More Babcock Shenanigans

[Guttersniped]

Because, deep down, bullies are chicken$hits.

I think people have said this is basically Babcock’s MO.

In Detroit guys like Chelios never had problems with him but he brutally targeted fringier players or staff.

The stories Franzen bullying should have kept him from getting the Columbus job, why would you unleash this on your employees?

And Babcock’s “who me?” and claims to be “an advocate for mental health” just make it cartoonishly worse.

Babcock arrived in Johan Franzen’s rookie season. (The Swedish winger played 11 seasons with the Red Wings before retiring in 2016.) Franzen told Expressen that during a playoff game against Nashville in April 2012, Babcock verbally assaulted him.

“I get the shivers when I think about it,” he said. “But that was just one out of a hundred things he did. The tip of the iceberg.”

Franzen described Babcock as meticulous and well-prepared, adept at putting a team together and getting buy-in from players. “But then, he’s a terrible person, the worst I have ever met. He’s a bully who was attacking people,” Franzen told the newspaper. “It could be a cleaner at the arena in Detroit or anybody. He would lay into people without any reason.”

Franzen said that starting in 2011, he became terrified of being at the rink as “verbal attacks” on him and others continued. Chris Chelios, a Hall of Fame defenseman who played for Babcock in Detroit, was appalled by how Babcock treated Franzen.

“Literally, he was calling him into his office once a week to call him a fat pig and say that your teammates hate you and why don’t you just quit,” Chelios told the “Spittin’ Chiclets” podcast, which also first revealed the photo-sharing allegations in Columbus.

In January 2021, Babcock told The Athletic that he was surprised by Franzen’s allegations, especially because he’d been an advocate for mental health initiatives.

“I sure wish I would have known about that then. And I could have done something about that,” Babcock said. “Besides apologize, there’s not much I can do about that now. But does it sting? Does it hurt? Absolutely.”

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5530122/2024/05/31/no-one-is-spared-tracing-mike-babcocks-imperious-nhl-coaching-career/?source=user_shared_article

 

[TrufleShufle]

The more I read about this guy the more I'm starting to think he's a bit of a jerk.

 

[Ghost of Murph]

Trust is hugely important in any kind of relationship. I played under a coach who played mind games from time to time to keep us on our toes and motivate. We still trusted and loved him because we understood the method to his madness, and he never did anything to erode trust among teammates.

Babcock's shenanigans over the years hurt trust among players and coach, staff and players, and among teammates. Unbelievably unprofessional and to some degree psychopathic.

 

[thedjpd]

It's the method in which some of those people achieve that success that is worrisome. Often times the only thing that matters to higher ups when it comes to promotions are the final results. They don't care how those results are achieved, and so this gives an inside track to those who are willing to play dirty and hurt/manipulate those around them for the purposes of advancing themselves.

You usually can’t get both. The people that are at the tops of their respective positions are usually there because their focus is singular; to get there, all else be damned. Players emotions, feelings, non-hockey circumstances are often irrelevant; and sometimes even so. It’s funny; fans on this site often want their GMs and teams to act this way - example: players who request trades - “let him rot, screw him” - but at the same time not realizing that the coaches and GMs who would do just that have that type of persona. Nice GMs are ridiculed.

 

[DickSmehlik]

Sorry Mike, you can’t do what coaches routinely did 25 years ago, today.

 

[mphmiles]

This was made public a few years ago. Story continues as well. Martin stood up to Babcock and essentially he later became a regular healthy scratch. It was an interesting choice as we really needed a guy like Martin around, and his play did not degrade to the point where his on ice abilities were the reason for his benching. It was personal

Didn't know this.

Martin seems like a f***ing awesome guy and teammate and I have a feeling that's a big part of why he's stuck around as long as he has.

 

[sabremike]

You know, I'm just gonna come out and say it: This Mike Babcock fellow, he seems like a real jerk!

 

[Pierre from Orleans]

Mike Babcock asking his players to rank each other's wives/gfs

 

[Lucas Hood]

I think a key lesson is to never rank anything for Mike Babcock.

“How would you rank the Star Wars films?”

“Well, obviously Empire Strikes Back first…then maybe…..wait a sec, are those the directors of all of the movies behind that curtain?”

“…..maybe?”

