Chicago car salesman fired for wearing Green Bay Packers tie

But salesman gets last laugh — lands job at another dealership

The Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League have a fierce rivalry going back decades. That rivalry may have cost one Chicago-area car salesman his job.

John Stone, 34, wore a Packers tie to his job at John Webb Chevrolet in suburban Oak Lawn the day after the Packers' victory against their archrival, the hometown Chicago Bears, for a National Football League conference championship.

Stone told WGN-TV he wore the tie in honor of his recently deceased grandmother, a lifelong Packer fan. He was fired for refusing to take it off.

Stone's choice of neckwear did not sit well with Jerry Roberts, the general manager at John Webb Chevrolet. Roberts told WGN that Webb Chevrolet has an advertising relationship with the Bears, and he fired Stone for wearing the Packer tie.

"I don't feel that it was appropriate for him to go in directly in contrast with an advertising campaign that we spend a lot of money on," Roberts told WGN.

At first, when Roberts told him he was fired, Stone said he thought he was kidding. Stone said he volunteered to cover up the tie by zipping up his jacket. "He said 'You're fired, get out,'" Stone told WGN.

However, things seem to have worked out for Stone. Another Chicago-area dealership, Chevrolet of Homewood, hired him after general manager Guy Cesario saw Stone interviewed on TV about the firing and liked the way Stone presented himself.

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