Singletary admits he was a poor sport at end of Falcons game

[Peyton]

Mike Singletary admitted today that he did not shake Falcons coach Mike Smith's hand after Sunday's loss in Atlanta. Singletary acknowledged that he was "ticked" after the 49ers lost the lead in the final seconds. "It was poor sportsmanship on my behalf," he said. "That's all it was."

The tape of the television broadcast shows Singletary on the sideline on his knee at the very end of the game. When the final whistle sounds, the camera cuts to other players and coaches shaking hands at midfield. When it returns to Singletary, Singletary is walking off the field slowly while staring into the stands.

Singletary was not as sharp as he normally is after the game. He misinterpreted several questions and overall seemed fuzzy on the details from the game. When I suggested he might have been preoccupied - Ok, I used the phrase "in a daze" -- when it came time to shake hands, though, he bristled.

"I don't know if any of you guys ever get ticked," he said. "I'd be the first to tell my kids, 'That's wrong.' I should've gone over and shook his hand. ... "I chose not to (shake Smith's hand) for a number of reasons. But nothing else was on my mind. But I was disappointed and that was a very honest feeling after the game."

After last year's game against Atlanta, Singletary got into a sideline shouting match with Falcons guard Harvey Dahl and afterward said he needed to do a better job of controlling his emotions. He also used all three timeouts at the very end of the 2009 game even though the score was 45-10 at the time. (I'm not sure that anger carried over into Sunday's game; there's a picture of Singletary and Smith chatting in the gallery to the right).

Yesterday, I called the Falcons looking for verification that Singletary did not shake hands with Smith.

"We've moved past it," spokesman Reggie Roberts said curtly.

Moved past what?

"We've moved past it," he said. "We're onto the Cleveland Browns."

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