BREAKING NEWS: MIKE NOLAN NOW THE MOST COCKY UNEMPLOYED GUY IN THE WORLD

Gone. Gone are suits. Gone are the denial-ridden press conferences. The stubborn refusal to admit any mistake in strategy or personnel. The gameday decisions so dumb it made your brain hurt just to think about how dumb they were. And, thank you sweet heavens, gone is one of the worst replay challengers ever seen on the playing fields of the NFL (never mind his misleading percentage -- it doesn't count the plays he should've challenged). Gone is Mike Nolan. Not dead, mind you -- though his head coaching career may well be -- just fired from the 49ers.

There's no way to know if interim (or is he?) head coach Mike Singletary will be any better than Nolan, but as a longtime Niner fan I can tell you I'm almost certain he won't be any worse on Sundays. Nolan deserves due credit for helping to assemble a tremendously more talented roster than the one he inherited from the Terry Donahue Holocaust Administration. But where he failed -- as "The Face of The Franchise" as he was so fond of calling himself, and as a gameday coach -- he failed miserably. And while we don't know how Singletary will fare on Sundays, I think he's already got me more inspired knowing I'll be hearing him answer the tough questions after games the rest of the year.

There's talk the Niners may simply name Singletary head coach (no "interim") and are at present negotiating a long-term contract with him. While I like Singletary, and think he has the leadership qualities needed to maximize the Niners talent, this would be a mistake. The reason I'm so in favor of this move -- besides not having to listen to Nolan talk anymore -- is that it gives Singletary a more than half-season trial run as H.C. to show what he brings to the table, and gives the Niners brass a chance to see if they like what they see. The brass may think they already know what they've got in Singletary -- he's been there three and a half years -- but people change when they become the man in charge. Nolan did.

Nolan was inspiring right out of the gate. Those questionable quirks, like the "WIN THE WEST" banner his first year, were kind of endearing. But, like in most relationships, that wears off fast. And if you can't win 1/3 of your games, you could look like a Chinese baby and people still won't think you're cute. Especially when you spend most of your time talking down to them like they don't understand how well you're really doing.