Singletary not focusing on facing former team

E-Mail

Print Reprint or license

Text Size:

tool goes here

Former Bears great isn’t in a nostalgic mood

By JANIE McCAULEY

The Associated Press

BEN MARGOT/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS San Francisco 49ers coach Mike Singletary will face his former team, the Chicago Bears, tonight in San Francisco.

SAN FRANCISCO — Mike Singletary became a Hall of Fame linebacker with the Chicago Bears during a 12-year career spent all with the same club. Photos of Singletary and his Monsters of the Midway brethren still hang in the linebackers meeting room, reminders of the Bears’ special 1985 Super Bowl season.

“He’s obviously one of the great leaders to walk these halls,” Chicago linebacker Lance Briggs said.

For Singletary, this is no time to turn nostalgic.

He would rather not reflect too much on his time with the Bears. He has few ties there anymore and finding a way to beat his former team is all he can think about right now.

Singletary’s 49ers (3-5) are desperate to get back on track, mired in a four-game losing streak that dropped them two games out of first place in the NFC West after they led the division only a month ago and were talking playoffs. They face the Bears tonight in San Francisco.

“The Bears will always be a team that I love,” Singletary said. “The Bears, so many friends, family, memories, that goes without saying. ... I’m glad this is not the first time I am playing the Bears because that would be tough. Now that I have played them a couple times, it’s just a matter of going out there and competing against a good football team and trying to do the best I can.”

Singletary’s goals for his team haven’t changed, but it will take an impressive climb to get back in the postseason mix. Singletary liked how his offense played aside from the costly mistakes.

He still believes the 49ers will pull out of this funk, and be better having gone through it.

“In these moments, this is when I am at my best because in these situations you just have to rise above and you have to put your best foot forward,” Singletary said. “You have to be positive. You have to look at where things are and just call it what it is. I can’t get lost in the reality of the four losses. It’s not something that you want.”

The Bears (4-4) are trying to find their way, too, following a 41-21 loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. Both teams had little time to game plan with the quick turnaround.

Chicago’s defense was exposed.

“We’re in need of a real attitude adjustment,” Briggs said.