Ratto: Singletary was perfect hire, now he's perfect fire

Dec. 26, 2010RATTO ARCHIVE49ERS NEWS49ERS VIDEO
Ray RattoCSNBayArea.com
If Comrade Maiocco is correct (and you know his trackrecord, so you know this is very likely), Jed York is consideringwhacking Mike Singletary now instead of later.And if he is considering it, he has to do it now. No deliberations. Nostaff meetings. Definitely none of that idiotic I wanted him to showme he deserved to stay in the game stuff.Now.The reasons are clear, and the reasons not to do it now are all stupid,except one: If York thinks this team has a future with Singletary asthe head coach.If he does, well, God loves a man who stands in the face of all apparent logic.If not, Singletary deserves to know now, and deserves to be given thechoice to coach Sundays finale. Not because his record says so, butbecause York needs one last reminder that making the move that feelsgood is not the same as the move that is good.Singletarys hiring two years ago was a feel-good move, one thatscreamed Our team is good enough to win now but our coach has lost theroom. Yorks remarks to Comrade Maiocco suggest that he still believesthis, which was and still is painfully yet laughably false.Two years ago, it was the attitude that kept the 49ers down, which iswhy Singletary was the perfect hire for a few months. Now it istactical competence, which is why Singletary is the perfect fire.Lost in this, of course, is the notion that the real problem with thisteam is organizational competence that only a general manager withcomplete operational control can solve. But Singletary is the problemtoday, and therefore is at the top of the in-box.It has been our contention that Singletary would keep his job until the49ers learned that there would be no lockout; the teams performanceleading into Sundays 25-17 loss to St. Louis made that Impossible. Listless, confused, leaderless (as always) and contemptible, they got everything they deserved.But since it is clear that Singletary cannot keep the job, it isequally clear that the deed must be done now, with one final game forhim to coach or not, as he prefers.After all, the 49ers thought half-a-year of not being Mike Nolan earnedhim a four-year contract. Falling in love with his glare andmotivational dictums and his iron-fisted sense of surety got him a dealthat he has already outlived.And he did what he was capable ofmotivation. He stopped beingvaluable when he gave them the gift of belief without a thing tobelieve in, but that wasnt his fault. This was the totality of hisgame, and even his most strident critics never said he didnt give allhe had, the way he knew best.But what he knew wasnt nearly enough, and motivation without proof istoo much like science and not enough like NFL Films-inspired mysticism.Because he was true to himself, and because the mistake of hiring himwasnt his, he should get that choice of a 41st game. But not a 42nd,absolutely not. He has lost the owners confidence, and waiting to dowhat you know must be done is what makes a losing streak an eight-yearlosing streak.And not working hard to get a general manager to hire the hire the nextcoach is the best way to make it a nine-year losing streak, and a10-year losing streak, and on, and on, and on . . .