Vikes dock Williamson’s pay for missing game for grandmother’s funeral
The Minnesota Vikings have docked wide receiver Troy Williamson one game check for missing last Sunday’s game against the San Diego Chargers to attend the Monday funeral of his maternal grandmother. Based on his 2007 salary of $435,000, the action by the Vikings will cost the three-year veteran $25,588. Williamson has 45 days to appeal Minnesota’s decision to withhold his pay, and NFL Players Association sources said he will do so. Coach Brad Childress told Twin Cities-area media following Thursday’s practice that the decision was on a “business principle” of the Vikings organization.
From the Journal of Bad Public Relations Moves comes this sad tale of a football coach who, by all indications, has lost whatever humanity he may once have had to focus on FOOTBALL, FOOTBALL, AND ONLY FOOTBALL. While I understand the tenuous nature of careers in professional sports, especially the National Football League, the one thing that should and does transcend football is family. What Minnesota Vikings Coach Brad Childress did serves only to demonstrate how little he and the rest of the Vikings organizations cares about family.
This is a matter that could and probably should have been handled in-house. If nothing else, it would have spared Childress and the Vikings organization the ignominy of a DUMB@$$ AWARD. It could also have created the (apparently false) impression that Childress possesses anything resembling compassion.
Yes, believe it or not, there are things more important than football- quite a few things, actually. Right at the top of that list is family. Williamson’s grandmother was someone very important to him, and her passing was undboutedly an event of great sadness. If Brad Childress cannot find it within himself to recognize that death sometimes just cannot be convinced to visit his players only during the offseason, then he’s an even bigger DUMB@$$ than I’d feared.
It looks like someone sold his soul (and his humanity) for an NFL head coaching job, eh>
“He had a family obligation that he had to see to,” Childress said. “We sat down and talked on it before he left. … He had to do what he had to do. Everybody handles that differently. [Williamson] had to do what his family situation called for.” …
Williamson’s maternal grandmother, who helped to raise him and with whom he was very close, died last week and he returned to South Carolina, where he played a large role in arranging her funeral. He also had to make travel arrangements for several of his siblings, some of whom are in the armed services. He returned to the team on Wednesday as the Vikings began practicing for this Sunday’s game against Green Bay.
The team apparently apprised Williamson on Wednesday that he would not receive a paycheck for the game that he missed.
“I don’t care if they would have [taken] my pay for the rest of the year, I was going home,” Williamson told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. “It wouldn’t have mattered to me.”
I applaud Williamson for doing the right thing and recognizing that there are things more important than football and the money he makes playing it. Yes, in a team sport like football, Williamson’s absence from a game adversely impacts his teammates, but I’d be willing to bet that they understood why he was missing and supported him in his time of grief.
Brad Childress, though, badly needs a lesson in perspective and humanity- because he’s sorely lacking in both. As it was, the Vikings beat San Diego soundly, so it’s not as if Williamson’s absence can be blamed for adversely impacting the team. Childress did manage to send a message to the entire team, though- if any family members are planning on dying, they can damn well do it during the offseason.
Jeebus, what a DUMB@$$. This is not the Vikings team I grew up worshipping as a kid, and it makes me ashamed to admit to being a Vikings fan. Is it too early to begin agitating for Coach Asshat Childress to be fired? I should think not.
Memo to ownership: you’re coach is an asshat DUMB@$$, and he needs to go- NOW. Thank you. That is all.
