As a long-time fantasy football player, I am terrified by this story of a termination that occurred in Texas (one of the football capitals of this country).  The quick details:

Pettigrew and three other Fidelity employees were fired for playing fantasy football.

“Firing a guy for being in a $20 fantasy league? Let’s be honest; that’s a complete overreaction,” said Pettigrew, who lives in Grapevine and has an MBA from the University of Texas at Arlington. “In this economic time, especially. To fire people over something like this, it’s just cold.”

Said Fidelity spokesman Vin Loporchio: “We have clear policies that relate to gambling. Participation in any form of gambling through the use of Fidelity time or equipment or any other company resource is prohibited. In addition to being illegal in a lot of places, it can also be disruptive. We want our employees to be focused on our customers and clients.”

Yikes.  That is some draconian policy they have, but I’m not sure Mr. Pettigrew is completely innocent in this situation:

Pettigrew, who was the commissioner of his league, knew Fidelity had a policy against playing fantasy football at the office. But he said the policy was poorly communicated and ignored by leadership. Pettigrew said there were at least 10 fantasy leagues in which leaders and managers played.

But the story has another turn:

Pettigrew, though, said he never sent any fantasy football e-mails at work or using his work e-mail address. But the investigators found two instant messages that had fantasy-football-related material.

“One of my buddies sent me something about how bad Trent Edwards was playing or something like that,” Pettigrew said. “So they called me in and talked to me for about 90 minutes on everything I ever knew about fantasy football. They interrogated me as though I was some sort of international gambling kingpin. Then they released me for the day, and I was like, ‘OK.’ I never thought they’d fire me for this, but, the next day, I get the call saying I had been terminated.”

No way this guy should have been terminated.  Clearly his analysis of Trent Edwards play is spot on, in my opinion.  In all seriousness, this does seem quite harsh in this economy during the Christmas season.  I would say some sort of reprimand was in order, but a termination without warning is over the top.  One of the often discounted items is the effect this type of leadership has on team morale.  Upper management could have gotten their point across without sacrificing team morale with an overreach.

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