Posted on 10/17/2005 12:16:58 AM PDT by Paleo Conservative
CHICAGO - NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue convened an emergency summit Sunday morning with Vikings owner Zygi Wilf, pledging his assistance following one of the darkest weeks in franchise history.
At Tagliabue's urging, Wilf created a new director of security position and immediately filled it by hiring Dag Sohlberg, a retired FBI agent who has worked five years as a part-time employee of NFL Security.
The Vikings have wrapped security issues into their team operations department for years, but Wilf decided to split those duties following allegations last week that players participated in a sex party Oct. 6 on Lake Minnetonka.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
Heh...Heh....Vikqueens...
If Tag had have the balls of Selig he would suspend the involved players for the year, even if that meant he had to shut the Vikings down.
If you want on or off my Vikqueens ping list, please contact me by Freep mail.
I miss Pete Rozelle. He woudln't have tolerated this crap.
Strippers flown to party
Details emerge in Vikings' sexcapades
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
ST. PAUL, Minn. - Strippers flew in for the party. Football players pulled up in limos. As a pair of chartered boats eased onto Lake Minnetonka, booze started flowing and, according to crew members, a sex party began.
Investigators now believe that the strippers from Atlanta, Florida and elsewhere who joined the party apparently work for a high-class escort or call girl service that caters to professional athletes, two law-enforcement officials said.
The party was a far cry from the typical gathering handled by Al & Alma's Supper Club and Charter Cruises, a mom-and-pop outfit in Mound, Minn., that one cop involved in the case called a "Perkins on the lake."
When a group of Minnesota Vikings players chose to party amid bartenders and hostesses accustomed to working family functions and company outings, the result was a major uproar.
Any criminal charges that come out of complaints about lewd behavior on the boats are likely to be minor, a law-enforcement official directly involved in the investigation said Thursday.
But as details about the Oct. 6 party emerge, the Vikings reel in a stream of negative national publicity.
The blowup stems at least in part from the choice to hire the boats and crews from Al & Alma's, two law-enforcement officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.
"Basically, it's a crime of stupidity," one of the officials said. 'We got naive young kids catering, watching 350-pound athletes" engaged in lewd conduct, said one of the officials. "There are probably only two or three other cities in the country where this incident would have happened and not made news or generated a complaint. I'm thinking Los Angeles, New York and possibly Chicago. That stuff doesn't go down well here."
Vikings owner embarrassed
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. - Minnesota Vikings owner Zygi Wilf is angry and embarrassed over accounts of drunkenness and sexual misbehavior by his players on a charter cruise, and said Friday the team will now have a conduct code.
Wilf, in his first comments since the boat party last week, said he has apologized to the governor. He also has spoken with his players, who will be held to a code demanding "high standards, high morals and success."
Stephen Doyle, a lawyer representing the boats' owners, has said cornerback Fred Smoot, formerly of Mississippi State, paid for one of the cruises on Lake Minnetonka. A total of about 90 people were present, Doyle said. They returned to shore more than two hours early when crew members complained of wild, lewd behavior.
"The commissioner emphasized to me that I inherited an organization that was inadequately structured and staffed," Wilf said. "We must correct that to ensure the highest standards of team operations, including discipline, accountability, strong oversight and internal communications."
And, then there are the players ...
Not sure how I got on. Don't want on.
LOL
http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/sports/index.php?ntid=58006&ntpid=2
I guess their rallying cry - "Win one for the strippers" - didn't work very well.
Nevermind Tag, the team owner needs to grow a pair.
I don't know how I got on either.
The "local talent" wasn't good enough. They had to had to fly the strippers (called exotic dancers these days) in after a nationwide search.
I was a kid when Bud Grant (national treasure, by any standard) became coach of the Purple People Eaters.
So, obviously, I'm ancient enough to remember the likes of Fran Tarkenton, Alan Page, Carl Eller, Paul Krause, Chuck Foreman, Mick Tingelhoff, Joe Kapp, Jim Marshall, et al, followed in later years by Anthony and Cris Carter, among others too accomplished and numerous to list here.
Vikings fans have always been like (pre-2004) Red Sox fans and (currently) Cubs fans.
We loved our team image/values, our players, and our focus on the "prize", but were always frustrated by better teams and horrible calls at the most inopportune times (anyone here remember Drew Pearson and his Hail Mary?)
Now we see nothing but a bunch of highly-paid hoodlums on the field that would rather focus on fornicating than finding the end zone.
I can't even bear to watch anymore.
Not that I would EVER root for the cheeseheads, by the way.
I'm depressed, but I'm not insane.
As long as the shoes match....
Why this security position in the wake of player scandals? Does this mean that the only thing the players did wrong was be interrupted by the public?
This "security" thing has taken the place of names and conduct. Typical elitist snob NFL.
Heh...Heh...Vikings and the word "Championship"...heh...heh...heh..
Apparently this is a post 70s trophy case.
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