Red-Faced: McCombs Backs Away From Comments Made To SI

Vikings Owner Distances Himself From SI Comments

Vikings Owner Red McCombs “backed away from a series of stunning comments attributed to him” in SI, according to Kevin Seifert of the Minneapolis STAR-TRIBUNE. While McCombs in the magazine discussed the possibility of moving the Vikings to L.A., he said yesterday he does not “even see that as an option.” McCombs: “If you asked me if I would like to see a stadium proposal from [L.A.], the answer would be yes. If you asked me if I would like to see a stadium proposal from Minnesota, the answer would also be yes. We don’t have a stadium proposal from anywhere –- [L.A.], Minnesota or anywhere else” (STAR-TRIBUNE, 10/28).

HE SAID IT: McCombs said in the SI interview before Titans-Vikings Sunday, “Let’s face it. I would love to be in L.A. But I just can’t pick up and go to L.A.; that’s a league issue. I’m a team player, so I’m not going to test the courts and run off in the middle of the night. At this point, I don’t see relocation as a viable alternative, because the league has said, ‘You’ve got to make it work (in Minnesota)’” (SI.com, 10/27).

REAX: In St. Paul, Bob Sansevere writes, “If McCombs is a team player, as he claims, he would do what is best for him and his team and stop talking about moving. Everyone from Andover to Zumbrota knows he wants a new stadium. And if there were millions just lying around gathering dust in the state coffers, he would probably get it.” Sansevere added that since money is tight, McCombs “should be tight-lipped” (ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS, 10/28).