Leadership and The Smiths

“Everything he’s done this offseason, to me, exemplifies
leadership and the character that we want on this football team … If he’s not a
leader, then he wouldn’t be a captain on this team. Hopefully you want that
position (quarterback) to be a leader, and fortunately we have that this year.”
— Mike Singletary on Alex Smith being named a team captain,
Sept. 8

“One thing that you have in a David Carr or in a Troy
Smith, you have guys that can do it. It’s just that the guy I felt was best for
the job was Alex Smith. I’m not about jumping on a wagon and jumping off a
wagon; I’m not like that. I feel that I’m going to support him until it comes
to that place where he shows me that he is not that guy, that he can’t do it.
And he has not shown me that yet.”
— Singletary after nearly benching Smith during
27-24 loss to Eagles, Oct. 11.

“What I meant by that was; the quarterback position to me
is the position that you may have a great arm, you may have a great mind, you
may have great feet, but leadership is the ability to bring the entire offense
together knowing that there are going to be times that you’re going to have
setbacks. To me, it’s very important that the quarterback understands that
that’s his role … That’s a big part of his job is that leadership in knowing
that, ‘I don’t care what happens, what comes or goes, we’re going to take this
ball and we’re going to go downfield and we’re going to do it as a team.’ So
that’s the thing that I was talking about.”
— Mike Singletary on why he mentioned a lack of offensive leadership during production meeting with CBS
announcers Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf, Nov. 2.

Mike Singletary initially staunchly supported Alex Smith.
Then he nearly benched him. And now he’s publicly criticizing him without
invoking his name.

Call it the beginning. The middle. And, it appears, the
end.

The prevailing wisdom was always that Singletary and
Smith were in this together. But Smith’s separated shoulder has evidently
affected another body part. He’s no longer joined at the hip with his head
coach.

Singletary’s thinly veiled criticism of Smith during
Tuesday’s press conference was one of several signals that he won’t start him
against the Rams on Nov. 14 even if his shoulder is completely healed. And he’s
grown six inches. And he can run the 40 in 2.7 seconds.

Singletary’s postgame instructions to Troy Smith — “Let’s
not be a one-game guy” — mean that the new guy will be given the opportunity to
be a nine-game guy.

It’s hard to miss the connection. Singletary told Dan
Dierdorf and Greg Gumbel, presumably without prompting, that his team lacked
offensive leadership. At the same time, he’s praised the leadership skills of
Smith’s replacement.

Last week, Singletary was vague about his reasons for
starting Troy Smith over David Carr, saying only that his former No. 3
quarterback gave the Niners “a good opportunity to win the game.”

The only specific quality Singletary mentioned regarding
Smith was … you guessed it, “I would say that probably the number one thing I
like about him, and it’s a current theme with anyone that I talk to, whether
it’s here, whether it’s Baltimore, whether it’s Ohio State, whether it’s former
teammates, and that is leadership. That is his ability to get everybody on the
same page.”

After Smith led the Niners to 21 fourth-quarter points
Sunday, Singletary was asked if he was impressed with Smith’s “play.” In
response, he discussed Smith’s poise, not his play.

“I thought he handled himself very well,” he said. “I
thought he did an outstanding job of keeping the huddle calm when the microphone
went off in his helmet. It just shut down, and that’s why he called the timeouts.
Couldn’t hear a thing … He did a great job of keeping everybody calm, and that’s
a great sign.”

Alex Smith, of course, had similar play-calling problems
in the season-opener against Seattle. Singletary never suggested Smith didn’t
handle that situation well, but he also didn’t praise his poise.

But the first obvious sign that Singletary was
dissatisfied with Smith came with the near-benching against Philadelphia. The
next day, Singletary said Smith wouldn’t lose his job because he believed, with
Carr and Troy Smith in relief, that Alex Smith was “best for the job.”

Privately, Singletary must been wishing he had a better
option. As it turns out, he might have had one all along.

Now, it appears Troy Smith’s poise in a winning
performance has made it much easier for Singletary to sever ties with Alex
Smith, a team captain who was guiding, in his coach’s estimation, a rudderless
offense.

They were once seemingly inseparable.

Until Singletary decided their relationship was leading
nowhere.

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