the volatility exhibited by the team's supposed leader. He vacillates between starting quarterbacks. He is never sure of anything unless he "looks at the film." He gets into screaming matches with his players. He unequivocally supports his flailing offensive coordinator only to fire him the next day. He enters the press room with red, puffy eyes from crying over a loss and simultaneously says he needs to keep his emotions in check.
The 49ers could never find their footing in such a volatile environment. And now, thankfully, the volatile season is effectively over.
9:35 pm: UPDATE: Apprently David White, a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, is reporting on his twitter page that Mike Singletary was just told he was fired. (http://twitter.com/#!/bydavidwhite/status/19252094124957698)
He followed it up with some other tweets and apparently the 49ers have made it official with a statement.
Said Singletary: "I am ... thankful for the Faithful fans, I am just sorry I couldn't give them more."
White is also reporting that Defensive Line coach Jim Tomsula will be the interim head coach. Tomsula has been a head coach before in NFL Europe.
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