I believe you're thinking of Jack Kent Cooke who passed away and his son, John, then took the reigns. I don't think there ever was a major problem there.
The only problems I ever heard of were some players who held different religious beliefs were trying to make that an issue as to why they were not getting playing time. (i.e. Calvin Muhammed)
With that said, Gibbs is crazy to do it unless he has a sure-fire way to grab a number of top offensive linemen (How else could Mark Rypien have led a team to the Super Bowl?)
However, Gibbs now has nothing left to prove in NASCAR, his sons are grown and married, and he probably figures that if Dick Vermeil and Bill Parcells can come back successfully, he could give it one more chance as well.
The effect on Snyder would be interesting because he knows that the fans will side with Gibbs in a heartbeat on any issue. Snyder will have to back off somewhat and let the professionals take over. However, what the media usually doesn't report is that Snyder is a very persuasive salesman when courting free agents, and is fairly innovative in working salary cap numbers. "Experts" have been saying for years that each year the team will hit the wall and have to start jettisoning players, but to this point that has never happened (Stephen Davis was let go primarily to let Spurrier mold the team to his liking, plus Davis wasn't willing to negotiate much off of his $11M cap hit for the '03 season, and cutting him allowed the Skins to sign WR Laveraneus Coles, G Randy Thomas, K John Hall, KR Chad Morton, etc.). So, with the right personnel man in the front office and Gibbs as the coach and Snyder as the salesman, this could work.
Hatteras, the Redskins have the makings of a very good offensive line in place. Chris Samuels and Jon Jansen are a very good pair of tackles, Randy Thomas is a good guard, and Derrick Dockery may turn out to be a fine guard as well (he was a rookie this season, so its hard to tell). Many of the hits the Redskins QB's took this year were as a result of blown blocking assignments by the RB's or TE's, not the OL, or just poor scheming on the part of Spurrier.
Owl, I have to say this comes as a shock. Nobody in the DC media saw this coming (if indeed it does come to fruition)!
Jack Kent Cooke. Gibbs left because he was just completely burned out. He and Cooke got along fine for years.