Chicago Bears Countdown to Kickoff: 50 Days with Mike Singletary
By Peter Jurich
Mike Singletary joins Hall of Fame as Chicago Bear
Following his retirement from the NFL as a player, Singletary remained very close to the game of football, both as a coach and via several accolades and awards. Just a little over a decade after stepping away from the Bears, Singletary joined the Baltimore Ravens as the team's linebackers coach. After two seasons with the Ravens, Singletary worked for the San Francisco 49ers, serving initially as a linebackers coach before eventually becoming the team's head coach in 2009.
After two seasons as head coach, Singletary was relieved of his coaching duties after the 2010 season. Since his head coaching gig, Singletary has worked for the Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Rams as an assistant, as well as spending time coaching at the high school level and within other professional leagues. In recent years, Singletary has also served as a motivational speaker outside of his time spent as a coach.
Outside of his coaching career, Singletary has stayed very relevant within the world of football. Singletary was inducted into the Professional Football Hall of Fame in 1998, alongside Anthony Munoz as the two first-ballot inductees. Just three years prior, the Baylor product was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. He was not only added to the Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame, but the school set up a trophy in his name given to the senior who "bring[s] honor to the school both on and off the field".
Whether it was for Baylor or in Chicago, it is hard to deny that Singletary is one of the best Bears of all time. As a professional, Samurai Mike was the heart and soul of perhaps the best defense in the history of football, and serving as the surrogate player of one of the best defensive coordinators of all time.
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Singletary is one of many great linebackers to come through the Chicago Bears, following the likes of Bill George and Dick Butkus while making life easier for Brian Urlacher in the future. For his era, Singletary did everything you could have asked as the middle linebacker of a star-studded defense and then some.