After dutifully soaking-in the coverage of Samurai Mike Singletary's promotion to head coach, the unfortunate conclusion becomes: it doesn't matter who San Francisco's head coach is.

The single biggest problem hobbling the 49er brand is that the current DeBartolo-York ownership is inept in overseeing the processes of running a football franchise.

Will Singletary do well? That'd be great. In fact, we him to give the team a bounce. By all accounts he is a man of integrity who connects with his players on a personal level.

And how does the town in which he became a Hall Of Fame MLB think Samurai Mike will do as head coach? "Probably pretty good," said AFS Chicago correspondent Lauren, "I mean, he has to be better than what you had."

Yuh-huh. But how much of the blame was truly Mike Nolan's to absorb? The observation remains: it won't matter how well Singletary does when all the pieces around him are coming apart.

The list of York-era failings gets trotted out time-and-again: the needless firing of Mooch; the politically-motivated isolation and alienation of Bill Walsh; GM Terry Donahue's reign of terror; the lowest bid-price hiring of Dennis Erickson as head coach; snapping off San Francisco stadium negotiations with Gavin; and alas, poor QB Alex Smith.

How will the future be hewn? How can fans trust the owners to make positive decisions? Will OC Mad Mike Martz be kept? Is Scot McCloughan the answer at general manager? What the hell is going on with getting a new stadium built in San Francisco? Or anywhere? And can you believe that they haven't managed to retire Jerry Rice's number yet?!

Photo via AP.

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