San Francisco 49ers Faithful haven't forgotten the rhetorical rampage coach Mike Singletary issued when reports of Jimmy Raye's "garbled" playcalling surfaced the day after the Seattle loss in Week 1. Samurai Mike was furious that this information had anonymously become public.
"If there’s something you have to say, go say it and say that you said it," Singletary told the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. "But don’t go say a bunch of stuff, ‘But don’t tell him I said it.’ To me that’s a rat. That’s a coward and a rat."
Singletary was not finished. "I don't want to spend my time trying to find the rat. In time, the smell will come," Singletary told the San Francisco Chronicle.
Coach, there are now strong indications that the rat is your boss, 49ers owner Jed York. The same guy who hired you and signs your checks.
It's pure speculation, but it's speculation that has popped up among the Bay Area's most esteemed 49ers beat writers since York fired off the infamous "We're going to win the division" text message to ESPN's Adam Schefter.
"Jed is letting everyone know he texts national writers," Lowell Cohn notes in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. "That also lets us suspect he's done it before — i.e., he is a leak in his own organization. Is he The Rat?"
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"(York) texted ESPN's Adam Schefter," noted the Sacramento Bee's Matt Barrows. "Gee, I wonder who leaked the Jimmy Raye/Michael Lewis/Takeo Spikes items." A Jason LaCanfora NFL.com report in Week 2 had erroneously claimed Lewis and Spikes were being immediately benched.
Another report on Singletary's job security or lack thereof surfaced on Yahoo! Sports Tuesday.
"Doesn’t that make you wonder about the true identity of the 'rat?'" Tim Kawakami writes in an 800-word Mercury News hit piece, clearly suspecting Jed York as the rat. "I know around the league, it’s not that hard to figure this one out."
Many of us aren't as sure as Kawakami that Jed York is, in fact, the so-called rat.
But until we know for sure, just for laughs, maybe we should nickname the rat "Tim Rat-tay".
Joe Kukura is a freelance writer who probably should have worked an "I smell a rat!" gangster movie reference into all this.
