Mike Singletary helped former San Francisco 49ers tight end Vernon Davis grow up. Davis recalls that event.
But when he was young, he was angry, and he took out his anger on the football field. And when he did that, he hurt his team. That's why in 2008 when Davis committed a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct, head coachI recently asked Davis what that moment meant for his growth as a player and as a man. Here's what Davis said.
ME: "It felt like in that moment Mike Singletary was a bit of a father figure in the sense that he was telling you, 'You don't have to fight back on your own. We're a team. We'll do it together. If someone disrespects you, we're a team, come back to the huddle.' Does that resonate with you? DAVIS: "That does resonate. You're growing up and your leader is someone older than you, someone you look up to. If you're brought up in a certain environment, most likely you're going to become part of that environment. If I have guys telling me to stand up for myself, be tough, fight back, that's probably going to follow me the rest of my life. So now you have this guy, Coach Singletary, who's telling me, 'You don't have to fight this battle alone.
ME: "Your whole childhood, you were told if you want to be tough, you have to fight that fight alone. And then you have the toughest linebacker ever saying, 'No, we're a team.' What's your relationship like with Singletary now? DAVIS: "We have a great relationship. His family is like my family. When you play football, you're there to create family and cultivate relationships that last a lifetime."Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis.
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