Literally all he does it

1. Find an organization
2. Figure out the org hierarchy sacred cows to suck up to/not abuse (Holland, Lidstrom, Lamoriello, Matthews, Gaudreau, Boone Jenner), use their credibility for slapping down anyone he does go after if they speak up.
3. Bully the weakest players/members of the organization (Commodore, Corrado, forget who it was in Anaheim but there were several people/players on record, CBJ rookies)
4. Indulge in his power dynamics/group humiliation fetish by gradually working up his way to screwing with people with higher standing (Franzen, Marner, Modano). It clear he gets the most yips out of having someone privately confide in him about other people/person, repeatedly nudging them into saying something negative if, and then gleefully exposing that to the other people.

Its so incredibly petty and simple yet people consistently fall for it. We had a guy like that hired in the first software dev company I worked at and within 6 months like 50 people quit including myself even though I had zero desire to go anywhere else before that. Yet the CEO/president/CTO would always take his side because he glazed them properly until an entire branch servicing a 10 million dollar/year contract folded simply because there was no one left with any institutional knowledge no matter how many people they hired to replace the ones that left.

 

[BLNY]

In Detroit guys like Chelios never had problems with him but he brutally targeted fringier players or staff.

Chelios is older than Babcock, and was 43 when Mike started in Detroit. Chelios also went through tyrannical coaching with Keenan.

 

[Andrei79]

Chelios is older than Babcock, and was 43 when Mike started in Detroit. Chelios also went through tyrannical coaching with Keenan.

The guy in this guys avatar apparently does the same kind of shenanigans, but to kids/minors.

 

[Bender Duster]

Pretty much sociopathic behavior...

 

[D Wakaluk]

What can you say ..

Mike is one sick f***

 

[Pablo El Perro]

I wonder if Babcock was just accidentally a successful coach and primarily a psychopath first and foremost.

His most successful teams were already talented before he had much of anything to do with them.

 

[the valiant effort]

The question is why aren’t the trainers ripping on the lazy ones in the gym in the first place?

 

[BLNY]

The guy in this guys avatar apparently does the same kind of shenanigans, but to kids/minors.

i have no idea who that is.

 

[thefutures]

Wonder if there is a single coworker this idiot ever treated well

 

[britdevil]

Greasy

 

[WarriorofTime]

Wonder if there is a single coworker this idiot ever treated well

his bosses... lots of people like this in all organizations of all types

 

[tomin]

Sounds like that team sucked. Everyone crying.

 

[dirtydanglez]

i dont blame guys for not wanting to play under him. im surprised we dont hear much about his time in detroit

 

[Breakers]

Here Jeff O’Neil talk about Babcock

He has texts from players that Babcock is a psychopath with the mind games he plays

He had insanely strict coaches that he respected as it ended on the ice. They would berate the hell out of guys, but you could talk with them away from the rink.

But Babcock was doing sh)t behind the scenes that would make your skin crawl.

 

[PROUD PAPA]

It's the method in which some of those people achieve that success that is worrisome. Often times the only thing that matters to higher ups when it comes to promotions are the final results. They don't care how those results are achieved, and so this gives an inside track to those who are willing to play dirty and hurt/manipulate those around them for the purposes of advancing themselves.

You can rocket your way to the top by being basically a scumbag or work your way there honourably. Sadly, A lot of people don’t see an issue with the former.

 

[GarlicbreadTB]

i dont blame guys for not wanting to play under him. im surprised we dont hear much about his time in detroit

Just read about the stuff he did to Franzen. He wasn't very liked in the Detroit locker room either.

 

[HighNote]

You usually can’t get both. The people that are at the tops of their respective positions are usually there because their focus is singular; to get there, all else be damned. Players emotions, feelings, non-hockey circumstances are often irrelevant; and sometimes even so. It’s funny; fans on this site often want their GMs and teams to act this way - example: players who request trades - “let him rot, screw him” - but at the same time not realizing that the coaches and GMs who would do just that have that type of persona. Nice GMs are ridiculed.

You can be hyper focused on getting somewhere without throwing other people under the bus. You can sacrifice personal time, avoid time-consuming relationships, etc. so that you can focus more of your time on getting that promotion. Then there are some people that would rather sabotage other candidates for the promotion to help themselves.