Vikings will give back Troy Williamson's Paycheck

This is an odd, but sad, story. Troy Williamson, the seventh overall selection in the 2005 draft who has done little as the Vikings wide-receiver (though you can't blame the guy when you look at the recent history of Viking QBs), had to take off a week for personal issues. This poor guy has been plagued by off-field family issues. First, Williamson's older brother has been in and out of comas following a car crash in September. Last week, Williamson left the team to be with his family in South Carolina in order to attend the funeral of his grandmother. Because of his extended absence, the Vikings docked him one paycheck ($25,000). However, Brad Childress announced Saturday that Williamson will get his last game check back.

This should have never been an issue to begin with. If players can be on the DL or injury list and not play for 2 or 3 weeks but still get paid, why can't a player visit his family during a family crisis and still get paid? Childress argued his reasoning behind docking Williamson's pay was that other players who had deaths in their familys returned after 3 days. That's great for those players, it really is, but everyone handles deaths differently and grieves differently. However, thats a whole different psychological debate. The point is, Childress should not have docked Williamson's pay in the first place nor should he have acted so cold towards him. So much for coaches having compassion with their teamates.