Rosenthal provided us on Friday with a history lesson regarding the connection between 49ers coach Mike Singletary’s “finest hour” boast and the speech from Winston Churchill that prepared his people for the Battle of Britain some 70 years ago.
“Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties,” Churchill said as England readied for Hitler’s army, “and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.’”
A buzz has broken out in league circles regarding Singletary’s judgment, or lack thereof, in borrowing a sacred phrase from a sacred leader uttered at a solemn and horrific time. And the buzz isn’t kind to the man who may be embarking on his final hours as an NFL head coach.
We don’t know whether Singletary realized the import of his words, or whether he was attempting to awkwardly pay homage to Churchill with yet another misguided football-as-war metaphor.
Frankly, we don’t know which would be worse.
Either way, we think that Singletary’s style is far better suited for a locker room, not a podium. And for a collegiate team, not a professional one.
That’s precisely where we think this is heading. Possibly too proud to accept termination and then demotion to a lower-level job with another NFL team, Singletary should consider taking over a college team, where we think he’d be a recruiter with skills on par with Saban, and a motivator with skills on par with Rockne.
That’s far better than being a pro coach with tact on par with Ditka, but a won-loss record on par with Kotite,