basic
Senior Member
Here's one positive story from back in the day. We had this new running back who transferred over from another school. Guy was an amazing athlete--best player on our team. But he'd be slipping and sliding all over the field. Rob asks him what's up, and he says his family was too poor to afford football cleats so he had to use this cheap old running shoes with no traction. Ford just hands him $100 out of his own pocket to go buy himself some real shoes. Then he starts running through the league's best defences almost single handedly with little help from us. So Rob definitely had his good side.
Rob relationship with his players, and his ward as a whole, was very much that of a fiefdom. He gave them scraps when they were hungry, while failing to activate, and often actively blocking, programs and services that would assist his peons in climbing out from hunger and poverty. If it didn't come from Rob, he didn't want them to have it, lest they become less dependent on him. That personal touch was a great way to build an army of blind peons who didn't/don't realize that there is another better way.