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Singletary Serenaded For 51st Birthday

At the start of team meetings this morning, Mike Singletary received an extra special birthday gift – all of his players singing happy birthday to him in unison.

Singletary turned 51 on Friday, but said he would not do anything out of the ordinary to celebrate the day.

“I was telling somebody earlier, every day for me is like my birthday. I’m the most blessed man in the world. To be able to come out here and work with these guys every day, then to go home to my family –it can’t get much better than that. I’m good.”

Other Friday Notes

-The topic of Singletary’s press conference quickly turned to how focused his team would be for Sunday after the signing of first-round pick Michael Crabtree.

“I think our team is very focused, very mature and at this point, we’re not going to let anything take our attention off what’s really important,” Singletary said. “Crabtree is in here, fantastic, great, glad we got him. But, we got Atlanta this weekend. That’s been the focus all week. I’m very thankful our guys see it that way as well.”

-Singletary said the only players out of action will be running back Frank Gore, safety Reggie Smith and linebacker Jeff Ulbrich. (Click here to read both team’s injury reports).

-Asked about his comment from earlier in the week in regards to his defense being the least selfish group he’s been around, Singletary elaborated on his previous statement:

“I’ve been a part of some great defenses and too often what happens is this guy is saying, ‘Wait a minute, I got that sack!’ or ‘Give me a chance to make a sack!’ None of these guys ever talk about. They’re always talking about what is the best way to get to the quarterback. Who’s supposed to be here or there – we never talk about that.

“To me – that’s truly amazing. I think that’s one of the No. 1 reasons we’ve been effective. That’s something we have to continue to do because week in and week out it’s all about gap integrity. If you’re doing your job, forget about everything else, just make sure you do your job first then go ahead and try to do something extra.”

-Earlier in the week Singletary said his offensive line would have to pick up their play, and on Friday he re-visited those comments.

“I had a conversation with them letting them know how much I appreciate their ability to work at it. They’re trying to get where they need to go and that’s a great thing to see and it’s going to pay huge dividends down the road. I’m just excited about their perseverance. They’ve been through a lot. I have to remember that at times and make sure I appreciate the small things they’re trying to do to get big results.”

-Lastly Singletary said he has not made plans for the bye week in regards to practice. “I don’t know, I have a couple of surprises for that. I don’t know just yet, but we’ll talk more about it after the game,” he said.