Vikings 'Love Boat' Scandal Boat For Sale, Complete With Jerseys

While Minnesota Vikings fans are sadly used to 'low points', the 'Love Boat' Scandal stands among one of the lowest lows in the last 20-some odd years.

If you have a twisted sense of humor, you have the chance to own a piece of that history. Yep, one of the two houseboats involved in the infamous 2005 Lake Minnetonka occurrence is up for sale.

What was the Love Boat Scandal, again?

If you are too young to remember this (or maybe you've just blocked it out of your memory), let me set the scene for you.

Going into the 2005 season, the Wilfs had just bought the Vikings from Red McCombs, and the team selected Troy Williamson as their top draft pick to replace Randy Moss after trading him away.

While the Wilfs have been great owners, everything else in that last sentence has varying levels of "yuck" to it.

Anyway, the 2005 season got off to a rough 1-3 start, and Minnesota's bye came in early October during week 5 of the season. A number of the team's players decided to spend some time during the bye week cruising Lake Minnetonka in the Twin Cities by renting a couple of houseboats.

A number of prominent players took part in this event, including Daunte Culpepper, Fred Smoot, Mewelde Moore, Pat Williams, Bryant McKinnie, Nate Burleson (yep, the guy on CBS now), Moe Williams, Jermaine Wiggins, and Troy Williamson (who should have focused on his football catching skills during the week off).

A Twin Cities woman called the cops on the evening of October 6, reporting that seven guys had urinated in her yard after getting out of a big, shuttle-style limo, mentioning that the men were at a charter cruise company on Lake Minnetonka.

As cops checked it out, they discovered the men were Minnesota Vikings players who had flown in adult entertainers from around the country to join them on this cruise, during which various sexual and other activities reportedly occurred.

The aftermath included legal charges and steep fines from the league and team ownership, pushing for a culture change, which spurred the firing of coach Mike Tice, ushering in the Brad Childress era and his "kickass offense".

While it wasn't necessarily the reason for his departure (he wanted a trade and had injury issues that gave the team pause), it was also the last season Daunte Culpepper was with the Vikings. That started the era of re-tread aging veterans and not-great young quarterbacks that worked (and didn't work) at varying levels.

Needless to say, this boat cruise had a lot of ramifications.

One of the 'Love Boat' boats is for sale, complete with a couple of Vikings jerseys

The boat, named "Miss Chievious", one of the two involved in the Love Boat scandal, is now for sale. Since the scandal, the boat has migrated south, spending time as a dinner and tour boat on Okoboji Lake in Okoboji, IA.

The listing on Boat Trader says the current owners have refurbished the boat, saying it "looks and operates great".

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The boat is a 58-foot 1994 Skipperliner 5800 with twin 340 horsepower Mercruisers, a new generator, air conditioning and heat, heads, full galley, dual helms, and other amenities.

Pictured in the listing is also a pair of framed Minnesota Vikings jerseys. One is Daunte Culpepper's, and the other is Bryan McKinnie's. The listing includes no mention of the scandal, besides that reference with the jerseys.

This, uh, interesting nod to the boat's history presumably comes with the boat, making it a rather unique collectible for the right Vikings fan. One with a dark sense of humor, unique collecting taste, and/or with $149,900 in spare cash lying around that you want to get rid of. That's the asking price in the listing, being managed by Tetzlaff Yacht Sales in Stillwater.