Singletary on Davis-Crabtree spat: 'The elephant was exposed'

A heated exchange between San Francisco 49ers tight end Vernon Davis and wide receiver Michael Crabtree on Wednesday led coach Mike Singletary to proclaim afterward, "There are no more elephants in the room. The elephant was exposed," according to The Sacramento Bee's Matthew Barrows. Singletary didn't say what the mid-practice beef was about, but the coach felt the need to mediate the heated discussion -- seemingly initiated by Davis, a team captain -- and separate two of his best skill players. Then, while the rest of the team participated in a pre-game walkthrough, Singletary escorted Davis and Crabtree to the locker room, where the three men remained for aproximately 10 minutes. Davis was the first to emerge, with Crabtree and Singletary following soon thereafter. Singletary wouldn't go into detail about the incident in his news conference, but he did have some interesting things to say about it. "Vernon and Crabtree -- just to let you know -- I will not talk about the issue. But I will talk about this. They were both wrong," Singletary said. "And we will not have distractions on this team. Vernon just forgot temporarily that this is not allowed. We don't do that. We don't treat family like that. We don't disrespect each other. I just needed to remind him that's not who were are." Singletary continued to suggest that Davis was in the wrong. "I appreciate Vernon speaking from his heart," Singletary said. "But he was just wrong. But he indeed is every bit the reason why I made him captain. He's not going to sugar-coat things. He doesn't know how to sugar-coat things. I wish he did sometimes."

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