Niners’ Davis and Crabtree Scrap At Practice Until Singletary Lays Down The Law

Added on Sep 02, 2010 by Jason Kearney in

NFL

There’s nothing that San Francisco 49ers coach Mike Singletary likes to see more in his players than intensity and competitive fire. For that reason, he’s probably not too upset that things got a little too heated between tight end Vernon Davis and wide receiver Michael Crabtree at Wednesday’s practice. Details about the incident aren’t clear, and Singletary says the matter is closed but apparently it was non-football related. Unlike situations like this in the Washington Wizards’ locker room, neither man ‘drew their gat’ but they did get in each other’s face—until Singletary stepped between them. Even at age 51, there are few people that want to run up against Singletary who despite being a very gracious gentleman can still no doubt lay the smack down.

Singletary met with both players privately, no doubt putting the fear of God into them in the process. He then addressed the media on the situation:

“How many of you guys have families? You mind raising your hands? You scared to raise your hands? So you have kids and every now and then your kids have some misunderstandings or what have you and they forget that there is a father at home.

“I will not talk about the issue. But I will talk about this: They were both wrong. And we will not have distractions on this team. Vernon just forgot temporarily, and that is not allowed.”

After they stopped trembling, the media left the press room.

Clearly from Singletary’s words Vernon Davis was the instigator in the situation. Despite the fracas, he’s still confident in Davis’ abilities to lead the team as captain:

“I appreciate Vernon speaking from his heart, but it was just wrong. But he indeed is every bit the reason why I made him captain. He’s not going to sugarcoat things. He doesn’t know how to sugarcoat things. But I appreciate what he was striving to do, but it was just wrong.”

At the end of the day, Singletary suggests the scuffle will be beneficial to team chemistry:

“We didn’t get better on the field in practice, but we got better as a team. There are no elephants in the room. The elephant was exposed.”

The Bengals’ Marvin Lewis won the 2009 NFL Coach of the Year award, but for my money there’s not a coach that has made such a positive impact on a team in a short time than Singletary. He came to the job without any significant head coaching experience, and there were questions whether he would be able to create the same toughness and competitive ferocity in his players that he was legendary for during his years in the league. Singletary was the field general for the toughest defense on in my opinion the best team in NFL history—the 1985 Chicago Bears. The Niners aren’t anywhere near that level yet, but Singletary definitely has them headed in the right direction