There was a moment at his introductory press conference when Mike Singletary got going. He used to be a motivational speaker and now he was on a roll.
He was saying how Mike Nolan had built the foundation for the team and as Singletary’s voice rose, he intoned, “You take a step back and go, ‘Wow,’ I’m going to continue to help Mike (Nolan) build this, and wherever God leads, that’s where I’m going to go.”
I’ll skip a few sentences and come to the second God reference. He said, “I believe that with God I can do anything.”
I am not here to make fun of Singletary’s faith. I admire people of faith and I admire Singletary. But I don’t know how he knows God will help him beat other teams. Did God speak to Singletary? Does God like Singletary more than other coaches, more than Mike Holmgren who will be at Candlestick on Sunday? Is God a Niners’ fan?
Singletary raised these issues whether or not he knew it. I admire his faith but I wonder about his theology. I’m not the only one. Years ago I wrote a book about Bill Walsh and on page 161 he spoke about God and sports. I’ll give the entire lengthy quotation because it is relevant to Singletary:
“I hope to keep it (religion) within normal expression, rather than take it a step further into Christian dialogue, giving yourself to the Lord. There are some that let this thing get out of context. It’s where you get the very vocal person, let’s say of the Christian faith, who wants to make this a vehicle to have people give their lives to the Lord instead of play football. I can remember Bubba Paris after we’d just busted our ass — guys were broken, bleeding, hurting — we finally came back in 1988 and won the division and the championship and I can’t remember what game it might have been, but Bubba had to tell the press that the Lord just did that, won the game for us.
“The Lord did it? I mean, maybe He did, to each person, He anointed every player or something. But why would He do it for us and not for the other team? What kind of a Lord is that? A lot of guys were really disgusted with Bubba for that, not mad, just, ‘Yuck, get away, you jerk.’ Because these guys had really worked and humped and come back, and now suddenly, the Lord stepped in and did it? In other words, if they hadn’t sacrificed, it was going to happen anyway.
“That’s offensive as heck to me. Whoever He is — or She is — He must have higher goals than deciding who’s going to win a football game, because there are about thirty million starving to death within ten hours on an airplane ride. So He comes over to the stadium and helps, Jeez, it’s ridiculous.”
That’s a strong quote from Walsh about faith and football. I’m sure Singletary believes in hard work and all that. But I don’t believe God will make him a winning coach. I believe God is looking out for all coaches on all sides of the ball.
— Lowell
