Stafford won’t talk to shrink, so 49ers don’t want him

The 49ers are apparently concerned with quarterback prospect Matthew Stafford because he won’t open up to a psychologist about his parent’s divorce.

A report in the San Francisco Chronicle suggests Stafford was uncomfortable answering questions at the NFL combine last month from a team psychologist regarding his parents’ divorce. Niners head coach Mike Singletary told KNBR (680 AM) in San Francisco this week that “if you’re going to look at drafting a guy in the first round, and you’re going to pay him millions of dollars, and asking him about a divorce about his parents, if that’s going to be an issue, uhhh, then you know what, maybe he doesn’t belong here.” Stafford, a potential first-round draft pick, told the Detroit Free Press that the psychologist presumed Stafford had “unfinished business” about his parents’ split in high school.

I guess Singletary has a point in that, if a team is going to pay a prospect millions of dollars in the NFL, then it has a right to know as much about the player as possible. But this is a bit absurd. Stafford is only 21 years old – he’s still a kid. Him not wanting to open up to a stranger about a painful topic doesn’t mean he’s a bad egg or that he has psychological problems. It just means that he’d like to handle the manner in his own way and that doesn’t involve talking to a shrink.

Considering Singletary pulled his pants down in front of his team to make a point during a halftime speech last year, maybe he should be the one seeing a psychologist and not Stafford.