Cheesehead Pays the Price

Chicago Tribune - John Stone said that when he went to work Monday morning at Webb Chevrolet in Oak Lawn, he decided to wear a Green Bay Packers tie he's had for years to honor his late grandmother, a huge Packers fan.

Little did he know that the seemingly innocent gesture would cost him his job, Stone said.

Stone said that when he showed up at work, general manager Jerry Roberts called him over to his office and then ordered him to take off the Packers tie or else he would be fired. Stone said he thought Roberts was joking and went back to work.

An hour later, Stone said, Roberts came to the showroom floor and again demanded he take off the tie. When he didn't, he was fired, Stone said.

Two sides to this one. On one hand, doesn't it have to be somehow illegal to actually fire someone for wearing a particular team's paraphernalia, in the form of a business tie no less? Something tells me you can't just do that. There need to be some grounds for a job termination, and disliking the Green Bay Packers shouldn't be the only criteria a boss needs to pull the trigger. Having said that, this jamoke they call John Stone has the balls to waltz into a Chicago car dealership, where he works, and flaunt his Packers tie. Roberts claims the dealership has ties to the Bears in an advertising campaign and that the Packers apparel directly conflicted with that deal. The problem is, I have a hard time believing the Bears included the prohibition of any employee wearing a Green Bay Packers tie in the work space when they made their agreement. I don't know. It's just a stupid scenario between a bunch of sore losers in Chicago and a sore winner from Green Bay. You make the call.