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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nFred Smoot had one piece of advice for anyone who ever stepped foot on that boat: “If you ever get on this boat, please don’t turn on the black light. Please.”That line, delivered to Barstool Sports in 2018, tells you everything you need to know about Oct. 6, 2005. The Minnesota Vikings’ “Love Boat” scandal remains the most lawless, most talked-about, most jaw-dropping off-field incident in modern NFL history, and 20 years later, it has found its way back into conversation.<\/p>\n <\/strong>None of it becomes a national story without Cathy Hough.Hough lived at 4997 Tuxedo Blvd. in Mound, Minn., a five-minute walk from Al and Alma’s charter boat company on Lake Minnetonka. On the night of Oct. 6, 2005, she was folding laundry when she looked out her bedroom window and saw a black limousine bus pull up to the corner of her street. Seven large men climbed out and lined up against her yard.They urinated on her grass. Hough marched outside, screamed at them, and was told by one of the men: “It’s only water, ma’am.”She got in her Chevy Lumina, followed the bus to Al and Alma’s, drove home, and called 911. That phone call set off a police investigation that turned the NFL upside down.The excursion on the two yachts was organized by first-year Vikings safety Fred Smoot and possibly two other players, according to Stephen Doyle, the attorney for Al and Alma’s. Smoot had an $80,000 budget and one night to throw the rookies a party during the team’s bye week. He put his credit card down, rented two large houseboats, and arranged for sex workers to fly in from Atlanta, Miami, Los Angeles, New York, and Texas. About 100 women arrived in limousines. “You would’ve thought the President was moving at this time,” Smoot later told Barstool Sports.The boats were ordered back to shore just 40 minutes into what had been planned as a 3.5-hour cruise, after supervisors learned what was happening on board. The cleaning crew found used condoms, K-Y jelly, and sex toy wrappers across both vessels. One crew member told investigators: “Never in the history of this group of people have they ever had anything like this.”<\/p>\n <\/strong>On Dec. 15, 2005, Hennepin County prosecutors charged Daunte Culpepper, Fred Smoot, Bryant McKinnie, and Moe Williams with three misdemeanor counts each: indecent conduct, disorderly conduct, and lewd or lascivious conduct. Each count carried a maximum of 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.The specific allegations per eyewitness accounts, as reported by ESPN and Minnesota Public Radio: Culpepper received a lap dance from a naked woman in one boat’s bar area and placed his hands on her. McKinnie placed a woman on the bar in the lounge and performed oral sex on her, then later received oral sex while sitting in a deck chair alongside three other unidentified men. Smoot used a sex toy on two women on the lounge floor. Williams received a lap dance from a topless dancer.Charges against Culpepper were dropped in April 2006. Williams was found guilty of disorderly conduct, fined $300, and ordered to complete 30 hours of community service. Smoot and McKinnie both pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct in May 2006, paying $1,000 fines and completing 48 hours of community service. Their 30-day jail sentences were stayed for one year.The NFL fined Smoot $82,352 and McKinnie $41,176 in September 2006. Neither was suspended. A day after McKinnie’s fine, the Vikings gave him a seven-year, $48 million contract extension.<\/p>\n <\/strong>The franchise paid a price that went beyond fines.Head coach Mike Tice was fired at the end of the 2005 season, with the Love Boat scandal a significant factor in owner Zygi Wilf’s decision. Wilf subsequently issued a 77-page code of conduct to all team personnel. The Vikings finished 9-7 that year and missed the playoffs on tiebreakers, a team that had been to the NFC Championship the previous season.Smoot, looking back years later, framed it the only way a person probably can: “We were a group of 20-year-olds with millions of dollars in our pockets. What do you expect guys to do? They’re going to have fun and they’re going to find a little trouble.”And Cathy Hough, the woman whose 911 call started all of it? The Vikings never apologized. Al and Alma’s sent her a gift basket. She told Jeff Pearlman of Sports Illustrated: “I guess public embarrassment does that to people.”<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong>The Minnesota Vikings\u2019 Love Boat scandal was a 2005 off-field controversy involving several Vikings players on two charter boats on Lake Minnetonka. Crew members reported public sexual acts and other inappropriate behavior, and four players were later charged with misdemeanor offenses.<\/p>\n <\/strong>The Minnesota Vikings\u2019 Love Boat scandal happened on Oct. 6, 2005, during the team\u2019s bye week. Several Vikings players were on two charter boats on Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota when crew members reported public sexual acts and other inappropriate behavior.<\/p>\n <\/strong>Daunte Culpepper, Fred Smoot, Bryant McKinnie, and Moe Williams were charged in December 2005. Each faced misdemeanor counts of indecent conduct, disorderly conduct, and lewd or lascivious conduct.<\/p>\n <\/strong>Charges against Culpepper were dropped in April 2006. Williams was found guilty of disorderly conduct. Smoot and McKinnie later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct and were fined by the NFL.<\/p>\n <\/strong>The scandal became infamous because of the graphic witness allegations, the police investigation, the misdemeanor charges, and the damage it did to the Vikings\u2019 public image. It also came during the regular season and became one of the NFL\u2019s most widely discussed off-field controversies. <\/div>\nHow the Minnesota Vikings’ Love Boat scandal actually started, with seven players urinating on a stranger’s lawn<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
Daunte Culpepper, Fred Smoot, Bryant
What the Love Boat scandal actually cost the Minnesota Vikings<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
What to know about the Minnesota Vikings\u2019 Love Boat scandal<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
What was the Minnesota Vikings\u2019 Love Boat scandal?<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
When did the Minnesota Vikings\u2019 Love Boat scandal happen?<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Which Minnesota Vikings players were charged after the Love Boat scandal?<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
What happened to the charges in the Vikings\u2019 Love Boat case?<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Why did the Vikings\u2019 Love Boat scandal become so infamous?<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n