Tag: Dad

For the father, the relationship with his son is a mosaic of memories — frozen in time, alive in his mind.

The father and son playing catch with a baseball in the backyard — Jim Cook throwing the cherished “divers” to his elementary-aged boy, Brady, who now is Mizzou’s starting quarterback.

The father and son practicing field goals at local schools — Jim dutifully holding the ball, chasing after it and holding it again.

The father and son at a fourth-grade football game (Jim was the coach; Brady, of course, was the quarterback) and Jim actually becoming sad — he realizes that after just four more quick years, he won’t get this experience of coaching his son anymore.

The father and son near the side of their home, young Brady hitting with a skinny bat that Jim got him to improve hand-eye coordination. Except Brady isn’t hitting.

“I’ll never forget,” Jim said, “I was pitching the (little ball), and he started missing. And it’s hard to hit them, they’re very small. He missed a couple — I can see him getting a little bit upset, so I’m like, ‘Hey, let’s go take a break.’ He says, ‘We’re not taking a break, Dad.’ So he’s out there, and he is just breaking down. I mean, he’s crying.

“He wants to hit this ball. ‘Son, we’re going to go take a break.’ He says, ‘No, no, no!’ And then mom’s in the window looking, and she goes, ‘What are you doing to him?’ And I say, ‘I’m not doing anything!’ So that memory comes up as him being just very passionate.”

The father and son on the baseball diamond, Jim watching as a beaming Brady hits a grand slam in Little League.

“I just really remember,” the dad said, “the joy on his face running the bases.”

At a coffee shop last week in O’Fallon, Missouri, I asked Jim about his bond with Brady, who was raised in Wentzville and played high school ball at Chaminade.

“The bond, just from spending the time together, means the world to me,” Jim shared. “Just spending time and trying to impart some of my knowledge to help him along his journey.”

The journey has one more stop, one more day of memories to make. Brady’s final college game is Monday — the Music City Bowl vs. Iowa in Nashville, Tennessee. Brady’s next dream is to play in the NFL — and he’ll begin that pursuit as soon as next week. But this is the last guaranteed game.

“At the end of the day,” Jim said later over coffee, “I tell myself: I’m just proud of him being there, the figure that he is with Mizzou.

“And in the last year to two years, hundreds of times people have come up to me, and the nicest thing is …”

The proud papa got choked up, again.

“… they talk about Brady as a person. He’s a really freaking good quarterback, but the things that people say — ‘We ran into your son, he’s done this, he smiled, he took time with this.’ Hundreds of people. So that feels very, very good.”

Brady, irrefutably, is a man of character. And the Cooks — Jim and his wife, Amy — have poured into their son, who sure is a good one.

For instance, I liked this from Jim: “I’ve said this for years: ‘Do your relationships. Find one person a week and bond with them, one guy that you’re not talking to, go over and talk to him in the locker room.’”

Oh, and as Jim pointed out, Brady was named the Southeastern Conference football scholar-athlete of the year — for the second consecutive season. Only Florida’s Tim Tebow and Alabama’s Barrett Jones ever won it twice before.

But for all the talent and smarts and charm (and NIL commercials!) that Brady has, college has not been a smooth ride. So many injuries. So many challengers for his starting job. So many boos after a couple particular losses. Still, Brady Cook just kept on navigating adversity.

I mean, he’s the reason they refer to the Auburn game as “the hospital game.” Dude got injured, went to a hospital, came back and led his team to victory.

And so, at this point — win or lose Monday — Brady is a Mizzou legend. The kid who grew up going to games is 25-13 for his career as a Mizzou starter — he’s tied with Brad Smith for the second-most wins in school history by a quarterback. He’ll likely finish third in passing yards. And his career percentage of passes intercepted has been lower than Chase Daniel, Drew Lock and Smith.

And anecdotally, Brady was the man under center during the Tigers’ rise to recent dominance. They went 11-2 last season with a win in the Cotton Bowl over Ohio State. And the Tigers — No. 19 in the College Football Playoff rankings — are 9-3 entering the Music City Bowl.

“I’ve got friends that say, ‘It’s so cool!’” Jim said. “And it is cool. But it’s the exact same feelings that you’ll feel when you’re at your kid’s soccer game and he’s playing soccer, running down and he makes the goal — or he misses the goal. It’s the exact same feelings, it’s just everything’s magnified at this level.”

Jim and Amy attended every single one of Brady’s Mizzou games.

For all intents and purposes, Jim’s son’s childhood ends Monday night.

“So has it hit me yet?” Jim asked. “Probably not. … It is fun watching him. It’s fun watching a play come together. It’s fun watching him celebrate, like, hug a player who’s coming off the sideline. It’s fun — on that touchdown he ran in the snow (against Arkansas in the final home game), if you watch it, there are some pictures you can see on his face that he was smiling.

“I just want to see my kids smile.”