Singletary downplays fight between 49ers players
Since Mike Singletary took over as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, he has shaped the team to play his way; physical, hungry and aggressive. Unfortunately tight end Vernon Davis and wide receiver Michael Crabtree channelled that into something negative, as they got into a heated argument during practice. Davis was an All-Pro tight end last season and Crabtree was very impressive as a rookie. Singletary downplayed the incident saying arguments are bound to happen amongst teammates.
"How many of you guys have families?" Singletary said to reporters. "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.”
Both Davis and Crabtree have been battling injuries throughout training camp. Crabtree has been out since 1 August and his status is still uncertain heading into the regular season. Davis should be ready to go by week one.
Singletary refused to go into details explaining the argument, insisting the matter was private: "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."
Davis is coming off an amazing season in which he tied Antonio Gates’ record for touchdowns by a tight end with 13. Davis also caught 78 passes for 985 yards and was named a captain for the 49ers. Singletary said that he feels Davis was trying to do his job as a leader but went about it the wrong way.
"I appreciate Vernon speaking from his heart, but it was just wrong," Singletary said. "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."
Some may feel that these types of incidents show the weakness in a team but in reality, it usually makes a team stronger. There will always be disagreements between teammates and Singletary has probably seen his fair share. Singletary is a Hall-of-Famer and played 12 seasons in the NFL. He took over as the 49ers head coach in 2008 following the firing of Mike Nolan.
"We didn't get better on the field in practice, but we got better as a team," Singletary said. "There are no elephants in the room. The elephant was exposed."
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