Since he became the owner of the team, Zygi Wilf has always tried to do the right thing, whether it's for his football team or on behalf of his football team. He's been very proactive when it comes to his efforts to get a new stadium, handed down an organization-wide Code of Conduct in the wake of the "Love Boat" fiasco, and is starting to gain a great deal of respect in the Minneapolis-St. Paul community. So, it should come as no surprise that he's chosen to donate all of the proceeds from last night's practice against the Kansas City Chiefs to the 35W Bridge relief efforts.
However, as Pro Football Talk points out, one's impression of the nature of Zygi's donation could be different depending on what source you got said story from.
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune or the Associated Press (via ESPN).
The AP story paints Zygi to be quite the jackass, as though he was using the press conference that was called to announce the donation as a forum to stump for a new stadium in the face of the tragedy. It mentions nothing about his feelings of regret concerning the tragedy, either. . .just how he used the forum to campaign for a new stadium.
The Star-Tribune story, on the other hand, accurately characterizes the fact that Wilf basically set the issue aside, and only mentioned a potential new stadium because a question was asked about it. He states that the infrastructure of the city should take precedence over the stadium. . .but he did mention that he thought there was enough for both to get done.
The AP story makes Zygi out to be a money-grubbing asshole. The Star-Tribune story accurately depicts the Zygi that the Vikings and their fans have come to know since he bought the team from Red McCombs.
People generally don't get to be multi-gajillionaires by being stupid. Except Britney Spears, and no one's sure if she's even a multi-gajillionaire any more. Zygi isn't dumb enough to try to use his position to campaign for a stadium in the face of this tragedy. Red McCombs might have tried something like that, but not Zygi Wilf.