While most of us slept, Mike Singletary was fired

Mike Singletary/Courtesy: SFGate.com

If only we could afford to be a 24-hour blog. Sigh....

Sometime around the time the San Francisco 49ers arrived back home after their 25-17 loss to the St.Louis Rams, the team decided to ax now former Head Coach Mike Singletary.

There had been a lot of rumbling that this was imminent as the 49ers, a trendy pick to win the NFC Lest...I mean West, have been a huge letdown, going 5-10 so far this season.

From firing Offensive Coordinator Jimmy Raye three games into the season, to fighting with his Quarterbacks, Singletary's style just never meshed with his team. In fact, the loss to the Rams was punctuated with video of the coach getting in a heated argument with QB Troy Smith after he got benched during the game.

More from SF Gate.com RIGHT HERE

It's an unfortunate fate for the Coach, who many felt was in over his head when hired. He was the teams Linebackers Coach when he was hired two seasons ago. His status as the fiery Middle Linebacker who was a focal point of the Chicago Bears 46 defense back in the 80's, garnered him a lot of respect by his peers. He was hired after interviewing for several jobs in 2008 including the Atlanta Falcons job that eventually went to Mike Smith.

We wish Singletary well and suspect he'll end up as an Assistant somewhere before long. In the meantime, Defensive Line Coach Jim Tomsula will take over for the season ender against Arizona on Sunday. We'll keep an ear out for potential replacements, but expect Stanford Coach Jim Harbaugh's name to be Number 1 on 49ers Team President Jed York's list.

Here is the video of the Singletary/Smith blowup from Sunday:



And here's Singletary addressing his egress...
((HT: KPIX-TV))