Fired For Wearing Packers Tie, Car Salesman Now Flourishing
HOMEWOOD, Ill. (CBS) – The Bears on Sunday will take on the Green Bay Packers for the first time since the post-season.
One man who will be watching actually lost his job because of his love for the Packers.
Now, eight months later, he says there are no hard feelings, CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot reports.
John Stone says he's in a better place. Eight months ago, wearing a Packers tie to work got him fired.
Stone says his boss at an Oak Lawn Chevy dealership told him to remove the tie. He wouldn't. He was wearing it in honor of his grandmother, who had recently passed away.
"I stood up for myself," Stone says. "I'm like, 'You're not going to talk to me this way. I'm grieving still.' Just because the Bears lost. They play again. So for you to fire me and I was one of your top salesmen for the time I was there, that hurt. That really did hurt."
Stone's pain soon turned into joy. A day after he was let go, Chevrolet of Homewood came calling. His first sale was from a Packers fan who came all the way from Wisconsin.
"I picked him up from Amtrak. He drove his Tahoe home," Stone says.
In his eight months at Chevrolet of Homewood, Stone has been named Salesman of the Month four times. He's also sold more than 150 cars.
"Bottom line is we got lucky to have him," sales manager Al Hassan says. "He's done an outstanding job, and look at how things work out."
Stone says he wasn't able to get tickets to this Sunday's game. But he'll watch the game at home, wearing a Packers jersey instead of his tie.
