Sep 4th 2008 12:25PM by Ryan Wilson (author feed)
Filed under: 49ers, NFC West, NFL Coaching
When you hear 49ers offensive coordinator Mike Martz in an interview, he sounds like a reasonable, extremely intelligent football mind. Apparently, he’s also an awesome actor. Because once he steps on the field, It’s Mr. Hyde time.

Cardinals starting quarterback Kurt Warner regaled the San Francisco media with stories of what playing for Martz entailed during their time together in St. Louis. Basically, it was a one-way conversation involving Martz denigrating his quarterbacks. Sounds like a lot of fun.

Which segues nicely into to this revelation from Yahoo’s Michael Silver (via Niner Insider): Mike Silver at Yahoo sports wrote a provocative story about the 49ers’ quarterback situation. According to sources cited by Silver, offensive coordinator Mike Martz would muttered aspersions at [Alex] Smith after feeding him a play at practice. And daily, he buried Shaun Hill in meetings. All this suggests that Martz wanted [J.T.] O’Sullivan to be the starter all along and made sure that it happened. Eh, I’m not sure this is evidence Martz wanted O’Sullivan to win the job. Instead, as Warner pointed out, Martz is just a perfectionist who also happens to be a humongous a-hole. I’m guessing if either Smith or Hill had played better, they would be starting right now. As it turns out, they were less impressive than a journeyman and Smith’s days are likely numbered.Continue Reading