UPDATE: Brad Childress has to backtrack, pay Williamson

[OtisCampbell]

Re: Brad Childress and The Vikings: One Compassionate Organization

Its something called human courtesy and decency, not everything needs a hard business line drawn around it. The $435,000 they docked him is beyond peanuts for an nfl organization, so to go ahead with docking him the money while using the terms "business decision" is extremely tasteless, considering it would've been a miniscule sacrifice.

I love how its ok for organizations to be all about the money and decisions being just business, but when players are all about the money they suddenly become pricks and bad people. The great NFL double standard.

$435K is actually his annual salary. They docked him $25K.

 

[Seacoast Fan]

Re: Brad Childress and The Vikings: One Compassionate Organization

I dont understand what is so bad about this.
He was allowed to not play in the game.
He is paid to play in games. Why would you pay him to not play?

Maybe I am missing something, but I do not understand how an employer who grants an employee permission to leave their job is wrong to not pay them for the work they didn't do.

I own a small business with 6 employees. I have never docked pay from someone who had to take a few days or even a week for a funeral.

 

[NEPat]

Re: Brad Childress and The Vikings: One Compassionate Organization

I love how its ok for organizations to be all about the money and decisions being just business, but when players are all about the money they suddenly become pricks and bad people. The great NFL double standard.

I think it's the great sports double standard. Players are greedy, selfish, disloyal, but management and ownership are smart, business minded, shrewd.

That's why I never fault a player for getting as much money as he can, if that's what he wants. If given the opportunity, most of these organizations will turn right around and treat players like crap if it's in their best interest.

 

[patchick]

Re: Brad Childress and The Vikings: One Compassionate Organization

Here's the thing...

Childress blabbed to the press about a backroom, off-the-record personnel conversation with Belichick.

Childress took cruel and totally unnecessary public potshots at Jeff George.

Now he's managed to make the Vikings organization look like heartless bastards for docking Williamson. It's not just what was done, but what was said. Come on, listing names of other players who have played after a funeral? I guarantee you a better public explanation from Childress would have tamped down the backlash this has created.

Do you want this man to be the public face of your organization? He really does not seem ready for a high-profile leadership position.

 

[Free_Pacman]

Minnesota Vikings are so classy

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3100835

 

[Metaphors]

Re: Brad Childress and The Vikings: One Compassionate Organization

I'm not sure, but it doesnt seem wrong to me.
Really, think about it, he is paid to play. Wouldn't paying him for this game be giving him money he didnt earn?

He is paid to play when he is available. Zack Thomas missed the Giants game after a car accident. Bet he got paid. The difference is that people consider it Troy's choice to miss that game. I don't know the full situation, but circumstances may have made it impossible to fulfill his family obligations and still make the game. That would make him just as unavailable as Zack was in London.

Maybe the owner needs a lesson...

And he puzzled three hours, `till his puzzler was sore.
Then Zygi thought of something he hadn't before!
"Maybe family," he thought, "doesn't come from a store.
"Maybe family...perhaps...means a little bit more!"

And what happened then...?
Well...in St. Paul they say
That Zygi's small heart
Grew three sizes that day!
And the minute his heart didn't feel quite so tight,
He whizzed with Troy's check through the bright morning light.

 

[taltos]

Re: Brad Childress and The Vikings: One Compassionate Organization [merged]

It seems that every season there are players who miss a game due to their wife being in labor/giving birth to a child. I have never read of one of these players being docked a game check for missing a game for being in attendance at the birth of their child.

 

[spacecrime]

Re: Brad Childress and The Vikings: One Compassionate Organization

Nah, Culpepper worked hard, the only thing I don't like is the way he acted when he scored against the Fins this year. It was a business decision to let him go and him acting like that was totally childish and unprofessional.

If the Fins where halfway decent, they would have let him go BEFORE training camp started so the he could gind a new team. They tried to screw him over, and you think he isn't happy to score agaisnt them.

On the other hand, it is kind of bush league to celebrate scoring against the Fins. It isn't like everybody doesn't do it any time they want to.

 

[primetime]

Re: Brad Childress and The Vikings: One Compassionate Organization

They're spoiled by Adrian Peterson, who worked out at the combine hours after learning that his brother had been shot and killed (something I had no problem with, and did not consider it particularly callous as many did... people channel grief in different ways).

 

[spacecrime]

Re: Brad Childress and The Vikings: One Compassionate Organization [merged]

It seems that every season there are players who miss a game due to their wife being in labor/giving birth to a child. I have never read of one of these players being docked a game check for missing a game for being in attendance at the birth of their child.

Have you ever read that they were paid?

I don't know the answer. But the fact that nothing was said either way doesn't prove anything.

Besides, I don't recall players not playing in games for personal reasons. Favre after his father's death, Ken Walter while his wife was giving birth, they all played.

Seymour went to his grandfather's funeral midweek, spent that night there, and was not allowed to start the following week. And that was midweek.

