When drafting a potential face of your franchise, the last thing you want is for there to be any distractions. Sometimes parents of a star player can be just that.
Michigan State quarterback Connor Cook was once hyped as a lock as a first-round quarterback but he had to wait until the 100th overall pick (in the fourth round) of the 2016 NFL Draft before the Oakland Raiders finally picked him.
His dad must have been livid. Some even think Cook’s father and his outspoken nature on Twitter may have impacted Cook’s draft stock.
Detroit Sports Rag did some digging around to see just what was going on with the Twitterfeed of Chris Cook, father of Connor, and ohhhhhh boy did they find some “good” stuff. A browsing of Chris Cook’s now deleted Twitterfeed uncovered a string of tweets that were either racist or homophobic in nature. In other words, Chris Cook is certainly no PC bro.
Cook has verbally attacked MSNBC host Rachel Maddow and Detroit News sportswriter Josh Katzenstein while also defending Curt Schilling against what he refers to as “the F’ing #PCculture.” For good measure, he also took aim at women’s basketball star Brittney Griner, Al Sharpton and, of course, Barack Obama. This is just simply scratching the surface. There are many, many more tweets to sift through, or at least screenshots of those tweets for archival purposes.
Here are a couple more from Connor Cook’s dad. Crazy that the NFL questioned his demeanor. pic.twitter.com/VElAtptaFG
— JeffMossDSR (@JeffMossDSR) May 5, 2016
Here is Connor Cook’s dad Tweeting at a player who supposedly took a cheap shot at Connor: pic.twitter.com/hltUs7KNW4
— JeffMossDSR (@JeffMossDSR) May 5, 2016
This is hilarious. How long until @ChrisCook90 makes his Twitter account private? pic.twitter.com/Tdfbzlhwub
— JeffMossDSR (@JeffMossDSR) May 5, 2016
The only question is how many Donald Trump signs are on @ChrisCook90’s front lawn: pic.twitter.com/cilS7CQASl
— JeffMossDSR (@JeffMossDSR) May 5, 2016
It might be a little bit of a leap to suggest Connor Cook dropped in the NFL Draft as far as he did based on his father’s Twitter habits, but it is worth asking as a possible cause.
Keep in mind what NFL franchises want when they draft players. They want positive stories and good publicity to come from their players. The last thing they want is for their players to get into trouble, personally or tangentially. The next to last thing they want is for the players’ family to become a sideshow.
Case in point: the Miami Dolphins and Brent Grimes and Miko Grimes. Some had suggested the Dolphins had enough of Grimes’ wife causing negative headlines and that may be why he became a free agent. Again, buy it if you want, but there are many factors that go into NFL decision-making. The crazy family member is more than likely far down the agenda, but it’s on the agenda.
Connor Cook had plenty of red flags himself headed into the draft. The lack of captaincy appeared to be a steady question. So was his arm’s health and his own personality. Some would say his cockiness. (Wonder where that came from…).
Maybe Cook’s stock was hurt by his father’s childish keyboard muscles. Maybe they weren’t. Either way, as Connor Cook begins his professional career, at least he knows he will have a father ready to back him up every step of the way. That’s a good thing, right? Right???
