Here are the details, and you can decide if you would have fired Eric Anderson. Â
- Anderson, a 47-year-old real estate investor in Milwaukee, has been a beer vendor at Lambeau Field for the past 20 years, the last 18 in Section 132 in the southwest corner of the end zone.
- On Nov. 19, Anderson was on the job as the Packers played the New England Patriots. A couple Packers fans bought some beer at the start of the game, then offered Anderson a $12 tip if he refused to sell beer to two Patriots’ fans next to them.
- “I told them I can’t do that,” Anderson said, but he did anyway, saying later he considered it a joke.
- Then, in the third quarter, the Packers fans offered Anderson a $20 tip to once more snub the New England rooters. Anderson didn’t accept that tip and two other fans passed their beers to the Patriots’ fans. But things went downhill fast.
- After the game, Anderson was confronted by the two season-ticket holders who had brought the Pats’ fans to the game as their guests, and they were not happy. They wouldn’t accept Anderson’s apology and threatened to call the Packers and complain, which they did.
- Anderson notified his supervisor and submitted a written report. But two days later, he was notified that he was probably going to be given a one-game suspension. Then, shortly before the next Packers’ home game (against Detroit), Anderson was told that he was being terminated.
So, would you have fired him?
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OK, I do have EXPERIENCE AND EXPERTISE here as I grew up in Green Bay and did work in the stands for several years.
1. You are instructed to go along with things in the stands. We were told to IGNORE “Toll Sips”, and this was back in the 70s before the “Men of the Square Table”.
2. the people vending in the stands are always offered tips to do outrageous things. I was once offered $75 to trip then Governor Pat Lucey and send him flying down the concrete stairs. Lucey was a Democrat and a drinking buddy of Teddy’s. He was made Ambassador to Mexico near the end of Carter’s term.
I never accepted such tips, nor went along with any pranks. I liked my job and know nothing good comes from participating in the pranks.
Would I have fired Anderson? No. But I’d put him and the ushers working the section on probation with termination if such a thing EVER happened again.
Now, with each coaching change, the vendors even get changed. I remember everyone getting fired when Forrest Gregg took over. And again after Gregg was fired.
I wish people had been fired after someone screwed up and scheduled another event at Lambeau Field when the 2005 Hot Rod Power Tour was scheduled for the stadium and parking lot. It was a fiasco reported in Hot Rod magazine, and I’m still embarassed about it today, and I had nothing to do with it.
I agree with you PCD. The guy was wrong to go along with this, but I think that the back story is that the season ticket holders demanded this…He should have been warned and suspended for a game or two, but firing is a bit extreme.
The thing is that the poor guy lugging the beer case is in the wrong no matter what he does. Always has been, always will be.
Can any of you picture me on a cold December day selling cokes and Hot Chocolate in the North End zone while in shirt sleeves and sweating up a storm? Been there and done that. Damn, it was a Packer-Viking game and the Vikes won.
Time to get Da Bears on Sunday.
Nah Eric should NOT have been fired imo.
This wouldn’t have happened at a Raiders game. Raiders fans are the self-reliant, do-it-yourself types. The Raiders fans would not have needed the beer vendor’s assistance. They simply would have assaulted the opposing team’s fans themselves!