On November 8, 2007, Troy Williamson, wide receiver for the Minnesota Vikings, was docked one-week’s pay for missing a game in order to attend the funeral of his grandmother who raised him. Brad Childress, the coach of the Vikings, cited team business principles as the reason for this decision.
Quite frankly, that’s unacceptable. I understand, that the team is in a hard spot when having to define where the line is to be drawn for allowing players specific time for dealing with bereavement. However, the Vikings’ stance to just not attempt to draw that line and not compensate bereavement-related absences at all is a tragic failure in its desire to consider itself a football family.
While the NFL Player’s Union is appealing the Vikings’ actions, this is still another example of the failure of Gene Upshaw and the Union to adequately represent the NFL players. I’m sure this is not the first time that a player missed a game in order to attend the funeral of a loved one, and the union should have the foresight to incorporate and address any bereavement issues into their bargaining agreement. But it appears as if no bereavement policy was established, and the Union has thereby left it up to individual teams to decide how to go about dealing with the issues.
Childress’s decision to dock Williamson for his pay was cold-blooded and possibly hypocritical. Docking Williamson for the estimated $25,588 was not of monetary benefit to the hundreds of millions dollar franchise that is the Vikings. Childress cited Reggie Wayne and Pat Williams as players who appeared in football games after the death of their family members as precedent for a player not having to miss a game for bereavement issues. But everybody is different, and to list those and compare them to Williamson is unfair and irrelevant. Williamson’s condition may have rendered him unable to play emotionally.
The hypocritical part comes into play in two forms. For one, I’m not sure that somebody in management or on the coaching staff would get docked pay if they took off for bereavement. Secondly, a football team is supposed to be an extension of a player’s family. So when that player has an emotional scar that he has to attend to, the football family is supposed to support him in his decision and do everything they can for him, including step of their level of play to fill his void.
Just about every middle-American job has some type of bereavement policy. The fact that the NFL does not have one falls strictly on the Players’ Union, and I’m sure that is something they will address during the next bargaining agreement talks. But that day will come too late. Childress already has his policy set in stone, and Williamson is unlikely to garner any of that money back in the appeal that he is filing. But there is that thing called foresight that the Union, and the NFL in some cases, seems to not use (see NFL Retired Players Medical Claims). And maybe if Brad Childress had some foresight, he would not have had his players confront him and force him into undocking Williamson’s check on November 10, 2007.
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