York looking for a GM - several months too late

The visitors' locker room in the Edward Jones Dome had almost cleared out Sunday afternoon when Jed York appeared and made himself available to reporters. The 49ers' young president began cleaning out the team's headquarters right there, 1,800 miles from home.

Mike Singletary received a de facto dismissal in the locker room when York declined to say whether the head coach would even be on the sidelines for the meaningless season finale against Arizona next week. The actual ax fell after the team plane landed in California on Sunday night.

Singletary's tenure as head coach ended with a 25-17 loss in St. Louis that shredded the 49ers' last playoff hopes and repeated the critical themes of this miserable 5-10 season: aimlessness, foolishness and sloppiness. York had to step in and assure the fan base that the team, now eight years removed from its last playoff appearance, would not hit the same trifecta again in 2011.