Vikes hope to minimize fallout

Despite dealing with the Love Boat, the team has managed to stay competitive on the field.
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. (AP) -- The chatter was upbeat, smiles abounded and hip hop blared on the locker room stereo.
If the Minnesota Vikings were shook up by the news that four of their teammates were charged with misdemeanors stemming from an October cruise on Lake Minnetonka, they sure did a good job of hiding it.
"It's business as usual," quarterback Brad Johnson said Friday. "Everyone knew that at some point this was going to come out. We've dealt with it as individuals and as a team and we're moving forward."
The timing couldn't have been worse. The Vikings are looking for their seventh win in a row Sunday against Pittsburgh (8-5), the best team they've faced since their winning streak started against the New York Giants.
The party boat
On Thursday, Hennepin County authorities charged Daunte Culpepper, Bryant McKinnie, Fred Smoot and Moe Williams with indecent, lewd and disorderly conduct for participating in a bawdy boat party on Oct. 6.
McKinnie's attorney, Joe Tamburino, said his client should not be charged.
"We're going to plead not guilty," he said. "Nobody else is treated this way. Never do you see a misdemeanor crime investigated for hundreds of hours."
Smoot's attorney, David Valentini, said Smoot also would plead not guilty.
Culpepper is away from the team while recovering from knee surgery. He told the St. Paul Pioneer Press: "I look forward to meeting my accusers in a court of law, so they can be confronted with this lie. In the end, the truth will come out and I will be vindicated. ... If I did anything wrong, it was going to that stupid boat."
Williams is away from the team while on injured reserve.
A team attorney said Thursday that owner Zygi Wilf would determine if suspensions were appropriate, but did not set a timetable for the decision.
A day after the media circus descended on the Vikings practice facility, everything appeared back to normal Friday.
Coach Mike Tice was cheerful, saying that the charges were not as tough to swallow as the shock that came when the news of the party broke in October and turned the team into a national punchline.
"We knew this was going to come up again," Tice said. "We didn't feel like it was going to go away. We endured three terrible weeks, three of the harder weeks since I've been around. ... I think that helped these kids grow a little bit. ... This is a young team. Adversity like that helps you grow and realize things about the decisions you have to make.
Easier to digest
"The worst part of it is the initial part of it. This part is embarrassing, obviously a distraction, but nothing near the first time."
Tice has called this the most mature team he's had in his four years as a head coach. He doesn't think the charges will affect them heading into their first real test in seven weeks.
"They're very focused," Tice said. "They're very enthusiastic and fired up. ... It's going to be a fun day on Sunday. That's what you play for. You play for these games. It's pretty special."
There certainly is a lot riding on the game for both teams. The Vikings (8-5) have only beaten one team with a winning record all season -- the Giants -- and need a win to keep pace in a hyper-competitive NFC playoff race.
"If we lose one game," cornerback Antoine Winfield said, "we might not make it."
That, and a tough Steelers team that is also scratching for a playoff berth, seems to be motivation enough for the Vikings to disregard the latest round of distractions.
"I really don't even think it's a distraction," free safety Darren Sharper said. "Those are things that happen outside the locker room. ... We've done a great job of not letting those things affect us."
Like Tice, most of the players took the charges in stride, steadfastly maintaining focus on Pittsburgh.
Issues dead
"It's pretty much the same around here," Winfield said. "We're winning. The boat party and all those issues are pretty much dead. It'll take care of itself."
Spoken like a player who has seen a thing or two this season, and Winfield has.
Starting in the offseason with Tice's Super Bowl ticket scalping and Onterrio Smith being caught with device designed to beat drug tests called "The Original Whizzinator," the Vikings have been cloaked in scandal.
From Culpepper's season-ending knee injury to the now infamous "Love Boat," these Vikings have gotten used to dealing with distractions and have somehow managed to stick together and stay competitive on the field.