Fixit

I've been to several funerals on a Sunday, but I like your point: "Hey, schedule her funeral around the NFL schedule."

The point is this: I can practically guarantee that the Vikes would give a front office employee paid bereavement leave. Williamson is just another employee, despite the peculiarities of the NFL season. Also, he's paid to practice, report to off-season camps, hit the film room, show up to team/charity functions, represent the organization at all times, etc...not just play on game days. Even a player who doesn't get in on a single play gets paid.

In a league that is increasingly full of thugs, a guy who wants to take responsibility to get his whole family together for his grandmother's funeral should be given a pat on the back and condolences, not a $25K fine. The money is practically irrelevant to the player, and certainly to the organization, but it makes the Vikes look like the petty joke we all knew them to be anyway.

desi-patsfan

So let me get this striaght....people are actually on the side of the Vikings?

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Seacoast Fan

[QUOTE=alamo;614865]A lot of businesses, though, don't have the strict weekly deadlines that NFL teams have.

For most businesses an employee who misses time can make it up either by working extra time or extra hard or by delivering the same result a bit later. NFL teams have no such option. Does a player who's not ready to go in October but is ready to go in March get paid? No.


I assure you, to me and my clients, our deadlines are just as strict and important as anything in the NFL.
The point isn't, can someone else make up the work, or is someone benefitting unfairly by not doing work and getting paid. In the case of a funeral, the only point is: allowing the employee time to cope with a huge loss, without worrying about whether his or her rent check will bounce. If you can't understand this point, I can only say, I hope you aren't an employer.

upstater1

I get paid for work I don't do or when I don't show up. It's called sick leave. Or bereavement leave. You get paid as per the contract.

Tunescribe

Is my point really all that cold and outrageous? I don't think so. Tell me what you'd think if this was Tom Brady and a playoff game. Fact is, the player's absence on game day rather uniquely affects others' livelihoods as well.

Joker

I'm my own boss...if I take a sick day I get sick when the bills come due

cartmen

I will play the role of Nostrodomus here, there is no way in hell this guy is re-signing with the Vikings when his rookie contract is up

Fixit

I'd say that it's only a football game, not life-and-death.

Death? Pretty permanent.

Tommysgirl

I would feel very badly for Tom and remember football is just a game, this is real life.

Tunescribe

Well, considering that death lasts forever, perhaps the dead can wait a day. But seriously, I doubt you or anyone else here would feel just fine about excusing Brady from a playoff game to attend a funeral, even his own.