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		49ers, Singletary no on O'Donnell post game interviews return By David Zizmor December 2, 2010

	SANTA CLARA--The 49ers and their head coach Mike Singletary have said that they do not want KPIX post game anchor and the station's sports director Dennis O'Donnell back doing any more post game interviews with head coach Mike Singletary. The source said that the 49ers were asked again if time had cooled and would coach Singletary be open for post game interviews and weekly interviews live with O'Donnell and that the team flat out said no. The show is a contracted show between the Niners and CBS 5 and so the team has preference or say into the content of the show. O'Donnell who was interviewing Singletary the week of September 15th about why the team had difficulties against the Seattle Seahawks on opening week who they played on September 12th. Singletary became angry by O'Donnell's line of questioning and O'Donnell continued to ask some questions that Singletary felt were either pointed or touchy. O'Donnell then tried to go another direction in the interview but it was too late Singletary was heated. O'Donnell tried to apologize after the interview was over but Singletary looked like he had enough. The source said that the Niners were asked if they were interested in having O'Donnell back at some point but the Niners said they straight out didn't even consider it for a moment and that they were happy with CBS 5 sports anchor Kim Coyle doing the post game interviews. The interviews were conducted live from the CBS 5 studios to wherever Singletary was located when O'Donnell did them. Now Coyle conducts interviews live wherever Singletary is home or on the road in person. My take: Dennis O'Donnell shouldn't have been banned, I thought the whole O'Donnell and Singletary mishap was an over reaction on Singletary's part. O'Donnell didn't ask any questions that were out of line. They maybe were unexpected by Singletary and to be fair Singletary doesn't like to be interviewed by anybody anyways let alone Dennis O'Donnell. Singletary is a tough interview to begin with and when he gets tough questions that he's not interested in he gets pretty stoic. He kind of closes up and he makes them much more difficult for the interviewer. O'Donnell was asking questions of Singletary that he didn't particularly care for at a time when Singletary was under a lot of stress because the team was doing badly. Singletary lashed out in the interview with O'Donnell and it resulted in O'Donnell not being allowed to interview Singletary anymore. O'Donnell wasn't wrong to ask the questions and O'Donnell's questions to Singletary were perfectly fine. O'Donnell was banned by Singletary because Singletary isn't particularly an indepth interviewee but one things straight O'Donnell will not be returning as interviewer for any live one on ones with Singletary at least for this season. Gore will not need a hip operation: Running back Frank Gore who fractured his hip in Monday night's game in Arizona will not need a hip operation. The injury was termed a non displaced fracture that can heal smoothly and that Gore is expected to be out "a few weeks" according to the Niners medical staff. The injury was not as serious as say a Bo Jackson type hip fracture which ended Jackson's career in football. "We will wait a few weeks and check it again and see how the progression is and kind of go from there. But he should be fine" said Singletary Brian Westbrook in the role: It's tough to say right now how big a role Westbrook is going to play filling in for Gore. In this last game Monday night Gore was the starting running back who had five carries for 52 yards and looked really good early on including a big 25 yard run on one of the opening drives. When Gore got hurt Westbrook came in he ended up getting 23 carries for a big total of 136 yards. Niner running back Anthony Dixon got 14 carries off for 54 yards. Obviously Westbrook had the better average yards per carry he was close to six yards a carry, while Dixon was right around fourth. Remember Westbrook is also a better pass catcher then Dixon. So let's not forget that Dixon is a veteran player he's been around the league for awhile he's had injuries issues and especially he's had concussion issues. The 49ers have to be aware of that and when they signed him he was used in a limited role and had touched the ball five times previous to the game in Arizona last Monday night. This isn't a guy who the 49ers were counting on initially prior to the season to get a lot of touches. He was intended to be a back up. Really for most of the season, the Niners wanted another running back in there with Dixon and not Westbrook. Maybe the Niners weren't sure if Westbrook understood the offense enough being the new guy but Westbrook has had as much experience with the offense as Dixon has because Dixon is a rookie. Daivd Zizmor does 49ers commentary each week for Sportstalk radio