By Chris Chase
Remember John Stone, the Chicago car salesman who got fired from his job for wearing a Green Bay Packers tie before the NFC championship game? Like the Packers, Stone has been doing just fine for himself over the past few months, becoming the top-selling salesman at the new dealership that hired him after his story drew national attention.
Stone wore the tie that January day to honor his grandmother, a Packers fan who was buried two days before the game. When his general manager told him to take it off, Stone thought he was joking. Asked again later, Stone refused and was fired. The manager later said Stone wearing the tie was "in contrast" to the Bears advertising campaign the dealership had run earlier in the year.
The 35-year-old quickly got a job at a competing dealership and has seen a boost in his sales since his brush with fame. Paul Imig of Fox Sports Wisconsin writes that Stone has been salesman of the month three times since being hired and has been first or second in sales every month since his arrival.
Customers come in and if they don't know Stone by name, they know to ask for the guy wearing the Packers tie. "In Homewood, everybody knows me," Stone told Imig. "I've got a beard now, and they still know who I am."
Stone hasn't worn the tie since it got him fired from his old job but considered breaking it out this week when the Packers travel to Chicago once again. His new manager wouldn't have a problem with it, though he'd rather see the tie put in a picture frame above Stone's desk.
It's cool to be a Packers fan in at least one workplace in suburban Chicago