Toys ‘R’ Us Plans Bankruptcy Filing Amid Debt Struggle

Dave Brandon was a class act and very talented leader and executive. Note that despite the sports blogger's considered opinion (as paraphrased in the parent), Brandon's reputation in the business community is exceptional. Per Bloomberg: Brandon had run Domino’s for 11 years and gained a reputation as a turnaround artist. He helped shepherd the pizza chain, then owned by Bain Capital Partners, through the largest initial public offering in restaurant history in 2004. He got the Domino's job because Bain - no lightweights themselves - thought highly enough of Brandon's CEO performance at Valassis Communications to hire him to run their foundering investment in Dominos. Then Toys R Us hired him. How many people get hired to three significant CEO jobs? Why didn't someone ask the sports blogger? I'm no Fortune 500 CEO, but I know more about business than Cook and I was very impressed by what I saw of Brandon from the outside - a natural, thoughtful, intelligent, highly skilled, high-integrity manager and executive, the kind of manager you seek out to work for.

Brandon left the CEO job at Domino's, a company with billions in revenue, global operations, and >100,000 employees, and where he was quite successful, to rescue from trouble the $100 million, ...

Brandon's performance:

Before him, the athletic department was in the red, the football team was losing (both very unusual situations at U. of Michigan, an elite blue-chip program - like Google search becoming mediocre and unprofitable), and far worse from the perspective of then-Michigan supporters, corruption was brewing. Big-time college sports is a magnet for corruption, with billions of dollars tossed around ostensibly amateur sports, unpaid athletes, and mostly non-profit institutions. U. of Michigan's great tradition and culture, at the time, was that it's an educational institution first; it priorities were its student-athletes and its values ahead of money - integrity first and it wins: The football program is roughly tied for the most successful in college football history (with some parochial school in Indiana). Many say these things; Michigan really did them.

Brandon returned to restore all that. He fired Cook's favorite coach, Rich Rodriguez, who was the only Michigan football coach since 1900 with an overall losing record, including arguably the team's worst season ever; he also was responsible for Michigan football being penalized for its only NCAA violations (i.e., college sports ethics violations) in its history, and was involved in odoriferous situations off the field. Firing was not a hard call, especially for a job among the most sought-after in football. Brandon put the athletic department back on track; he emphatically put the student-athletes first - and before the football fans, as he should have, but earning the enmity of many fans who could care less about the education and welfare of the unpaid students on the field - and he restored the department's integrity and profitability (which soared). He also hired a football coach with exceptional integrity and talent for mentoring college students (see Brady Hoke, below).

Brian Cook, the blogger, is easiest described as like Rush Limbaugh; he likes to inflame his followers, who can be sycophantic, with media campaigns based on sensational lies and half-truths, and in my experience has few limits. For example, early on Cook disliked what a ~13 year old was posting in the MGoBlog forums, so Cook doxxed him, including his home phone number, and Cook's classy followers went after the child (I still regret not calling the state Attorney General's office). He lies brazenly: I once read a newspaper article saying a famous basketball coach 1) called the Athletic Director (the one prior to Brandon, who Cook also attacked) about the Michigan job and left a voicemail; 2) the coach spoke to his wife, who was adamant that she didn't want to move to a new town (coaches' families move constantly); and 3) the coach decided against the job. Cook quoted the article but conveniently deleted part 2 - in a block quote, no less - and accused the Athletic Director of losing the coach because he was out of touch. It was as brazen as it sounds. Cook and his followers also attacked, maligned, and sometimes chased out of town multiple coaches and other people. I'll add that Cook as no experience in sports AFAIK, either playing or coaching, or in business or in anything but blogging about sports at his former college.

...

Regarding another person's reputation: Brady Hoke, the football coach Brandon hired, was (is) one of the great class acts in the sport. He put the (unpaid) student-athletes first, as students and people, and football second, and Hoke openly said it - an amazing thing to find in college. High school kids - and their parents - who decided against going to Michigan would talk about what a class act he was and nothing like the snake oil salesmen that populate the sport. The students he brought to Michigan - Hoke was among the best recruiters in the nation - were in tears when he was fired, and for years after that - when he was long gone and they had a new coach - you could read them (and their parents) regularly talking about what a "great man" (that phrase is used repeatedly) he was and how much he helped changed their lives. His peers raved about him, and the top coaches in the country wanted to work for him (e.g., the defensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens, at the time arguably the top such job in the NFL, left Baltimore to work for Hoke, then starting his first major college job). Unfortunately, Hoke wasn't a great offensive coach and the team was around .500 by the time he left. He was also maligned and attacked by Cook because, AFAICT, Hoke was Brandon's guy and replaced Cook's favorite.

Sometimes, the Rush Limbaughs of the world succeed, the good people lose out, and the slander, sadly, follows them even to Hacker News.

Is this based on reliable statistics or on highly visible anecdotes? Perhaps the "dumb money" isn't as dumb as you think.