Just back from the 49ers Wednesday media access.  From all indications, Michael Crabtree will start on Sunday against Houston – this after a 70-plus day contract and zero work in the spring due to injury.

I asked Mike Singletary if he has any concerns about the message that would be sent to the rest of the locker room – you know to the guys who sweated through two-a-days and nutcracker drills – by immediately inserting Crabtree into the starting lineup.

Singetary’s response?

“ The most important message is that we want to win,” Singletary said. ”

Singletary indicated that anyone getting a look at Crabtree on the field the past two weeks would be able to see the potential.

“He hasn’t been sitting around on his couch watching TV,” Singletary said. “You don’t have to be a Phi Beta Kappa to see it…

“I could be stubborn. I could be a knucklehead and say, ‘You know what, he wasn’t here, Josh is going to start or this guy is going to start and that’s the way it’s going to be.’ You know what? I think I want to be fair to the team. The team comes first, and the team wants to win. And we’re going to do all that we can to get the best 11 players on the field to give us a chance to win.”

Don’t know what Crabtree thinks about all this because the media was informed by a PR staffer that he “isn’t talking today, he’ll talk Thursday,” while Michael was standing in front of his locker and while every other player in the room was available to talk. That’s the kind of treatment Jerry Rice used to get – though he achieved quite a bit more before he had that kind of locker room interview editing.

Maybe the 49rs saw how nervous Crabtree was when he first signed, how he stuck to his script, and just want to protect him. Who knows? But the 49ers need to make sure they don’t give Crabtree the prima donna treatment before he earns it. Rushing him into the starting lineup, protecting him from the media.

The 49ers are creating a situation where the pressue is on Crabtree to produce. Something even the great Rice struggled with in his first NFL season. And he went through traning camp.

Tags: 49ers, Crabtree, Singletary

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