#Packers #Bears #NFL
Did you ever dread going to work the day after your team who you spent all week boasting about and talking ish for gets bounced?  Ever have the feeling that you know your co-workers will be hanging newspaper clippings and team logos on your locker or cubicle in retaliatory spite?  On the flip side, if you’re the one whose team won you can’t wait to get to work that next morning.  We’ve all been on both sides of the coin.  But have any of us ever been FIRED for expressing our allegience?

Meet John Stone.  Shout to Chicago native, “Zack The Reporter” for sharing this story.  The Oak Lawn, IL car salesman who was fired for wearing a Green Bay neck tie yesterday following the team’s victory that ascended them to the Superbowl.  The only problem is those Packers beat the hometown bears.  Stone said that when he went to work Monday morning at Webb Chevrolet wearing the Green Bay Packers tie he’s had for years to honor his late grandmother, a huge Packers fan.

Despite being asked twice to remove the tie by General Manager, Jerry Roberts, Stone refused thinking it was a joke and was subsequently fired.

“I didn’t know you could get fired for wearing a tie,” said Stone. “I’m supposed to dress up. I’m a car salesman.”

Stone and his family laid his grandmother to rest this past Friday, just two days before the NFC Championship game.  Although he admitted he didn’t know Stone’s grandmother was a Packers fan, when asked his reasoning for dismissing Stone, Roberts simply said it was because of the tie, citing an on-going promotional relationship with the hometown Chicago Bears.

“I don’t feel that it was appropriate for him to go directly in contrast with an advertising campaign that we spent a lot of money on,” Roberts told WGN reporter Judie Garcia.

Stone can play the fool all he wants but he knows why he was fired.  The question is SHOULD HE HAVE BEEN?  Have we as men in this country taken our rooting interests far to literally?  We wear our sports hearts on our sleeves and some even on their skin in the form of tattoos.  We idolize players as if they were a diety yet at any moment in this era of free agency they could quickly become our enemy.  (SEE: Brett Favre) So I ask is this an instance of going to far for your team?  While I can see where Stone’s tie probably would antagonize his co-workers and bosses unless such actions were explicitly written in the handbook couldn’t such a dismissal be seen as inappropriate.

When I worked in Sports Radio our employees were told they could wear apparel promoting the teams we supported during on-premise events but gear supporting other franchises was a violation.  Such rules were explicit and created in the interest of preserving the integrity of our business relationships with the teams we serviced.  Does this situation fall under the same parameters?  SOUND OFF: Should Green Bay Necktie Have Gotten Packers Fan Fired From Car Sales Gig?