Eric in McLean said:
Every few years, some guy screws up the night before the Super Bowl, and that contributes to the team losing the game. I think the outcome of the Super Bowl has a significant impact on the lives of many - whether economically or emotionally. More more impact than the death of an unknown soldier. Sad but true.
Part of being a team is being able to step into others shoes when necessary. If team members can't do that, they aren't really much of a team, and they deserve to lose. Not everyone cares about the Super Bowl, btw, some of us enjoy doing other things that day--but it is a good excuse for a BBQ, I will admit!
In this Apprentice task, everyone was basically interchangeable. It did not call for any specialty skills at all (actually, from watching this over several seasons, he seems to be looking for glorified event planners). Also, Trump makes the decision as to who should stay and who should go, and I don't remember either Bill or Carolyn saying to him that the missing members impacted the result in any way, shape or form. Lenny and the other team members (didn't hear any comments from them one way or the other) really can't blame the two guys who weren't there for the failure. The person who got fired deserved it, although the other girl should have gone too--wonder if Trump will ever break that particular rule and go up to the boardroom and fire someone who thought they were safe.
I think in just the last season there was at least one lopsided situation with only two of them on the task before they merged the teams, and it seemed to go okay (most of these tasks, especially in the latter stages, are really "pick up the phone, call someone, and pay THEM to do it", and well, anyone can do that, if they have enough money).
Now, do I think Trump would have fired those guys even if he thought it was an issue? Absolutely not. Not after mentioning that George was off for the same reason. And I'm sure that he would not have wanted the resulting bad press--after all, the show has not been doing well of late (just plain dumb to put it against "24").