Cooke’s Eyes Turn to the West, Heart Remains With Redskins

It is uncharacteristic time at Redskin Park, so many people being shuffled. Charley Casserly has moved into Bobby Beathard’s office, John Kent Cooke has moved into Beathard’s territory and owner Jack Kent Cooke apparently has a van headed West.

Up the road RFK Stadium may soon qualify as a romantic monument, as the senior Cooke appears resolute in his plans to construct a spacious replacement stadium by 1992 or 1993. Just because there are persistent rumors he’ll sell the team and just because he’s reportedly transporting his more lavish paintings in Middleburg to a new estate in Bel Air, Calif., doesn’t mean he’s deserting the stadium effort. His private jet allows him to cross the country in the span of an afternoon.

California seems to appeal more and more to Cooke, 76, and it is possible the majority of his time now will be spent in the sweeping Bel Air hills. Cooke has not answered questions from Washington Post sports writers for nearly a year, and would not be interviewed for this story.

However sources indicate it’s expected he would migrate to California for late winter and summer, but be back by fall for his beloved football season. If he does sell his Kent Farms home in Virginia -- he has said he will not, though sources said he may unload some grassy acreage near the house-he merely would find an apartment for football season. And he particularly admires Watergate.

About the rumors concerning the sale of the Redskins, these same sources close to Cooke say he’s had offers, because the team is so successful, but they maintain a deal in the near future is not viable. Besides, the unofficial price is a reported $146 million, steeper than what Jerry Jones dished out recently for the Dallas Cowboys and Texas Stadium ($140 million).

Regardless, John Kent Cooke, the owner’s son, has just moved into a $2 million townhome in Georgetown and he doesn’t plan on relocating any time soon. Sources close to the family note that John would move to New York to work in his father’s Chrysler Building or to Los Angeles if the team were on the block.

But who will wear what hats in Redskins management as the 1990s approach? Beathard, the flip-flopped general manager, resigned in May, his duties turned over to 40-year-old Casserly, who has floppy hair, a New JerseyBoston drawl and a lot of smarts. Casserly seemingly is in Beathard’s mold, a scout-turned-GM who looks for gimmicks and innovative contract clauses.

Casserly is different from Beathard in that he’s more self-made, a former high school coach. George Young, the New York Giants’ productive general manager, similarly began as a high school educator. For the last few years, Casserly was an assistant general manager working from a nondescript cubicle.

Unfortunately the fear for Casserly is Beathard’s giant shadow and what might happen should the team slip. He has said he is not staying up at night worrying.

“But hey,” says Young, “Charley shouldn’t have to take that. None of us are irreplaceable! That’s a misconception. Bobby brought a lot of good people in there, and so did Joe (Gibbs, the coach). It’s not one man. There’s only one Napoleon, and the French haven’t figured out if he was a good thing or a bad thing, frankly.

“The question becomes whether the man makes the times or the times make the man. You’d never have great generals without the wars ... Bobby had a good organization, good coaches, good players. It’s not a one-man deal. I shudder when I hear the word genius. Not in pro football! If you’re gonna be a genius, be it in something that helps people. This is just the entertainment business.”

Down the hall from Casserly is his immediate boss, John Kent Cooke, who is rapidly gaining esteem league-wide. Evidence is Commissioner Pete Rozelle’s placement of Cooke this week on the new commissioner search committee.

New York Giants owner Wellington Mara, co-chairman of the committee, said he remembers in past years that Beathard was Jack Kent Cooke’s right-hand man at league meetings. But nowadays John Kent Cooke is stepping into Beathard’s place.

“He’s presented himself forcefully,” Mara said this week.

Sources close to John Kent Cooke, however, maintain he’s always played a role behind the scenes. Cynics wonder if he knows sports, but he was associated with the Los Angeles Lakers and Kings and is now the heir to the Redskins throne. In a recent article in the Fauquier Citizen, his father was quoted as saying his son has “growing responsibilities with the football team.”

But, make no mistake, the elder Cooke is pre-eminent in terms of all team affairs. Even with the expected move to Bel Air, this does not figure to change.

Mara has noticed, “(Jack Kent Cooke) hasn’t attended many league meetings.” Apparently they bore him. League officials remember the year he attended one morning session in New York and owners haggled over whether to fine teams if their players didn’t pull up their socks -- then left in a huff. Nobody knew why. As it turned out he’d bought the Chrysler Building that afternoon.

He’s won Super Bowls; so, apparently, his last challenge in sports is building this new stadium, which likely is to bear his name -- a la Miami’s Joe Robbie. Yet the status of this stadium is anyone’s guess.

According to Artis Hampshire-Cowan, legal counsel of the Armory Board, Cooke is supposed to produce a site plan any time now. It’s a sensitive issue, actually. At every meeting between Cooke’s people and the Armory people, Cowan said she asks where the stadium site plan might be. No one says.