ADDITION BY SUBTRACTION?: VIKINGS STILL FULL OF DELINQUENTS.

Byline: BILLY WITZ NFL 

Well, it's good to see the Vikings got rid of all of their problems with Randy Moss.

To recap - and this may take a minute here - this is what folks in the Twin Cities have witnessed since their favorite miscreant was shipped to Oakland in late February:

Vikings coach Mike Tice was called into Principal Tagliabue's office after getting caught scalping Super Bowl tickets; running back Onterrio Smith was busted with a Whizzinator, the drug-test cheating kit with the prosthetic penis, in his luggage; defensive tackle Kevin Williams was arrested for beating up his wife; offensive linemen Bryant McKinnie and Marcus Johnson were charged with disorderly conduct late one night at a gas station.

``I hate when people try to make football players Superman,'' cornerback Fred Smoot said when McKinnie and Johnson were taken in three weeks ago. ``You ain't got a lot of church rats running around in here.''

As if to prove that point, there was this week's revelation that at least 17 Vikings - and probably more - boarded a pair of boats for a Lake Minnetonka pleasure cruise, opting apparently for the Bacchanalian package.

Crew members on the boats alleged that some players engaged in public sex acts, drank heavily and propositioned some of the female crew members before the boat captains returned to shore 40 minutes into what was supposed to be a 3 1/2-hour trip.

The man who has been named by the boat operators' attorney as having set up details for the party and put down a deposit?

That would be Smut, er, Smoot.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported Saturday that authorities were investigating whether some of the women who had sex with the players had been flown in from Atlanta. That could land somebody in hot water, considering that organizing prostitution across state lines is a felony under federal law.

The Land of 10,000 Lakes has become The Land of a 10,000 Embarrassments.

``If the allegations are true, it's awful,'' Gov. Tim Pawlenty said. ``We understand athletes aren't necessarily role models, but we at least expect them to abide by the basic laws of the state.''

Owner Zygi Wilf, who bought the team earlier this year, was red in the face from equal parts embarrassment and anger.

``I am embarrassed. My family is embarrassed. My partners are embarrassed,'' said Wilf, who was visibly shaking as he delivered his remarks to the media Friday. ``I want to make it extremely clear that this behavior will never be tolerated again.''

Wilf expressed those feelings to the team earlier in the day and promised to take appropriate action against any player once the investigation is complete.

``There will be no exceptions,'' Wilf said.

The allegations are particularly problematic for Wilf since last month he unveiled plans for a stadium project that asks for $510 million of public funds. He didn't need to put his finger in the wind too long to realize how angry people in Minnesota are right now. Wilf said the stadium project, while important, is not his top priority right now.

To placate the mob, surely someone's head will be offered up, but whose? Wilf says it won't be Tice's, even though he'd be an easy target as his 1-3 team - which some had pegged as a Super Bowl contender - has been as dysfunctional on the field as off it.

What of the locker room leaders? Also on the boats were quarterback Daunte Culpepper, tight end Jermaine Wiggins, receivers Nate Burleson, safety Darren Sharper and Williams, though there is no indication who was doing what. Some players were embarrassed enough by what was going on to apologize to some of the crew members, but not enough to prevent some women from hiding in closets on the boats.

How does something like this happen?

It's one thing if everything on this Love Boat was consensual - the Cowboys' frolicking at the White House in the early 90s was treated with a relative shrug. But when it isn't, when laws may have been broken and when many of the Vikings can't seem to keep from making headlines off the field, there is clearly a problem.

Dan Ariely, a behavioral psychologist at MIT, says it's not uncommon for people to behave very differently in groups than they would individually.

``When you're acting as an individual, you'll consider how your parents taught you, the values you'll want to give your kids,'' said Ariely, the Director for the Center of Advanced Hindsight at MIT. ``At the other extreme is being part of a group, where you're all dressed the same way, you're just behaving the same way as a group. It creates a condition where it's easy to forget about the values you've been taught, what you stand for.''

Football, more than other sports, demands that individuals subjugate themselves for the good of the team. It's similar to the military or prisons, Ariely said, pointing to the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq.

``It's human nature to adapt,'' he said. ``A group of people can be in a bar and one person whistles at a woman, then it becomes the norm. Then someone does something else. It can escalate very quickly.

``You and I might be nice individuals, but if you take someone and put them in prison or in that boat, you don't really know how to behave in that environment. The social norms that evolve in that situation will dictate how they behave. I don't want to justify this behavior, but we understand how these evolve.''

Thus, leadership plays a strong role in guiding behavior. But if the players don't police themselves and the coaches can't set down their standards, who will?

It's a familiar question in Minnesota, but one that's no longer hung on Moss. As Vikings fans have found out, addition by subtraction still leaves them with a bunch of zeros.

CAPTION(S):

photo, 2 boxes

Photo:

Minnesota Vikings owner Zygi Wilf said of allegations that players had a sex party on a boat, ``this behavior will never be tolerated again.''

Craig Lassig/Associated Press

Box:

(1) BUMP & RUN

(2) WEEK 6 CAPSULES