He makes a singular coach

Bears great tackles job with distinction

Those who watched football in the 1980s certainly remember his eyes-wide-open, intimidating glare, a sight Patriots followers saw a bit too much of in Super Bowl XX. He was a Monster of the Midway. A Pro Football Hall of Famer.

Mike Singletary, No. 50 in your old Chicago Bears program, has been back in the NFL for six years, in the coaching ranks. Talk with him about his return, and it is difficult to come to any conclusion other than this: The league is a better place because of it.

Singletary, 49, is in his fourth season as a coach with the San Francisco 49ers, whom the Patriots visit a week from today. He's the assistant head coach, with a focus on defense.

In a quick rise, Singletary has vaulted near the top of the ranks of those mentioned as head coaching candidates, and he has interviewed for head jobs in Detroit, San Diego, Dallas, and Atlanta. He also was a candidate last year to become coach at his alma mater, Baylor, before taking himself out of the running.

Singletary said he always wanted to coach - a desire that traces to his youthful days in Houston and how he felt coaches played an important part of his life after his parents divorced when he was 12 - yet he didn't enter the profession after his retirement following the 1992 season.

It took him 11 years to take the plunge.

"At the end of my career, I thought, 'I'm going to do this,' but when it came, I began to ask the question to several of the coaches I really admired and respected, and they said I should do something else," Singletary said.

"They said coaching looks good, but it's not all it's cracked up to be. There are long hours. You never get to see your kids. Your wife has to raise your kids. I thought, 'I'm not going to do that.'

"So I made the decision at that time, after playing 12 years in the league, that I needed to get reconnected with life again, get reconnected with who I am with No. 50 off and put on the shelf. I really needed to get to know my wife and kids and what I had been missing. I think that was the greatest thing I ever did."

Singletary, who was nicknamed "Samurai Mike" in his playing days and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1998, went into private business. He traveled the country as a motivational speaker, focusing on leadership and teamwork, while enjoying his time at home with his wife Kim and their seven children.

Singletary said his decision to finally enter coaching came after he arrived home one night and Kim told him she had been praying and that she felt it was "time for us to coach." Singletary still had concerns about the time investment, and was afraid he'd get "sucked in" and lose his mind with football because of his love for the game.

Yet a call from former Ravens head coach Brian Billick early in 2003 seemed to ease those concerns. Billick told Singletary he had a special linebacker in Ray Lewis, and that he thought Singletary would be the perfect coach for him and the rest of the team's linebackers.

Singletary flew from his home in Chicago to Baltimore on a Friday, interviewed with Billick on Saturday, and things moved quickly from there. Kim flew into town Sunday to get a feel for the city, a contract was signed the next day, and Singletary was working in a full-time capacity by Tuesday.

"I've been in it every since," he said, "and it's been better than I thought it could ever be."

Singletary moved on to San Francisco in 2005 when Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Nolan was hired as 49ers head coach. Just as he worked with one of the game's best linebackers in Baltimore, he now has one of the game's rising stars at the position in second-year player Patrick Willis, who earned Pro Bowl honors in his rookie season.

Singletary lists his personal goals in three layers: to help the 49ers win a championship; to become a head coach; and to become one of the greatest coaches of all-time.

The transition from player to coach is not smooth for everyone. Some former players get too close to the current players. Others simply aren't fit for the grind.

Singletary seems to have made the transition nicely.

"When you come in as a coach, and you're a former player, most of the coaches are like, 'This guy doesn't really want to work, he's not committed, he's used to making the big money,' " said Singletary.

"But what people might not understand about me, I was a blue-collar player. I wasn't as gifted as most Hall of Famers or most All-Pros. Most of the time, I was the smallest guy on the field playing linebacker.

"So I had to work my tail off every year just to be in the mix. I never took anything for granted. As time goes on, I'm excited about where I am, I'm excited about the things I've learned to this point, and I'm excited about going forward."

Will this 'cat' be copied?
The Dolphins' success with their "Wildcat" package against the Patriots - in which running back Ronnie Brown lined up in the shotgun at quarterback behind an unbalanced offensive line - had some asking why more teams don't utilize such outside-the-box formations more often.

The Dolphins used it six times, with five rushes for 100 yards and two touchdowns, and one touchdown pass for 19 yards. It was a key part of their resounding 38-13 victory.

Could such an unconventional offensive package, or even the run-based option offense, work on a more consistent basis?

Bills coach Dick Jauron has his doubts.

"I haven't seen it, because we don't play either one of those teams for a while, but if you don't throw the ball successfully, the defenses won't honor it," he said.

"They're going to stack the front, at least with the proverbial eight-man front, and maybe with more to force you to throw the ball. So I think those are the issues with it on any type of a full-time basis."

Jauron sees the value of having such a package in one's arsenal, but more in the form of a once-in-a-while type of thing.

"Anything you don't see on a regular basis is going to give you some problems in the National Football League," he said. "Let's face it, you can't prepare for every single thing every single week.

For their part, the Dolphins feel they haven't scratched the surface of what they can do in the Wildcat look, with coach Tony Sparano saying: "We didn't go in there with 30 plays worth of what we're trying to do out of this package."

The Patriots are expecting to see it again, too, and it could come as early as next Sunday.

Although it wasn't the same package the Dolphins utilized, the 49ers ran one play last weekend with running back Frank Gore taking a direct snap and rushing for 5 yards on third and 10, with quarterback J.T. O'Sullivan motioned out wide.

