Warren Sapp defends non-tip on Twitter

Oct 31, 2013; Miami Gardens, FL, USA; NFL Network analyst Warren Sapp before a game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Miami Dolphins at Sun Life Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Robert Mayer-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 31, 2013; Miami Gardens, FL, USA; NFL Network analyst Warren Sapp before a game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Miami Dolphins at Sun Life Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Robert Mayer-USA TODAY Sports /
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Warren Sapp recently came under some fire after a picture was posted by a waitress who served Sapp at a restaurant and received a tip for zero dollars and zero cents. That’s certainly not what we’d call ‘living the dream’ for the waitress and it was easy for many to come down hard on Sapp, and many did via his Twitter account. But the story only began there.

Sapp addressed his critics on Twitter in the following replies:

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We’ve all heard plenty of justifications for non-tipping and this isn’t the time to judge any of that behavior. The one thing Sapp might have noted when weighing the devastation he felt at not being called a man is that a server typically pays for each table they take to their support staff (bussers, runners, etc) for each table they take. So when Sapp stiffed on the tip, he didn’t just deny the waitress a potential payout, he actually cost her money.

That’s where it’s hard to ever justify not tipping anything at all. A meager tip? Fine. Some servers aren’t very good or personable or attentive, and if that it makes you feel better to give a crappy tip, no one will know about it but the waitress anyways. But no tip at all? That’s almost always a cruel, unjust response to a situation a customer may simply not understand at the time. We don’t know what the waitress did or why the “service was horrible.”

On the flip side, the waitress should be fired immediately for releasing that photo. It’s unacceptable on her part and we will likely see a news piece in a few days alluding to such a reprimand. For now, both parties will have to take to Twitter for any residual justice.