This Week on Playmakers

Remember that short-lived ESPN original series, Playmakers? The series that was cancelled, despite (more or less)positive reviews and solid ratings, because the NFL didn't like ESPN running a series about the seedier side of the NFL, not when ESPN broadcasts NFL games . . . .

The real problem with the show, if you watched it (and I did), was that reality was always outstripping the player misbehavior on the show. Drug scandal? Got that. Cheating on drug tests? Got that. The NFL should have gone after the sports pages, not the tv show. (Or after the players, but . . . huh? Why don't they do that? Oh, I know, it's the money.)

Why this stroll down memory lane? Well, check this out. The Minnesota Vikings are much worse than the fictional team in Playmakers. Coach fined for scalping Super Bowl tickets. Player caught, at the airport, with a fake penis used for cheating on urine tests. Really. Randy Moss.

Now, a "three-hour cruise" that went, well, south. Strike that. Seems like some players decided that only thing that makes a boat cruise on lake Minnetonka more fun is lap dances.

According to reports by several Twin Cities media outlets, about 20 players were among the approximately 90 people on two boats for last Thursday's chartered cruise on Lake Minnetonka. Crew members on the boats alleged that the cruise was cut short because nude women were performing lap dances and sexual acts with male cruise participants, including some of the players.

My favorite part of the article is this "non-denial denial":

Running back Mewelde Moore told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune he was onboard one boat but said reports that characterized the trip as a sex party "got it all wrong, I guess."

Moore said he "didn't see anything," including sex acts. "Sex? What are you talking about?" Moore said. "That's crazy. Sex? Come on. Look, I'm engaged. So none of that. That will put me in trouble."

I'm using that one, next time I don't want to answer questions. "No, that's not right, I guess."

Next week, on Playmakers. Later, Players.