I have no idea whether Mike Singletary's approach will work in today's NFL. I have no idea whether players will listen to him, tune him out or tape him to a goal post.

I don't care.

For those of us who have stood by and watched entitled athletes take over the sports world, it's great to know a new sheriff has arrived via horseback, with his pants at his ankles, no easy accomplishment when you think about it.

Singletary might not last as the 49ers' interim coach. He might never get the respect of his players. He eventually might be looked upon as a caricature.

Doesn't matter.

For now, all is right with the world.

Upset with the way his team was playing against Seattle last week, Singletary walked into the locker room at halftime, pulled down his pants, pointed to his rear end and said the 49ers were playing like, well, that.

He was considerate enough to keep his boxers on. I'm not sure Mike Ditka would have been able to show such restraint back in the day. Or yesterday, for that matter.

"I used my pants to illustrate that we were getting our tails whipped on Sunday and how humiliating that should feel for all of us," Singletary wrote on his blog on the 49ers' Web site. "I needed to do something to dramatize my point; there were other ways I could have done it, but I think this got the message across."

Later in the game, his first as the 49ers' coach, Singletary kicked tight end Vernon Davis off the field after a personal foul. In a game a month earlier against New Orleans, Davis had celebrated his one catch by pounding his chest. Translation: He wanted the ball more.

"I'd rather play with 10 people ... than play with 11 when I know that right now that person is not sold out to be a part of this team," Singletary said Sunday. "It is more about them than it is about the team. Cannot play with them, cannot win with them, cannot coach with them. Can't do it. I want winners."

To reiterate: my hero.

Singletary's words and actions have resonated with fans not because he's another lunatic coach, which is what some might believe if they saw his press-conference outburst about Davis. It's now a YouTube hit. The impact of his comments can be attributed to one thing: Fans are fed up.

They want the kind of effort and fire from players they see in Singletary, who, as a Bears linebacker, roamed the field with the fervor of a lion at a convention of weak, sick and young herd members.

They want to know that players care as much about the team as they do.

They want players to understand what a privilege it is to be a professional athlete.

They want players to see that salaries are obscene and that ticket prices aren't far behind.

Borrowing liberally from "Animal House," they want players to realize that angry, selfish and unapproachable is no way to go through life.

They want people of passion — like Singletary, who learned from the master, Ditka, who once broke his hand by hitting a locker while coaching the Bears.

Pulling down your pants to show displeasure isn't a natural thing. It's a spontaneous act that comes about when your eyes tell your brain to do something drastic about all the ugliness. If you had to coach players who are as bad as the 49ers and who don't seem to care that they're bad, you might find yourself unbuckling your belt too.

The press-conference rant about Davis has led to some criticism of Singletary as being a me-first coach; reprimanding Davis privately would have been the way to go, the critics say.

But that's not Singletary. He saw a wrong, and he wanted to right it. Right then and there. No one ever has been able to say Singletary doesn't care, so the idea of him handling a situation quietly and through channels, a la Lovie Smith, is silly. This is exactly why a team would hire Singletary as coach. For his head and his heart.

What he did in his first game was not a college gimmick. It was genuineness. The NFL could use a little bit more of that.

If veteran players tune Singletary out, it's their loss and San Francisco's loss. But, again, if they do, it doesn't matter. A statement already has been made. It's nice to know somebody in a position of authority feels the same way the huddled masses do.

Singletary is out of touch with the modern athlete? No, the modern athlete is out of touch with the modern world.

Way to go, Mike. Keep up the good work.