With a new $1 billion stadium set to go up across the way, structural changes have begun at 49ers headquarters in Santa Clara, and that has spelled doom for one infamous pile of dirt.
Mt. Pain, the brainchild of Mike Singletary, who coached the team between 2008 and 2010, was a formidable, 2,500-ton behemoth that promised to morph the 49ers into warriors.
"It's something you can't get in the weight room. Something you can't really get on the track," Singletary told the San Jose Mercury News back in 2009. "It builds something that's kind of a mystery."
So did Singletary, whose 18-22 run in San Francisco did him in, and led to this gaudy memento being reduced to a patch of dirt in recent days. It won't be missed. Jim Harbaugh ignored it last season, and while we don't have confirmation of this, we imagine players gathering in small groups to laugh at it behind its back.
No mountain deserves that.
