COACHES, PRIDE AND PAYBACK.

Byline: JIM GORDON

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In America, successful football coaches are praised, well-compensated and in some places, darn-near worshipped.

For what? For winning games -- and thereby bringing apparently badly needed self-esteem to the community (We're No. 1 We're No. 1!)

Yet San Francisco 49ers head coach Mike Singletary managed to get lionized without winning so much as a single contest. How? By having the pride to be embarrassed by his team's dismal first performance, by sending a malcontent to the dressing room, and by going in a mini-tirade in his first post-game press conference.

"Cannot play with them, cannot win with them, cannot coach them," Singletary fumed about players like Vernon Davis, whom he sent to the locker room after the tight end committed a mindless personal foul, them mouthed back to Singletary when he was chastised for it. "Can't do it," Singletary went on. "I want winners.

I want people that want to win."

The praise rolled in as Singletary became, in one columnist's words, "the king of coaching law and order."

Which was all fine and good -- until it was leaked that in order to make his point about being embarrassed, Singletary at halftime had dropped his drawers for three minutes during his locker room oratory (he was wearing boxers, but still ).

Now some are wondering if Singletary is too tightly wound for the job. Because of his emphasis on effort and discipline, I hope the answer is no. But the jury's out on old crazy eyes.

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The jury's long been in on Florida head coach Urban Meyer -- as far as wins and losses go. He wins.

But coaches, whether they want to be or not, serve as role models. On Saturday, Meyer modeled the joy of the put-down and the payback.

A year ago, Georgia head coach Mark Richt ordered his team to go nuts on their first score, and it did -- every Bulldog rushing to the end zone, jumping up and down and taunting Meyer's team. It was a bush-league tactic, but it ignited a Georgia victory in Gainesville, Fla.

The Bulldogs' karma caught up with them this year in Athens, Ga., when the Gators beat them 49-10. The payback and putdown came when Meyer called two late timeouts which served no purpose other than to extend the humiliation.

Then, after the game, Meyer insulted everyone's intelligence by saying he stopped the clock in order to get a couple of more carries for his third-string tailback.

Using last year's game to motivate his team is one thing -- accepted and smart coaching tactic. But then rubbing it in -- and lying about it -- is quite another. I'm not saying it isn't common; I'm saying it's common in more than one meaning of the word.

It's also a bad example for every player on his team and every young Florida fan who watched the game.

Oh. And from the tactical side of things, it gives Richt that much more motivational fodder for the Bulldogs to get their revenge next year.

Contact Jim Gordon at [e-mail].

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