 

[shmessy]

Re: Brad Childress and The Vikings: One Compassionate Organization [merged]

I'm sorry, if the Minnesota Vikings Corporation needs Troy Williamsons 25 Grand so badly, maybe Zygy Wulf should sell the team .

 

[Seymour93]

Re: Brad Childress and The Vikings: One Compassionate Organization [merged]

The Vikings are the cheapest franchise. Literally.

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2007/30/biz_07nfl_NFL-Team-Valuations_Rank_2.html

 

[alamo]

Re: Brad Childress and The Vikings: One Compassionate Organization

I own a small business with 6 employees. I have never docked pay from someone who had to take a few days or even a week for a funeral.

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.

It seems that every season there are players who miss a game due to their wife being in labor/giving birth to a child. I have never read of one of these players being docked a game check for missing a game for being in attendance at the birth of their child.

My wife just missed three months of pay for family leave after the birth of our daughter. Family obligations are important, and I believe it's important for employers to allow employees the time they need, but why should employees expect exployers to still pay them for such instances?

 

[SmokeShowin]

Re: Brad Childress and The Vikings: One Compassionate Organization [merged]

Wrong. Just plain wrong.

 

[DarrylS]

Re: Brad Childress and The Vikings: One Compassionate Organization [merged]

Besides, I don't recall players not playing in games for personal reasons. Favre after his father's death, Ken Walter while his wife was giving birth, they all played.

Seymour went to his grandfather's funeral midweek, spent that night there, and was not allowed to start the following week. And that was midweek.

Frank Gore earlier in the year buried his mother midweek, and came back to play on Sunday.. the only kicker here is she was being buried on the following day, and maybe I am a sap but when my mom died did not want to follow much sports or work.. somethings are more important.

 

[SpiderFox53]

Re: Brad Childress and The Vikings: One Compassionate Organization

He is paid to play when he is available. Zack Thomas missed the Giants game after a car accident. Bet he got paid. The difference is that people consider it Troy's choice to miss that game. I don't know the full situation, but circumstances may have made it impossible to fulfill his family obligations and still make the game. That would make him just as unavailable as Zack was in London.

Maybe the owner needs a lesson...

I'm not sure about this, but in the ZT case, since he missed the game due to injury, wouldn't they have had to put him on the non football injury list to not pay him?

I'm not positive how the non football injury list works, can anyone help?

 

[Fencer]

Re: Brad Childress and The Vikings: One Compassionate Organization

You don't have funeral pay? Most companies I know give 3-5 days paid off for death of a family member.

But missing a game is like missing three weeks from a regular job (1/16th of the year).

What the Vikes SHOULD have done is have their travel assistants and secretaries drop everything else to make arrangements for Williamson's family. Why did he have to make the arrangements HIMSELF?

Of course, this a team that can't get an index card from a desk to a podium, so maybe their help isn't the best thing to have ...

 

[Tunescribe]

Re: Brad Childress and The Vikings: One Compassionate Organization

Its very different though. There are 16 footballs games a year. He is paid to play in them. Football players do not have vacation, sick days, etc because they work less than half the year.
Im not saying he should have played, thats his decision, but its odd to me that someone who is paid to play football would expect to be paid when they chose not to play in the game, regardless of the reason.
He wasn't available to his team that day. Should he be paid money he didnt earn?

I agree. In cases like this people are quick to get riled up and point fingers, but being a pro football player makes for very unusual circumstances. If I read the article correctly, the funeral was on a Sunday -- why did it have to be scheduled on Sunday? I've never heard of a funeral occurring on a Sunday. If on Saturday or Friday, he conceivably still could have made the game.

I also agree with the previous poster who suggested that the team could have stepped in to assist him with making the funeral arrangements. That would have helped both the player and their "investment" in him.

 

[aabtec]

Re: Brad Childress and The Vikings: One Compassionate Organization

But missing a game is like missing three weeks from a regular job (1/16th of the year).

What the Vikes SHOULD have done is have their travel assistants and secretaries drop everything else to make arrangements for Williamson's family. Why did he have to make the arrangements HIMSELF?

Of course, this a team that can't get an index card from a desk to a podium, so maybe their help isn't the best thing to have ...

Are you serious ? Maybe he WANTED to make the arrangements for the woman that helped raise him. He took care of his grandmother in her final journey.

Good God are you that much of a jerk ?

aabtec

 

[CTPatsFan]

Re: Brad Childress and The Vikings: One Compassionate Organization

Poor kid, sounds like he's had his plate full with his brother's accident, too. At least he's got his priorities straight.

We're a small business with 24 employees. One of them is undergoing treatment for a serious illness and used up all of their sick, personal and vacation (5 days/5 days/14 days) time as did the spouse. We gave the "sick" employee an additional 4 weeks at full pay with the option of stretching it out to 8 weeks at half pay. If your employees are important to you, you make sure they are taken care of. We sure as hell couldn't really afford to do it and hire a temp machine operator to fill in for them in the meantime but you find a way.