Thursday, November 8, 2007
Dock a player pay for a Funeral?
Minnesota Viking's Wide Receiver Troy Williamson recently had a death in the family. His maternal Grandmother died earlier last week in the hospital so naturally, Williamson left the team to attend the funeral on Monday which caused him to miss the team's game vs. the San Diego Chargers on that Sunday. Maternal Grandmother doesn't sound like that big of a deal but Troy Williamson would be the first person to let you know that that statement is not true. He was very close to his Maternal Grandmother. In fact, she helped raise him in his home state of South Carolina. I'm sure many of you are thinking that he should have just played in the game Sunday then just flew home to be there on Monday but he had to make travel arrangements for himself and many of his siblings who are currently in the Armed Forces. But the most surprising part of this story is that the Viking's Organization decided to dock him pay for that game so he lost $25,588. (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3100835) This is absolutely ridiculous. Do teams and organizations have any heart anymore? If it was a regular job and this happened, the worker would not have been docked any pay at all. Most employers would have sympathy with the situation and would understand that it was a tough loss for them. But I guess the Minnesota Vikings think otherwise. They know first hand how death can affect players with the Korey Stringer incident that occurred a few years ago so if any team would have sympathy for Williamson's situation, I would think that it would be the Vikings but I guess not.
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2 comments:
Phil, I agree with you completely. Docking Troy Williamson pay for attending a funeral is ridiculous. These franchises have begun to forget that this sport is just a game. In no way whatsoever should a player ever have to undergo a penalty of some sort for attending to a personal matter such as a funeral. The Vikings need to issue a apology to Williamson because there is no way to justify the 25k fine for attending a game. I know there are probably rules about missing a game, but there are always exceptions to a rule and this is definitely one of them.
Phil I could not agree more with you on that the Vikings shouldn’t have dock Troy his game check for missing the game. That is a stupid thing for the team to do, how does that make your organization look when you fine a player going to his grandmothers funeral. Most places I know would feel bad for the employee and not dock the person a days paycheck. Also the Vikings know what it is like to go to a funeral they did about five years ago when Korey Stringer died during 2 a days. This is just another sign that the world is becoming more and more emotionless when it comes to death.
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