Pete Carroll has been characterized as a player's coach, and in his profession, that isn't always a compliment.

In fact, it can be used to denote someone who's not able to wield sufficient authority to boss the 53 men on his roster into carrying out his orders with maximum efficiency and effectiveness.

In fact, of all the stereotypes that get handed out in sports, the fire-breathing football coach has some of the very deepest roots.

It's why Mike Singletary was praised in his first game as 49ers interim head coach when he sent tight end Vernon Davis off the field and launched his, "Can't play with 'em" monologue during the press conference afterward.

And it's true, Carroll doesn't tend to cuss his players out or blister his roster with Old Testament anger.

That doesn't mean he's soft, though, because ultimately, employment is the biggest stick a coach can wield, and last month's decision to release Mike Williams showed -- once again -- that Carroll isn't the kind of coach with endless patience.

Any doubts about the cold-blooded nature of the decision-making were reinforced Saturday when Carroll was asked about Williams departure.

"First off, it was just time to move on," Carroll said. "Mike had come back and he had done some good things for us, and I just felt like it was time to just go ahead and move on. Mike had probably topped out what he was going to do for us at this place. Hopefully, he'll get another chance to do something somewhere else."