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Originally Posted by skinsfan69
Cooke basically disowned his own son ( Ralph) for several years. Also pretty much screwed John over when it came to getting the team, even though John was 10% owner.
He almost fired Gibbs after 5 games and made him and BB go to his house after games during that 0-5 start.
Also a lot of bad stories about him when he ran Lakers/Kings. Employees were subject to termination if they didn't pick up their phones after a certain amount of rings. Same stuff as Snyder... you didn't talk to him unless he talked to you. No one was allowed to call him anything but Mr. Cooke. When he talked to you you had to respond w, "Yes sir -no sir" No one was allowed to talk while at work or call each other by their first names. Really weird shit.
Dan is kind of a shitty guy but no one has heard anything about him being a crappy parent. Cooke on the other hand? idk..
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Well, family disputes are complicated, especially among the high & mighty.
Almost only counts in horseshoes and he never fired Gibbs. The thought would cross most peoples' minds after 5 losses, but he did not act on it. Now, what would Danny have done?
With regards to the Lakers stuff, that was not considered unusual at all back then. Sign of the times. Plus there was no big money, let alone free agency, and athletes were generally more pliant. Different times.
Also, Cooke was a very regal figure for most of his like. Calling him Mr. Cooke or Sir was not only customary for those times, but also normal due to this stature. Mostly though, it was because Cooke accomplished great things and earned that deference and respect. Can anyone say the same about Snyder?
You raise an interesting point with regards to Cooke's son and the team. It looked like as you describe. But I have since heard that Cooke did that in a (boneheaded) move to reduce taxes or some such. I would chalk it up to the fact that most of his final decisions were characterized by questionable judgement- his final marriage, the design of FedEx field, stadium negotiations with DC that were at best neurotic. In short, Cooke had become a very old man who had diminished impulse control and perhaps diminished faculties.
So, I would not call those horror stories. They were simply accounts of man from a different age who lived in a world we can only imagine.
