MINNEAPOLIS -- Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Tice met Tuesday with NFL security officials looking into possible scalping of Super Bowl tickets, SI.com reported.

 

According to SI.com, Tice, Vikings running back coach Dean Dalton, and other Minnesota team personnel met with two NFL security officials who are investigating the possible involvement of Tice and others in Super Bowl ticket-scalping. Such involvement would be against NFL rules.

 

Say what? Mike Tice says he did not take part in an alleged Vikings' ticket-scalping scheme.Reached by The Associated Press Tuesday night, Tice confirmed that he met with league security officials but declined to elaborate.

 

Tice, however, told SI.com that the officials, Admin Sweeney and John Keenan, were talking to him and others in the Vikings organization about how they distribute their Super Bowl tickets, but that 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 in the report posted late Tuesday. "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."

 

Greg Aiello, an NFL spokesman, declined to confirm to SI.com whether the league was investigating ticket scalping within the Vikings organization.

 

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.

 

While the practice of scalping Super Bowl tickets quietly goes on around the league, Minnesota's situation is different because the head coach is allegedly the orchestrator.

 

Tice has been the team's head coach since January 2002. But he's been on the sidelines since 1996 when he began coaching the Vikings' tight ends and offensive line.

 

"This started when [Tice] wasn't the figure he is now," one team source told SI.com. "I can't believe how rampant it's been. Stuff like this has gone on a long time. There's a pretty good amount of people involved. There could be a lot of people affected by this, not just in the NFL's view, but with the IRS as well."

 

A team source told SI.com that Tice orchestrated the re-selling of players' and team employees' Super Bowl tickets after the Eagles defeated the Vikings in the NFC divisional playoffs.

 

"Tice has been turning around tickets for years and years," said one player with the Vikings in 2003 to SI.com. "He's been selling them to the same guy. He commits to a certain amount every year."

 

Another NFL assistant who was once with the Vikings concurred with the notion that this practice is widespread around the league and added that some even rely on it to supplement lower salaries of assistant coaches.

 

"A lot of teams do it," the assistant told SI.com. "Everybody can do it. Every team has a guy who takes care of moving the tickets. I'd hate to see it end because coaches have always used that as extra money. Coaches do count on that as a little extra deal. [Team] owners will probably stop doing it now, because they don't have to give us those tickets.

 

"When I was there [in Minnesota], Mike was the guy. He had a guy somewhere who moved the tickets. I just never took him up on it because I was always scared I'd get my ass caught."

 

Tice is heading into the final year of a contract that ranks him among the NFL's lowest-paid head coaches at $1 million per season.

Hey, the man needs some supplemental income. He's a complete tool. I like how the owner came out the other day and said that he strongly considered firing Tice midseason to appease Randy Moss. If Tice had any pride, he'd get the hell away from that job.