Singletary eager to return to pro football as Express coach
Mike Singletary, clad in a red Memphis Express pullover, a red Alliance of American Football baseball cap and blue jeans, is teeming with excitement on a rainy Sunday.
Riding shotgun with team president Kosha Irby, the head coach of the firstyear league’s Memphis team arrives at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium where he will spend a couple of hours before joining some of the city’s key figures and influencers at a private party.
Singletary, an integral member of the Chicago Bears’ 1980s revival of the Monsters of the Midway defense and a 1998 Hall of Fame inductee, has been out of the head coaching game since 2010. That’s when his two-plus season stint with the San Francisco 49ers ended. Since then, he has been a linebackers coach (Minnesota Vikings), a defensive assistant (Los Angeles Rams) and a senior adviser to Troy Vincent, the NFL’s executive vice president of football operations. Currently, Singletary is the head coach at Trinity Christian Academy in Addison, Texas, near Dallas.
In short, he’s been jonesing for another shot. He candidly concedes as much.
“Absolutely,” Singletary said. “For me, there are other things in terms of business opportunities and other things that have come about (in recent years). But in terms of football, I was not able to get an opportunity that I wanted. So to
get this one, for this to come across the table, I’m very excited about it.
“When you still want to coach and the opportunity really isn’t there, then you just look at film and talk to more people. After awhile, it all starts sounding the same and looking the same. It was time to put it back into action and take the test. And this is the test.”
Singletary, who will turn 60 on Oct. 9, is looking at the AAF as a chance to get in on the ground floor of a venture brimming with potential. During Singletary’s time away from coaching, he dived headfirst into becoming a student of the game he excelled at as a player.
“I’m a fan of the game,” he said. “I love the history of it. So when I was working with Troy, I traveled around the country visiting with a lot of retired coaches (that) I respect. Guys like (Bill) Parcells and Dan Reeves. That was very, very rewarding.
“(But the AAF) is another chance for me to bring to the forefront these things I’ve learned and been thinking about, like, ‘Where can we go with this? How great can it be?’”
Singletary’s up-and-down tenure as an NFL head coach, followed by nearly a decade’s worth of efforts to get back there, has taught him a number of valuable lessons, many of which he can now impart on a crop of players and assistants whose experiences may mirror his own.
“Sometimes, in order to get people to think outside the box, they have to be at a place in their lives where they’re outside their comfort zone,” he said. “Sometimes, in order to be great, you’ve gotta be desperate.”
The next step for Singletary is following through with his obligations as Trinity Christian’s coach, then transitioning into his role as the Express’ head man. Training camp is scheduled to begin in early January 2019 and will be held in San Antonio. The first game of the season is set for Feb. 9.
The team’s coaching staff will include nine assistants. The majority of the staff is in place, but team officials are not yet ready to announce the hires.
Irby said the Express will take 85 players to training camp and will trim the final roster down to 50 before the season opener.
“When I talk to (general manager) Will Lewis, I said, ‘Here’s the kind of players I want us to get,” Singletary said. “I know well enough to know, after going to a number of combines in the NFL, guys look one way on the field. But when you put the suit on, it’s a whole other deal.”