Unpacking some old memories
The Kurt Warner-led Cardinals visit the Brett Favre-led Jets today, which had both players reflecting about when they were briefly teammates in 1994.

Warner had been invited to Packers training camp and Favre told the story of how then-quarterbacks coach Steve Mariucci tried to send Warner into a preseason game, but Warner wouldn't leave the sideline because he didn't feel prepared. Warner ended up getting cut, bagging groceries, and finding a home in the Arena League before reemerging in the NFL with the Rams four years later.

"Obviously, he's a lot different now; the guy has played phenomenal. He's not afraid to go in now," Favre said in a light moment.

At the time, Favre's backups were Mark Brunell and Ty Detmer, so there was little chance of Warner earning a roster spot.

"I wasn't really sure what to expect. I hadn't played much in college," Warner recalled. "I wanted to believe in my heart I could play but wasn't really sure when I went in."

Warner, 37, said the brief stint in Green Bay ultimately provided him with confidence. He's still going strong.

"I didn't know much about him at the time," said Favre. "There are a lot of guys that come and go that, for whatever reason, have never panned out. He's one of those guys that when he got the opportunity, he made the most of it."

Etc.
Dept. of Transportation
Falcons defensive end John Abraham might have created a marketing opportunity for running back Michael Turner without realizing it. With Turner off to an impressive start in his first season in Atlanta (366 yards, 59 yards, 5 TDs), Abraham decided he needed a nickname - and figuring that Jerome Bettis was successful as "The Bus," he dubbed Turner "The MARTA." The MARTA, of course, is the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, which the 2-1 Falcons are hoping to ride to victory.

Stating it clearly
Which states have produced the most players in the NFL this season? The top five:

1. California, 214

2. Florida, 185

3. Texas, 170

4. Ohio, 90

5. Georgia, 83

Vision of greatness
Curious why Hall of Fame linebacker Mike Singletary, now an assistant head coach with the 49ers, always played with his eyes opened so wide? "A lot of people thought it was to intimate the other players, but it had nothing to do with intimidation," said the Bears great. "I was working on how to fix my eyes to see the entire field. It's one of the things I try to teach my linebackers now because vision is so important; you have to be able see as much as you can. You have to start small and increase that vision. One of the ways to do that is that you have to fix your eyes in a certain place, and train your peripheral vision to expand. I was so focused on increasing my peripheral vision from sideline to sideline that it looked like I was a guy possessed."

End of the lineman?
If this is indeed the end of Tom Nalen's career, it was a heck of a run. The 37-year-old center, who was placed on season-ending injured reserve by the Broncos Tuesday with a knee injury, is in the final year of his contract. He has played his entire career in Denver, his 188 starts second in team history, and his 194 games third. Not bad for a seventh-round draft choice out of that offensive line factory Boston College.

Those are the breaks
The NFL starts its "off" weeks today, and they continue through the 10th week of the season. Teams generally prefer to have their breaks closer to the middle of the season. Giants coach Tom Coughlin didn't necessarily complain about his team's early break today, but he seemed less than pleased when pointing out that the three other teams in the NFC East are off in either Week 7 or 10. Why, then, doesn't the NFL simply split the league in half and make 16 teams off in Week 8, and the other 16 off in Week 9? Television is the prime consideration. With only eight games played those weeks, the matchups simply wouldn't be as appealing for the networks.

Trending upward
Bills quarterback Trent Edwards is off to a hot start - completing 67 percent of his passes - which is a primary reason that Buffalo is 3-0 atop the AFC East. A third-round draft choice out of Stanford in 2007, Edwards has surprised even his coaches. "From the very first time he stepped on the field, there was something about him," coach Dick Jauron said. "We certainly looked at all the tape of him coming out of college and thought he was a very good player, but it turns out he's even better than we thought."

Extra points
Ball control has been a key ingredient in the Ravens' surprising 2-0 start, as they have wins over the Bengals and Browns. Baltimore, which faces its toughest test of the young season tomorrow with a trip to Pittsburgh, is averaging 37:02 in time of possession . . . Jauron, who grew up in Swampscott, remains a big Red Sox fan. He said he caught the final three outs of the team's playoff-clinching win over the Indians last Tuesday. "It was great to see the celebration," he said . . . With Hurricane Ike damaging Houston's Reliant Stadium, the facility will no longer have a retractable roof and instead will be an open-air facility. It will mark the first open-air stadium played in by a Houston team since the Oilers called Rice Stadium home in 1967. The Oilers moved into the Astrodome the following season . . . So explosive last season, the Browns rank last in points through three games. It hasn't helped that former Patriots receiver Donte' Stallworth has not suited up after pulling a quad in warmups before the season opener . . . How bad are things for the 0-3 Chiefs? They have not held a lead in their last 21 quarters, a stretch that dates to last season against the Titans (Dec. 16) . . . With the Lions firing general manager Matt Millen, the pressure is now on coach Rod Marinelli to keep his job. Marinelli is in his third season with the club and has one year left on his contract.

Did you know?
Bills kicker Rian Lindell has converted 42 straight field goal attempts of 40 yards or shorter. He is tied with the Falcons' Jason Elam for the longest active such streak.

Mike Reiss can be reached at mreiss@globe.com; material from personal interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.