Mike Singletary’s tenure as 49ers head coach was both strange and entertaining. Singletary took over at the tail-end of the 2008 season, and promptly went viral, sending Vernon Davis to the locker room after an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty during his first game as head coach. What followed was an all-time postgame rant.
Apparently there was another fairly wild decision made by Singletary that until now went unreported. The Hall of Fame linebacker vetoed a trade the 49ers had in place to acquire Ben Roethlisberger and ship off then-quarterback Alex Smith.
Quarterback Alex Smith was in his fifth season in Singletary’s first full year as head coach. The former first pick of the draft had been a massive disappointment, and moving on would have been best for all. But Singletary liked Smith, saw his potential, and knew he had worked with four coordinators in his first four years. He wanted to give him a chance, and he told him he would.
Then, 49ers owner John York, CEO Jed York, director of player personnel Trent Baalke and other executives called Singletary to a meeting. They had a trade in place with the Steelers for Ben Roethlisberger, who had recently been accused of sexual assault. Singletary vetoed the deal.
He felt an obligation to Smith, and he also believed he needed to stand for what he had been preaching.
“I had been telling the team I wanted a team of character,” he says. “I felt I had to be true to that. But if I could do it again, I’d do it differently.”
Though 49ers fans probably would have lost their minds at the time had they heard that the struggling franchise didn’t acquire the future Hall of Fame quarterback, hindsight doesn’t see it as such a crazy decision. The 49ers ultimately stuck with Smith and won 13 games during the 2011 season en route to the NFC Championship Game. Smith was excellent again in 2012 before getting injured and ultimately replaced by Colin Kaepernick.
It was also an admirable stance for Singletary to take, especially considering most NFL franchises, including the 49ers under Harbaugh, almost completely disregard off-the-field issues for the sake of winning. Still, it astounding that the San Francisco brass allowed their first-time head coach to put the kibosh on such a deal.
Read the entire excellent feature on Singletary here.