Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Wilf delivers profanity-laced address to Vikings

ESPN.com news services

Minnesota Vikings owner Zygi Wilf delivered an "intense" profanity-laced address to the team on Friday regarding the now-infamous sex-boat scandal. During the meeting, Wilf threatened to remove players from the roster who were involved in the planning of the party, according to an article in this week's issue of Sports Illustrated.

Allegedly, 17 Vikings players attended a party on two rented cruise ships on Lake Minnetonka the night of Oct. 6. According to cruise staff members, excessive drinking, lewd public sexual acts and other inappropriate behavior took place at the party.

"This ain't the first time Vikings players have been on Lake Minnetonka with some ," a former Minnesota player told SI. "I went out there several times with a few other guys and some strippers, when all of us were single, but we would go on a boat that one of the guys owned, so everything happened in private."

"That 's been going on every year," another former Viking told the magazine, "and every year it has escalated."

The article also quotes three players from last year's team who claim that, in a late-season meeting, head coach Mike Tice "offered to fight any team member who wanted a piece of him." None of the players were identified.

Neither Tice nor Wolf could be reached for comment about the article.