Players are paid on a 17-week basis (16 games plus the bye week). Based on that formula, Williamson lost $25,588.24 by leaving. His base salary this season is $435,000.
Wow. . .I'm pretty surprised by this move. After all, Thanksgiving is coming up. . .based on the Marcus Robinson precedent from last season, I figured that the Vikings would wait until then to do something like this.
Troy Williamson chose to put his family ahead of football, and it's costing him a cool $25K. Well played, Vikings front office. And by "well played," what I mean is "what a selfish, callous move." I guess while we're borrowing everything else from the Eagles, our players are supposed to emulate Andy Reid's "football uber alles" philosophy, too. After all, that philosophy allowed Reid to raise two sons that turned out to be fine, upstanding young men. . .how bad can it be?
I won't say anything bad about Troy Williamson for taking extra time with his family, not with everything they've been through over the past couple of months. Yes, he has a committment to keep to the Minnesota Vikings. . .but family comes first. Family always comes first. To express otherwise is a terribly silly sentiment. Like Zulgad's blog entry says, this might be the beginning of the end for Williamson in Minnesota. That would be unfortunate, but not as unfortunate as the way he's been treated in this situation.