This gets sillier because we all know whose funeral it was, and pretending that's not a flash point for some of us here is provocative, itself. I missed my aunt's 70th birthday (huge deal in my family politic) because the cabinet shop I worked for was burglarized the night before, I lived the closest, and I met the police, and boarded up the point of entrance. I missed most of a cousin's wedding for work. I finally threw down and left to make drinks and dancing. My wife and I have juggled countless wakes and funerals around our work schedules.
It was controversial at the time. Nobody makes anything about a player taking time off to be with their child for an operation, birth of a child, or family member's death. Tim Anderson played a whole season after his best friend from childhood was killed, and I remember the response in other online communities being mixed.