Tuesday Carousel: McDaniels To St. Louis, Samurai Mike TO Vikes

The St. Louis Rams hired Josh McDaniels as their new offensive coordinator.

The team announced the hire on its Twitter feed- OneRamsWay. McDaniels replaces Pat Shurmur who was hired as the new Cleveland Browns head coach.

Coach Steve Spagnuolo called McDaniels one of the top offensive minds in the NFL.

The HQ wonders if we'll get any of this...???

Because, after all, he's trying to win...
Ah well, you know the rest...
((HT: NFL/NFL Network/youtube))


Elsewhere, ex-San Francisco head coach Mike Singletary is joining former teammate Leslie Frazier on his staff in Minnesota.

Singletary told ESPN 1000 in Chicago during a radio interview earlier in the day he's coming to Minnesota. He'll be linebackers coach and assistant head coach...

He and Frazier were part of the "Monsters of the Midway" defense...
All that does is give the HQ the excuse to post DJStevePorter's "Press Hop 2"
((HT: DJStevePorter))

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))

Samurai Mike Does Not Like Rats

((HT: KPIX-TV/Youtube))

We all know the head coach of your San Francisco 49ers is, how do we say it, "old school." Vernon Davis found that out the hard way- being sent off the field in the middle of a game after a run-in.

But, now, a Yahoo!Sports report has surfaced claiming QB Alex Smith is having issues with his superiors and that OC Jimmy Raye has lost touch with trying to be a "with it" coordinator.

Singletary went on KPIX with Dennis O'Donnell and addressed the idea of not needing an exterminator to take care of a "rat" in his locker room. He doesn't think there is one... publicly, at least.

Here's the exchange...


Two words: Bad ass...

Black Tuesday Pro Tackle Football Update

In addition to Shanahan...

Dick Jauron is staying Head Coach of the Buffalo Bills...
Mark Gaughan of the Buffalo News has the latest...
The contract extension is for three years...

Mike Martz is out in San Francisco to no one's surprise...
John Crumpacker from the San Francisco Chronicle tells us what we all knew- Samurai Mike and The Mad Scientist didn't get along...
Martz may now pedal his evil-geniusness someplace else...

The Raiders list for their opening includes Tom Cable, Giants' OC Kevin Gilbride, Raiders extra-special scouting guy Paul Hackett, Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh, and Westwood One analyst Jim Fassel.

Gary Kubiak fired three assistants with the Houston Texans- DC Richard Smith, D-Backs Coach Jon Hoke, and D-Line Coach Jethro Franklin.

John McClain from the Houston Chronicle has the fallout.

Mary Kay Cabot from the Cleveland Plain Dealer gives us Scott Pioli's first choice for coach- Iowa's Kirk Ferentz...???

More Cleveland... Tony Grossi has the interview list for the Browns Chief Exec- Scott Pioli and Rich McKay. Falcons fans are more than happy to hear McKay's name thrown in there.

Coach interviews are looking like Eric Mangini and the Giants Steve Spagnuolo... Romeo Crennel has told anyone willing to listen that he'll be more than happy to stay on staff if the new coach wants him to... Gee, thanks...

Last, but not least... The Chin will talk to the Jets.
Brian Costello of the New York Post has the idea on paper that "GM Mike Tannenbaum is "willing to do what's best for the team." That includes giving up his player personnel duties for Cowher and his cadre.

But Peter King maintains that it will be 2010 that Cowher comes back at the earliest-unless that perfect offer comes along.

And it's only Tuesday...

Sunday Carousel- Tackle Football Edition

Stop One: Cleveland

Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer lets us know that the futures of Browns GM Phil Savage ((pictured, thanks plaindealer.com)) and Head Coach Romeo Crennel are most likely done in Cleveland.
"The only way anything would happen tonight is if one of them forced the issue, a source said.

The Browns don't expect to hear anything from Crennel until he meets with Browns owner Randy Lerner, possibly on Monday. They are not certain if Savage will wait for a sit-down with Lerner to learn of his fate."

Crennel could be asked to stay on in some other capacity in the Browns front office. Savage, most likely, will be blown out unless he accepts a role where he would not have any final say on the 53-man roster.

Chris Mortensen, over at the four-letter, maintains Savage was fired over the phone by owner Randy Lerner already. Jay Glazer, over at Fox, says they're both gone.

The Plain Dealer's Tony Grossi has the line-up for Randy Lerner this week as follows...

Coach: Bill Cowher, Buffalo's Perry Fewell, Washington's Greg Blache, the Giants' Steve Spagnuolo
GM: Scott Pioli

Stop Two: San Francisco

Looks like Mike Singletary will get to keep his pants on for another few years.
We'll stick with Glazer again here...
Looks like a possible five-year deal for Samurai Mike. Mike Martz looks like he's out and Scott Linehan may be in.

Stop Three: Saint Louis

Is Jim Haslett the man or not...? The Rams players apparently drafted a letter for the front office maintaining their desire to have Haslett be the new head man.

Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes owner Chip Rosenbloom may have the letter in his hands sometime soon...

Thomas caught up with an anonymous veteran Ram about the whole thing...

"When asked if he thought the petition would do any good, the veteran player replied: "No. It's out of our hands. They don't pay us to make decisions on head coaches. But it's good for (Haslett) to know that we've got his back. All 53 players may not agree with it, but I think the vast majority wants this to happen."

Expect more fallout once the regular season craps out once and for all...

Moon over San Francisco

Dropping Trou!

Earlier this week, we showed you interim 49ers Head Coach Mike Singletary's post game press conference/rant after his team lost to Seattle. Well, apparently, as good as the presser/rant was, the speech/rant he gave his team at halftime was better. I'm not sure that I can do it justice here, so check out this story from the Arizona Republic here .

I'm not sure exactly how to follow that up, but all that I can really say is "Good for you Coach". It's about damn time someone got into an NFL players face about the way the game is played. Should have happened sooner.

No, the video below is not of The Samurai dropping the kimono, but it is another example of how Da Niners Coach wants nothing but winners on his staff...

We agree...

((Thanks, msnbc.com and NBC Sports))

Analyzing The Samurai

((HT: nfl.com/NFL Network))

It's Deion, Mooch, and Rich...
Apparently, it's good to know that Mike Singletary has an "expectancy..."
Listen in...

Singletary Wants His Niners To Hit People In The Mouth...

All those of us here at OSG HQ want to say is... go for it, dude...

You shoulda had a head coaching gig a long time ago..

Here's your evidence and we're only one press conference into his tenure...

If the 49ers don't give him a full-time gig... and we mean yesterday... someone, please grab this guy and give him the chance to lead...

((HT: nfl.com/NFL Network))

Nolan Fired Singletary Hired

The San Francisco 49ers have fired Head Coach Mike Nolan ((pictured, thanks sfgate.com/Michael Macor)) and replaced him, on an interim basis, with Mike Singletary.

From the San Francisco Chronicle ahem... quote...

"Nolan was nearly fired by owner John York at the end of the 2007 season after the 49ers compiled a 5-11 record marked by a bitter rift between the head coach and the man he drafted No. 1 in 2005 to lead the team back to respectability, quarterback Alex Smith."

Nolan was fired with a cumulative record of 18-37 over a three-and-a-half year period. He was brought in as a defensive guru-type-coach, but his Niners squads averaged giving up over 30 points per game.

"Asked about his job security after Sunday's 29-17 loss to the Giants, Nolan said, 'We've lost four in a row. We're certainly not going in the right direction. When you lose, it fuels speculation, sure. But as far as what's on my mind, I can't focus on it.' "

The rest of John Crumpacker's piece in the Chronicle can be found in black...