One of Mike Singletary's first moves after taking over as interim coach was to add former NFL official Ron Blum to 49es' coaching box on game days.
Blum spent 23 seasons as an NFL official and called two Super Bowls before retiring at the end of last season. He joins five members of the 49ers' coaching staff and director of football operations Paraag Marathe in the team's coaches' booth.
Blum's presence in the 49ers' coaches booth was not previously known until he was spotted on the same level as the press box for Sunday's game against the Buffalo Bills.
The logical conclusion was that Blum was brought in as a consultant after the 49ers' botched the final crucial moments of their nationally televised Monday night game against the Arizona Cardinals last month.
However, a team spokesman said Tuesday that Blum was in the booth for that game. Blum's first game was the Oct. 26 game against the Seattle Seahawks, the team says.
Singletary declined to describe the specifics of Blum's role when asked about it after Sunday's game. But it would seem only logical that Blum would be called upon to assist with rules interpretations and replay challenges.
The 49ers, under former coach Mike Nolan and Singletary, lost their first six replay challenges of the season before winning one against the Dallas Cowboys last week.
"Ron is a guy retired guy who likes football," Singletary said. "He's helped us with some things, as far as certain calls or whatever. . . . It's not a big deal."
Blum has been a regular at the 49ers' practice facility this season. The 49ers hire two high-school officials for every practice, and Blum has joined them on occasion.
Greetings Matt! Ironically, the Bills caught a good review on the Gore fumble late, when Baas took him down.
I too, thought the ground couldn't cause fumbles and was obviously shown that it could.
Our game plan, to devote to the running against a decent Bills front, will pay dividends against the Jets I think.
Our biggest area of concern will be getting Brett to throw off his back foot.
Our pressure on the QB is still not good enough, though it worked at some key points on Sunday.
Good to have a road win in the Eastern Time Zone, hope 'Mo' hangs around when the NYJ arrive in Pacific Time.
I got to say Matt, I am continually impressed with Singletary's decisions(including this one). I'm an extreme optomist though. How do you feel about Coach's ability to make good decisions? No doubt he has made mistakes, but overall, how would you grade him thus far?
"I would love to play for a guy like Singletary, who's straightforward with you," guard David Baas said. "You're not beating around the bush all the time.".......ouch, coach nolan....
One of the intangibles Singeltary brings is his ability to better evaluate talent/skill. The moves on the offensive line have paid dividends even though there is still a fairly steep learning curve. I can't help but assume he had a huge input on the selection of Willis in the draft and the signing of Spikes. Also, the receivers are no longer the dregs of the league. Balmer has been given an opportunity and shown flashes. It has to be really difficult to integrate new players into the lineup and maintain the chance to win as opposed to just throwing the rookies in to sink or swim. Finally, there is a noticeable change in attitude and demeanor on the field since Singletary took over. Seems like he would be a good man to take a chance on and eliminate the interim title.
I'm liking Singletary more and more everyday. Not only are the players playing all out for him, it seems he's promoting locker room leaders to step up - something we've been severely lacking the last few years... another reason I'd like to see Spikes back as well.
I hope he keeps the HC job next year, to see what he can do in a full season. So far, coach Sing deserves it.
Seems like a smart move by Singletary. Yet given the quality of NFL officiating, I can't help but wonder whether it was Blum who erroneously and idiotically told the coaches that the clock would be reset to 12 seconds after the review in the Arizona game... Since any somewhat dedicated NFL fan knows that is wrong, I'm thinking the coaches would not have believed it coming from anyone else except for the ex-ref.
Maybe the next smart move by Singletary would be to get Paraag Marathe out of the booth - he doesn't belong there.