November 11, 2007 5:14 AM

There's no wrong way to do the right thing...but there's certainly a right way to do the wrong thing

Vikings to give back Williamson game check

Vikings have a chance to right a wrong and help Williamson

MINNEAPOLIS — Grieving Troy Williamson will get his last game check back. Vikings coach Brad Childress called reporters Saturday to share the news, citing a need to change course that “came ringing back” to him following a weekly meeting with the veteran players on his leadership committee…. In a statement issued by his agent, David Canter, Williamson thanked those who spoke up for him and offered support to his family during a trying time. He said he’ll donate the returned check to charity in honor of his grandmother…. “My wish is that the issue is over, and that I can now go about being a football player and putting this matter behind me,” Williamson said.

In a follow-up to yesterday’s DUMB@$$ AWARD, it seems that Minnesota Vikings coach Brad Childress has awakened from his moral slumber and rediscovered his apparently long-dormant humanity. It would be nice to think that he came to this realization himself, and returned Troy Williamson’s game check to him because it was the right thing to do. Yeah, it would be nice, but it would also be way off base. No, what finally did it for Childress was the shitstorm of bad press and the realization that no free agent would ever want to sign with Minnesota knowing how the coach treats his players- like chattel.

Yes, Childress could have avoided this whole sorry saga by simply doing the right thing (which virtually every team in virtually every other professional sport does) and allowing Williamson to be with his family as he grieves his grandmother’s death. It’s not as if Williamson’s absence was a detriment to the Vikings last weekend. They dump-trucked San Diego at home, even without him in uniform. As I said yesterday, if there’s one thing that trumps football (or any other job), it’s family. Childress’ willful ignorance and complete loss of perspective only made him look like the mean-spirited ignoramus and DUMB@$$ he apparently is.

You’re currently running cheap, heartless and long-term-ignorant on the fan-o-meter, and to put it in a more direct business perspective, that crackling sound in the background is the free-agent market drying up ever so slowly around the Twin Cities as NFL players ask one another, “You hear about what the Vikings did to Troy?”

Who’s going to want to play for a team whose coach thinks that’s football comes first, before family or anything else? Childress’ ill-advised decision to make an example of Williamson makes him look like nothing if not a plantation boss exerting his absolute power over his slaves.

Yeah, so Childress did the right thing. Unfortunately, it says a lot about his lack of humanity and decency that it even came to this point. Jeebus, what a (&^%$#@ DUMB@$$. I’m ashamed to say that I’m a Vikings fan and I have been my entire life. My, we’ve come a long ways since Bud Grant, eh?

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on November 11, 2007 5:14 AM.

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