March 9, 2005

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- The NFL acknowledged Wednesday that is looking into allegations that Minnesota coach Mike Tice scalped Super Bowl tickets.

Tice confirmed to the Associated Press Tuesday that he had met with league security officials, but declined to elaborate.

ESPN reported Wednesday that Tice told the network that he had scalped tickets when he was an assistant with the Vikings, but not when he was a head coach. ESPN also reported that Tice said he told his assistants they could sell Super Bowl tickets to a ticket agency in California.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said that it is forbidden for team employees to scalp tickets. He said it would be up to commissioner Paul Tagliabue to determine the penalty.

In 1986, Dominic Frontiere, then the husband of Rams owner Georgia Frontiere, pleaded guilty to not reporting income from 2,500 scalped tickets to the 1980 Super Bowl. He was sentenced to a year and a day in jail, was fined $15,000 and received three years probation.

The Frontieres subsequently divorced.

The investigation into Tice was first reported by SI.com, which said Tice told the Web site that league officials were talking to him and others in the Vikings organization about how they distribute their Super Bowl tickets. He said he had nothing to do with re-selling players' tickets.

``I'm confident when the league finishes looking at this, everything will come out fine,'' he told SI.com. ``It's a shame assumptions are being made about my role in this. I did not approach any player about Super Bowl tickets as head coach of the Minnesota Vikings.''

The Star Tribune of Minneapolis reported on its Web site late Tuesday night that Vikings running backs coach Dean Dalton has also met with investigators about scalping tickets.

NFL players, coaches and club personnel can buy Super Bowl tickets, but have to sign a document saying they won't re-sell them at a profit.

Tice is heading into the final year of a contract that ranks him among the NFL's lowest-paid head coaches.



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