Coming off a blowout loss and with the Super Bowl champ Saints coming to town for Monday Night Football, the San Francisco 49ers find themselves cornered in just the second week of the NFL season.
Coach Mike Singletary might have them as dangerous as a cornered wolf.
The new aggressive, combative 49ers mentality was on display in a bombshell KPIX interview with Singletary Thursday night. Singletary went off on the most angry and stem-winding rant he's ever pulled on camera, lashing back at a Yahoo! Sports report critical of offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye.
"Jimmy has been in the league 33 years. He's been a coordinator for longer than you've been doing this," Singletary snapped at KPIX's Dennis O'Donnell in the interview. "Don't base a man's career on a dad-gum Yahoo commercial."
"Don't base a man's career on a dad-gum Yahoo commercial" is the new pulling down your pants.
"I don't want to talk about the Yahoo deal," Singletary continued. "It really pisses me off."
It's the second time in a week that a Bay Area NFL coach has used a variation of the phrase "pissed off" when speaking to the media. People, this is why America blames California for the decline of western civilization.
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Singletary also upbraided O'Donnell personally for not having attended his press conference earlier that day. Seriously, it was like a James Brown interview except without the PCP.
But realize that Singletary is behaving this way on purpose to fire up his team. It's a motivational coaching tactic he's utilizing, just like when Bill Parcells used to storm out of practice on his players, or when Sean Payton leaves mousetraps around the locker room, or when Rex Ryan lets his players workplace-harass female reporters.
Monday night will also be the debut of the new wristband strategy, in which Alex Smith keeps the plays on his wristband in order to expedite play calling.
The Saints are five-and-a-half point favorites in the 5:30 p.m. Monday night game. Get there early to watch the Jerry Rice ceremonies!
Joe Kukura is a freelance writer who wonders what's stopping defensive players from just reading the plays right off Alex Smith's wristband.
