Gold Jacket Spotlight: Patrick Willis forged through adversity
Gold Jacket Spotlight
Published on : 5/19/2025
Middle linebackers often have been referred to as the “quarterbacks of the defense.” They are team leaders responsible for ensuring their teammates are in the right spots to execute whatever play has been called.
If a football team can have a great middle linebacker, it can make everyone’s life a little bit easier.
Hall of Fame linebacker MIKE SINGLETARY knows this well. Not only did he accomplish one of the greatest careers at the position, but he also coached greatness when his own playing days were done. First, RAY LEWIS in Baltimore, then in San Francisco with the subject of this week’s Gold Jacket Spotlight: PATRICK WILLIS.
When the 49ers drafted Patrick 11th overall in 2007, he found a way to impress Singletary, his position coach, by demonstrating a motor without an off switch and with thoughtful questions. He showed Singletary he might have what it takes to succeed in the NFL.
Patrick credits Singletary with getting the most out of him, saying, “Coach Singletary pushed, inspired, motivated and helped elevate [my] game.”
He remembers times Singletary would remind him that players must earn the right to be considered great. No one hands out that status.
Throughout Patrick’s journey, he was accustomed to earning things. Stories from his childhood include enough trauma to create reasons never to find success.
His mother left home when he was only 4. His father was abusive. He lived in a trailer with no running water and would walk to his grandparents’ house to fill buckets with water for use each day. He went to work in cotton fields at age 10.
He was attending high school when a beloved uncle died in a fire. He was 17 when his brother Detris drowned.
Injuries plagued Patrick throughout his career. During his playing days at Ole Miss, he dealt with a broken middle finger on his right hand, a sprained left knee, a right mid-foot injury and a partial AC joint separation. During his NFL career, his feet continued to present chronic issues that ultimately contributed to his decision to retire earlier than many expected.
These moments and experiences could have broken Patrick, but his will to keep showing up and endure won out.
“Just to know everything that Patrick Willis did, all the things he overcame,” Coach Jim Harbaugh said in ESPN interview. “When you look at every picture of him, like going back to college, I mean he had a club on one or both hands and also with his feet, too. That's the epitome of being a football player and, really, a warrior. He's a mighty man.”
A mighty man who was led by mighty men like Singletary and Harbaugh. A man who in his retirement has chosen to impact the next generation of middle linebackers.
Patrick is not coaching in the traditional sense, but instead he utilizes the platform CoachTube to “Build the Beast” through his linebacker training course that is available for young players. He has forged a relationship and provides mentorship to 49ers All-Pro linebacker Fred Warner as a way to stay connected to the game.
A man of character forged through the adversity that life dealt him, Patrick Willis is a linebacker and man that will always be remembered.
If a football team can have a great middle linebacker, it can make everyone’s life a little bit easier.
Hall of Fame linebacker MIKE SINGLETARY knows this well. Not only did he accomplish one of the greatest careers at the position, but he also coached greatness when his own playing days were done. First, RAY LEWIS in Baltimore, then in San Francisco with the subject of this week’s Gold Jacket Spotlight: PATRICK WILLIS.
When the 49ers drafted Patrick 11th overall in 2007, he found a way to impress Singletary, his position coach, by demonstrating a motor without an off switch and with thoughtful questions. He showed Singletary he might have what it takes to succeed in the NFL.
Patrick credits Singletary with getting the most out of him, saying, “Coach Singletary pushed, inspired, motivated and helped elevate [my] game.”
He remembers times Singletary would remind him that players must earn the right to be considered great. No one hands out that status.
Throughout Patrick’s journey, he was accustomed to earning things. Stories from his childhood include enough trauma to create reasons never to find success.
His mother left home when he was only 4. His father was abusive. He lived in a trailer with no running water and would walk to his grandparents’ house to fill buckets with water for use each day. He went to work in cotton fields at age 10.
He was attending high school when a beloved uncle died in a fire. He was 17 when his brother Detris drowned.
Injuries plagued Patrick throughout his career. During his playing days at Ole Miss, he dealt with a broken middle finger on his right hand, a sprained left knee, a right mid-foot injury and a partial AC joint separation. During his NFL career, his feet continued to present chronic issues that ultimately contributed to his decision to retire earlier than many expected.
These moments and experiences could have broken Patrick, but his will to keep showing up and endure won out.
“Just to know everything that Patrick Willis did, all the things he overcame,” Coach Jim Harbaugh said in ESPN interview. “When you look at every picture of him, like going back to college, I mean he had a club on one or both hands and also with his feet, too. That's the epitome of being a football player and, really, a warrior. He's a mighty man.”
A mighty man who was led by mighty men like Singletary and Harbaugh. A man who in his retirement has chosen to impact the next generation of middle linebackers.
Patrick is not coaching in the traditional sense, but instead he utilizes the platform CoachTube to “Build the Beast” through his linebacker training course that is available for young players. He has forged a relationship and provides mentorship to 49ers All-Pro linebacker Fred Warner as a way to stay connected to the game.
A man of character forged through the adversity that life dealt him, Patrick Willis is a linebacker and man that will always be remembered.
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