The Vikings Love Boat scandal
A lot of athletes have engaged in scandalous sexual behaviour in the last few years but in 2005, an American football team took it to a whole new level. On a cold night in October, almost a whole team was involved in acts of debauchery and partying allegedly
with a number of prostitutes. Several key members of the Minnesota Vikings football team were photographed on a ‘love boat’ partying late into the night. This incident was particularly damaging for those involved and sports in general because athletes are
very famous and a lot of people, especially children, look up to them. They are seen as role models and anything wrong they do is reflected on the sport and on all athletes.
The incident that took place happened on the 6th of October 2005 and involved a number of very famous players on the Vikings team. Two boats were hired from the Al & Alma’s Supper Club and Charter Company and a party was arranged to be held on
Lake Minnetonka. Captains and crew members were on hand to cater to the players’ needs but they could never have expected things to transpire as they did in the end. These types of parties were routine and the Vikings held a Rookie Party every year, but they
never got this out of hand.
Witnesses claimed that several Vikings players got onto the boats along with strippers and prostitutes who were flown in especially for the occasion. It turned into a sordid affair with sexual acts taking place in the open in front of crew members and also
property was destroyed and the whole atmosphere was very dodgy. Sexual toys, used condoms and other sexual material were strewn all over the boats. The list of players involved include Daunte Culpepper, Fred Smoot, Mewelde Moore, Pat Williams, Bryant McKinnie,
Nate Burleson, Ralph Brown, Troy Williamson, Travis Taylor, Kevin Williams, Jermaine Wiggins, Lance Johnstone, Moe Williams, Ken Irvin, and Willie Offord. Later reports revealed that Fred Smoot was the organiser and some say the ringleader of the whole affair,
because he hired the boats and arranged the party.
This incident somehow made its way to the media and several newspapers got a hold of pictures and eye witness accounts of what took place. The Vikings management instantly went into damage control and tried to salvage what they could of the situation. It
turned out they could not salvage too much and once the press got a hold of the story, they painted a really bad picture of the whole incident.
The aftermath of the incident was predictable and serious steps were taking to stop another such incident from taking place in the future. The Vikings’ owner Zygi Wilf was extremely upset at the players’ behaviour and in a very angry tirade, said he would
hand out severe punishment to those involved. The head coach, Mike Tice agreed with the owner and decided to hire a former FBI agent to head up security for the team. A 77-page Code of Conduct document was also prepared for the players. Fines and community
service orders were levied against several players on the team but a lot of them escaped punishment in the end.
This horrible incident showed what happens when too much money and not enough common sense prevails in young rich athletes. These players should have known that there was a danger that they would be photographed and the pictures might end up in the media.
They should have thought well before traumatising crew members and employees of a company. The punishments given out to the players were very light and it just showed them and their young fans that if you are rich and famous, you can basically get away with
any sort of immoral and dodgy behaviour. These men are supposed to be upstanding citizens of the sporting community but instead became some of its lowliest members.
Hopefully with more training and better monitoring of players in the future, these types of scandalous incidents can be minimised in all sports and love boat type incidents will be a thing of the past.
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