Why the Bay Area Is the Sports Capital of the World
By Eric He
Mike Singletary Wanted Winners. Jim Harbaugh is a Winner.
Remember this?
My favorite part is at the very end when Singletary screams “I want winners!,” then helplessly shakes his head as the video ends.
That moment captured the very essence of the Mike Singletary era in San Francisco; he had the energy and passion to be a head coach, but he just did not have the ability to win games, which I would say is much more important.
After three consecutive seasons in which he failed to turn a struggling franchise around, Singletary was let go in favor of Jim Harbaugh, and boy did things turn around from there.
Put it this way: before 2011 when Harbaugh came aboard, the 49ers had not had a winning season in eight years. They had Alex Smith, a big-time draft bust at quarterback, and the level of optimism was running extremely low.
Just two years later, the feeling is completely reversed. Smith became an accurate and efficient game manager before handing the reigns off to one Colin Kaepernick, who is destined to have a tremendous career. Nearly every single part of the team is solid and stacked from top-to-bottom, and the number of players selected to the Pro Bowl and All-Pro teams this past season was ridiculously high.
The most important part? Harbaugh has done what Singletary and all 49ers coaches in the past decade have failed to do: win.
The 49ers have set themselves up to be perennial Super Bowl contenders, and you can bet the spotlight will be on them for years to come.