In the NFL, Contrarians And Disciplinarians

Coaches Work to Get Message Across

It took only one game as an NFL head coach for Mike Singletary to make himself the talk of the league.

In his debut for the San Francisco 49ers, Singletary showed immediately that he would be every bit as passionate in his new job as he was as a Hall of Fame linebacker for the Chicago Bears. He interrupted what could have been just another routine defeat for his pitiful team by banishing Vernon Davis to the locker room -- with the game still in progress -- after the tight end committed what Singletary regarded as a foolish 15-yard penalty.

"I will not tolerate players that think it's about them when it's about the team, and we cannot make decisions that cost the team and then come off the sideline and it's nonchalant," Singletary said during a fiery news conference after the game. "No. . . . I would rather play with 10 people and just get penalized all the way until we've got to do something else, rather than play with 11 when I know that right now that person has not sold out to be a part of this team. It is more about them than it is about the team. Cannot play with 'em. Cannot win with 'em. Cannot coach with 'em. Can't do it. I want winners."

It was revealed later in the week that Singletary had dropped his pants in front of his players as a halftime motivational ploy "to illustrate that we were getting our tails whipped on Sunday and how humiliating that should feel for all of us," Singletary said in a written statement posted on the team's Web site.

Singletary has said that Davis was not a problem player and pledged to be calmer in future meetings with reporters. But his actions last Sunday sparked a debate about whether old-school style discipline should return to a league populated by a number of me-first players, or whether such methods no longer work at a time when players are so wealthy and accustomed to being coddled.

"I applaud Mike," former New York Giants linebacker Carl Banks said in a telephone interview. "I think more of that is needed. You're in an era where the inmates are trying to run the asylum. Players need to be made aware that just because they come into the league and make all this money before they ever accomplish anything, based on their draft status, that football is a team game and you need to buy into the team concept. When you look at the teams in this league that have been successful, that's been established and discipline is there."

Singletary hasn't been alone. New York Giants Coach Tom Coughlin suspended wide receiver Plaxico Burress for a game earlier this season after Burress missed a team meeting, and benched Burress for a little more than a quarter last Sunday in Pittsburgh after Burress missed a treatment, according to Coughlin, for a neck injury.

The Pittsburgh coach, Mike Tomlin, deactivated wide receiver Santonio Holmes for the Giants-Steelers game after marijuana-filled cigars were found in Holmes's vehicle during a traffic stop, according to police. And Kansas City Coach Herman Edwards deactivated running back Larry Johnson for the Chiefs' past two games and reportedly will deactivate him for a third straight game this weekend. The first of those deactivations was said to be for being late to team functions, but Johnson also is facing two simple assault charges for separate nightclub incidents this year involving women. He met with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on Tuesday and was suspended for one game without pay -- Nov. 9 at San Diego -- by the league yesterday for violating its personal conduct policy.

"I think every player in this league wants to be coached well," said Banks, who also played for the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Browns. "Those who want to be good will accept coaching. You see so many coaches who come into this league and want to be the players' friend, and the players betray them. Looking back over time, there have always been bad teams in the league and there have always been places where discipline wasn't in place. I don't know that it's any more prevalent now. But it's just good to see someone like Mike come in and make it clear right away that there are certain things he won't tolerate."

Former Denver Broncos, Giants and Atlanta Falcons coach Dan Reeves expressed similar sentiments. "I think players respond to coaches being themselves," Reeves said by phone. "They're not going to respond to a phony and they're not going to respond to coaches not being themselves. Players are going to respond to someone who's trying to teach them and help them and make them the best possible player. To me, that was Mike Singletary being himself. That's who he is.

"Now, whether that will work for Mike in this situation, we'll have to see. We'll have to see whether he can turn that into a winning situation out there. But in order to have a successful team, the first thing you have to have is a team. That's what he's trying to accomplish. He's got to do it his way, like Frank Sinatra said. That's what he's doing."

Former Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann said those who are praising Singletary's coaching toughness are missing the point. The bottom line, Theismann said, is that the prospective salary cap ramifications for cutting or trading Davis prevent the 49ers from doing anything about the former first-round draft pick from the University of Maryland who signed a five-year, $23 million contract with the team in 2006.

"I think it's very noble for him to take that stance and echo the sentiments of what a lot of people who played in a different time and era felt," Theismann said by phone. "But Vernon Davis has, what, $15 million in guaranteed money? If a guy like that wants to be an ass, there's nothing Mike can do to prevent that because of the economic repercussions of his contract.

"I'm as traditional as it comes in terms of the same things that Mike believes in. But in this day and age, you're not going to have 53 guys on your team who believe in that. If you send a player to the locker room like that, that player might go to the locker room and say: 'I don't give a darn. I'm gonna take a shower and go home. I'm still getting paid.' And there are guys that you can't get rid of because of what it would do to your salary cap. You can't do it. You're stuck with them."

The best coaches in pro sports today manage their players skillfully rather than lord over them, Theismann said.

"You can't motivate players that don't want to be motivated," Theismann said. "You have to manage them. That's what leaders like Bill Parcells, Joe Gibbs, Pat Riley and Joe Torre are able to do. It's about managing people. I was watching everyone on TV talking about this with Mike and not one person said, 'That's all nice, Mike, but there's nothing you can do about it.' Vince Lombardi died in the early '70s, and so did that era of football. These athletes are different. With the salary cap, you have to hope you make the right decisions about the people that you give the big money to. If not, you can't recover from it."

Lombardi also didn't have to deal with players blogging about their dealings with coaches, as Davis did after speaking to Singletary on Monday and seemingly smoothing things over a bit. Yet Reeves said players haven't changed all that much over time on a personal level.

"I think at the core, players are basically the same as they've always been," Reeves said. "One difference is that the fear factor has been taken away. There's no fear of losing your job anymore. I don't think it affects every player, but it only takes a few to really affect your football team. But for the most part, players still want to win. They still want someone to help them do things the right way and be the most successful player they can be."