Cooke Cannot Re-Bid For 'Skins

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

January 20, 1999 / 8:44 PM EST / CBS Sportsline

If NFL owners still want John Kent Cooke to buy the Washington Redskins, they'll have to turn down the people who outbid him first.

The Associated Press learned Wednesday trustees overseeing the sale of the Redskins will tell the league's finance committee that they can only submit one bid -- the $800 million offer from Howard and Edward Milstein and Daniel Snyder -- when the two sides meet next week before the Super Bowl in Miami.

"We have a binding agreement," said a source connected with the trustees who requested anonymity. "If a bidder put in a bid for $900 million today, we couldn't accept it."

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Earlier this week, NFL senior vice president Joe Browne said the finance committee believes the trustees' proposals should include a bid from Cooke, who has represented the Redskins at team meetings since the early 1980s and is well-liked by the owners, three-fourth of whom must approve the sale.

"There's some amount of sympathy for his position," said Denver Broncos president and finance committee member Pat Bowlen.

Cooke's father, Jack Kent Cooke, was the majority owner of the Redskins from 1974 until his death in April 1997. When he was alive, the elder Cooke indicated he would leave the team to his son. Instead, his will directed that the Redskins and Jack Kent Cooke Stadium be sold and that the proceeds be used to establish a charitable foundation.

Trustees overseeing the sale of the Redskins will only submit Howard Milstein's $800 million bid to the NFL's finance committee. (AP)

Two sources told the AP that Cooke was unable to win the bidding war for the Redskins even though the trustess were "ore than fair" to Cooke and "bent over backwards" to keep him in the process.

In the end, Cooke was able to piece together a heavily leveraged $680 million bid, $150 million more than the record $530 million paid for the Cleveland Browns last year but $120 million short of the Milstein-Snyder bid.

At next week's meeting, the trustees will explain to the finance committee the details of the bidding process and how the winner was selected. The full NFL ownership could vote on the Milstein-Snyder bid as early as Feb. 16 in Atlanta.

Cooke's only hope is the owners find a reason to turn down the Milstein-Snyder bid, but the trustees have said the bid meets all NFL guidelines.