Bly apologizes for showing off

If Mike Singletary’s vision were a little better, 49ers cornerback Dre’ Bly might have received the Vernon Davis Treatment.

Instead, Singletary’s eyes were focused on the loosely held football during Bly’s premature — and ill-advised — celebration after intercepting a Matt Ryan pass with the Atlanta Falcons holding a 35-10 lead in the third quarter.

Bly broke into Deion Sanders’ signature move of holding the football in one hand and placing his other hand behind his helmet to preen. But Falcons receiver Roddy White spoiled the moment for Bly when he quickly caught up to Bly and forced a fumble that the Falcons recovered.

“If I would have (had) knowledge that there was any Deion whatever, I probably would have handled it differently,” Singletary said. “No, I wouldn’t probably, I would have handled it differently.

“But I didn’t see that.”

Singletary saw Davis flick the face mask of then-Seattle defender Brian Russell last season. When Davis showed little remorse for the penalty, Singletary banished Davis to the locker room.

Bly was unapologetic and defiant after the game, saying he was merely having fun and expressing himself. Thankfully for Bly, he changed his tune Monday morning after reporting back to work and seeking an audience with Singletary.

The 11-year veteran cornerback apologized to Singletary, and then accepted Singletary’s recommendation that he issue a public apology. And that’s exactly what Bly did during the time slot that’s usually reserved for Singletary’s day-after-game media conference.

Bly entered the room shortly after Singletary began his address to the media.

Then, Singletary called Bly to the microphone and stepped aside.

“I want to come to you all and publicly apologize for yesterday,” said Bly, who was speaking without notes. “My comments, it was totally, totally inappropriate. I apologized to coach. I’m not a selfish guy. I didn’t mean to embarrass him — if I did embarrass him — embarrass my team, embarrass ownership, embarrass the fans.

“I’m a prideful guy. I like to have fun. It was totally inappropriate. I got caught up in the moment and it was wrong.”

Even after Bly’s apology, Singletary did take issue with Bly’s comment about having fun.

“I don’t think that’s fun,” Singletary said. “It’s not fun at 35-10. Fun is when you’re ahead and you might get an interception. That’s great. That’s fun. But you’re not having fun when you’re behind 35-10. And that’s a little something that he and I have to clean up because that’s not fun.”

Apparently it also was not fun for Bly, 32, to be caught from behind so quickly. He said in the old days, that play would have gone for a touchdown. Bly has eight career touchdowns on returns.

“Normally, when I intercept balls like that in the past, when I see that end zone, I think I’m going to score, and that was my initial thinking,” Bly said. “Like I say, it was inappropriate. I should’ve been smarter.”

ROSSUM RELEASED

Return specialist Allen Rossum personally thanked Singletary and general manager Scot McCloughan for the opportunity to play for the 49ers on Monday after he was notified of his release. The roster move makes room for rookie receiver Michael Crabtree, who now has a spot on the 49ers’ 53-man roster.

Although all of his teammates are allowed to leave town Wednesday afternoon until the 49ers practice again on Monday, Crabtree will be required to work with coaches to learn the offense.

“He’s already had his bye week,” Singletary said. “He’s had a long bye week.”

EXTRA POINTS

The 49ers will consider making a change to replace struggling right guard Chilo Rachal, Singletary said. Tony Wragge is the top backup at both guard positions. Singletary placed the blame for quarterback Shaun Hill’s struggles on the line.

“It was more a case of some of the offensive line breakdown in terms of the pass protection,” Singletary said. “We will address that this week, next week. We might have to make some changes there going forward.”

At the conclusion of Singletary’s press conference, he lingered to make one additional statement:

“I’m not going to apologize to the fans again, but the one thing that I want you to know after a game like yesterday, it’s a situation where you kind of sit back and go, ‘Wow, I didn’t really know that could happen again.’ And the thing I will say is this, this team will be a special team, this year will be a special year. It’s unfortunate as to what happened yesterday. As a staff, we did not do a good job preparing for a team (coming off) a bye week. But going forward, we will come back and we will get better and we will be a team for our fans to be proud of.”

For more on the 49ers, go to Instant 49ers at blog.pressdemocrat.com/49ers. You can reach Staff Writer Matt Maiocco at matt.maiocco@pressdemocrat.com.