Apparently, it’s all about the money

Professional sports is different from what we grew up playing. Unfortunately, it is no longer just about having fun playing a game. It has turned into a business.

That disheartening reality has never been more clear than in the recent case of Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Troy Williamson.

If you aren’t familiar, Williamson’s grandmother died last week. She helped raise him, and when he returned to South Carolina to take care of the funeral arrangements and to be with his family to grieve, he missed the Vikings game last Sunday. Williamson also has a brother who is in a coma in a nearby town who he hardly ever gets to spend visit living and playing in Minnesota.

What boils my blood about the whole situation is that the Vikings are not going to pay Williamson for the game he missed. Coach Brad Childress told Twin-Cities-area media that the decision was based on “business principle.”

That’s right. This young man went home to take care of his family in a time of need and mourning, and the Vikings organization is worried about the $25,000 they would have paid him for one game.

Is that really what professional sports has come to? Is the money – hardly any for one team in this case – really more important than supporting a member of the team? If that is true, I might just give up on pro sports forever.

It gets worse.

Childress also compared Williamson’s situation to that of other NFL players who have returned to play in games shortly after the deaths of family members.

Since when are emotions the same for everyone? Does every human grieve the same way, or experience happiness the same for that matter? Who is Brad Childress to decide how another person should handle a death?

The only good that seems to be coming from this whole ordeal is the kind of character Williamson has shown. Not only did he step up when his family needed him, but he didn’t let the team bully him into abandoning his morals.

“I don’t care if they would have [taken] my pay for the rest of the year, I was going home,” Williamson told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. “It wouldn’t have mattered to me.”

Amid the Michael Vicks, Adam “Pacman” Joneses and numerous steroid users of the sporting world, it is inspiring to see a case where an athlete does what is right, regardless of what others are doing around him.

Williamson has the ability to appeal the decision, but he shouldn’t have to. He should never have been punished in the first place.

To spite the Vikings and make them look even more ridiculous, this atrocity comes at the same time that the Minnesota Wild, another Twin Cities professional sports team, granted an indefinite leave of absence to veteran forward Wes Walz. The team said the absence wasn’t related to health or family, but regardless of what it is, the organization looked beyond the money.

This discrepancy in reaction also brings up another question. If Williamson was a veteran, or even a more productive player, would he have received the same treatment?

There isn’t any evidence to suggest this is the case, but I can’t believe that if Adrian Peterson or Antione Winfield, two of the best players on the Vikings, were in the same situation as Williamson that they would be getting their pay docked.

I can only hope that in the coming days the Vikings realize how heartless they are being and give the money back. It may not be a lot by athlete’s standards, but at this point it’s not about the money.

Every team I was ever on would have let me miss practice, games or even the season if I needed to recover from a situation like this, and I’m pretty sure that is the case for every youth team around the world.

When did money become so important? Is it an adult thing, putting cash before love? If so, I’m heading to Neverland.

&#8212 Nick Paulson is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Minnetonka, Minn.