Vikings WR fined for attending funeral...

[Katie]

The Vikings mean business in 2007. But few knew they would take it this far.

The team has informed wide receiver Troy Williamson that he will be docked one game's pay for missing three practices as well as last Sunday's game against San Diego in order to attend his grandmother's funeral.

Williamson stands to lose $25,588.24 of his $435,000 base salary, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported.
"It's really kind of out of my realm," coach Brad Childress said, according to the Star-Tribune. "It's a business principle, organizationally. If you don't show up, how does that work? We talked about that today."
"I'd throw this football thing away for my family," Williamson was quoted as saying in the newspaper. "I know it's a business and I know (the Vikings have) got other obligations when it comes to them and their family also.
"I know how I feel towards mine. ... I feel like I wouldn't have been overdoing it if I had stayed home a little longer but you've got other people and their opinions."
Williamson took charge in coordinating arrangements for the funeral of his maternal grandmother, Celestine Williamson, who died in Aiken, S.C. As many as 75 family members returned to South Carolina for the funeral, with Williamson funding the trips for nearly 30 of them.
"This is a grandma I was always around," growing up, he told the Star-Tribune. "She taught me pretty much everything I know from cooking to driving to playing cards. I pretty much learned that from my grandma."
The death of his grandmother, however, is not the only tragedy that has affected Williamson. Williamson's older brother, Carlton, has been in and out of a coma since a September car accident in Georgia. "He had some chairs on the back of his truck for one of my homeboy's wedding," Williamson said. "He was taking it to them. He was going too fast around the corner and the truck ended up flipping. It flipped like three times, and he ended up flying out of it."

Williamson spent a day with his brother after the accident, and several more during the Vikings' bye week. He was able to see his brother once again last week when he traveled to Georgia from Aiken.
"We get some signs that he's doing good one day and then it's back down," Williamson said. "It's fluctuating. Right now, he's just pretty much comatose.
"I tried to put my brother's thing on the back burner, but when this came up I had to get up out of here and try to take some time," he said. "When it came to my grandma, and I knew I wasn't going to be able to see her anymore, I knew I had to go home and handle this stuff pretty much for my family and my mom. My mom took it hardest out of all my aunts and uncles because she was the one there taking care of my grandma, trying to make sure my grandma was straight and stuff." Childress would not say whether Williamson would be active for Minnesota's game this week against Green Bay.