ULTIMATE MENTOR
Gates finds teacher in Express coach Singletary
At Memphis Express practice Wednesday, linebacker Demarquis Gates was pulled aside for a drill with head coach Mike Singletary.
Singletary held out a towel like a matador and Gates dove for it as Singletary barked orders.
“Drive your feet!” Singletary yelled at one point.
It was a master class in linebacking school. Gates, the Ole Miss product trying to extend his football dream, learning from Singletary, one of the greatest to ever play the position.
“You definitely have to soak it in. When it’s coming from a Hall of Famer, he’s done it before, he’s been in my shoes, so he definitely knows what he’s talking about,” Gates said.
Heading into the Express’ home opener Saturday at the Liberty Bowl, Gates was a bright spot in the team’s shutout loss to the Birmingham Iron. He forced two fumbles that his teammates recovered.
For somebody who hadn’t played in a game in just over a year, it looked like he hadn’t missed a beat.
“I’ve been playing since I was four years old,” Gates said.
“The coverages really don’t change. Football’s been football since football’s been here so I just try to play how I
know how to play.”
It’s a partnership that Gates and Singletary hope leads to an improved defensive showing Saturday against the Arizona Hotshots, which scored 38 points in their opening win.
Singletary said he’s worked with Gates on developing a balance between trusting his instincts and staying within his assignment.
“He’s a good linebacker. He’s a guy that’s in the process of becoming very special,” Singletary said. “He has to learn to push himself and take it to the next level and he can do that.”
Gates went undrafted after his senior year and had a brief stint trying out for the San Francisco 49ers. He was signed by the Cleveland Browns but a month later, he was waived. He didn’t lose hope even as he took on a data entry job back in Oxford. Watching teammates and friends was a humbling experience but it kept him patient.
When the AAF came calling, he was ready to give it another try. Of course, it didn’t hurt he’d be learning under Singletary, whose final NFL game in 1992 was four years before Gates was born.
“He didn’t have to show us anything because we already looked him up,” Gates said. “If you don’t know who Mike Singletary is, then you don’t know football.”
It made him even more excited that the man once called “Samurai Mike” is now his sensei — a teacher willing to share his wisdom by any means necessary. Even if it means diving at a towel over and over again to refine his tackling.
“You get your old school mixed with your new school cause I’m more of a new school player,” Gates said. “So it’s getting old tricks. You’re learning from a Hall of Famer, he perfected the craft so you got to take his knowledge.”