SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -Unless Mike Singletary is headed to church, you won't catch the San Francisco 49ers' new coach in a suit and tie on Sundays.
Nearly 16 years after he retired, Singletary is finally comfortable not wearing pads and a helmet on game days. He's just not planning to carry on the sharp-dressed tradition of Mike Nolan, his coaching mentor and boss until last Monday.
Although the Hall of Fame linebacker is quietly thrilled about his interim head coaching debut against the Seattle Seahawks, he's hoping to keep the focus off himself and on the players whose struggles led to Nolan's midseason firing.
"The cameras may be on me, but the game is on them," Singletary said.
Singletary only got into coaching in 2003, a decade after he retired from a memorable career in Chicago. Several former Bears, including Dan Hampton, Richard Dent and Steve McMichael, called this week with support and good-natured razzing, and Singletary planned to seek the counsel of coach Mike Ditka before he steps into Candlestick Park.
He also planned to call Nolan, who restored the 49ers (2-5) to a measure of respectability, but couldn't win consistently.
"Those are my friends," Singletary said. "Those are my mentors, and without them, there would be no me. I had to learn that the hard way."
The 49ers' four-game losing streak prompted Nolan's departure, and Singletary has just nine games to put himself in contention for the permanent job. He understands the fundamentals of being a head coach, from the red challenge flag to clock management, but knows he can only hone them through practice.
"I'm sure I'm going to make boneheaded decisions," Singletary said. "Get that out of the way. There are guys that have been coaching for 20, 30 years, and they make boneheaded decisions, so how do I think I'm going to be any different?"
Another prime candidate for the job - at least in the minds of 49ers fans - will be on the opposite sideline.
But this meeting of struggling NFC West rivals is no job interview for Mike Holmgren, who has too many problems with his own moribund Seahawks (1-5) to worry much about the possibility of returning to San Francisco next season or in 2010.
Instead, Holmgren is just as curious as any other native San Franciscan to see how Singletary will do in tough circumstances.
"It's interesting when you have the great, great, great players like Mike was who choose to go into coaching," said Holmgren, who doesn't know Singletary well. "Coaching isn't as glamorous as just being the star football player. But clearly he wants to do this, and now he gets his crack at it."
