Mike Tice’s contract with the Minnesota Vikings expires in January.
Mike Tice’s offseason home is in Pierce County.
Those two undeniable facts were enough for a Minneapolis-area newspaper to report two weeks ago that he was a candidate to become the head football coach the University of Washington.
Based on what Tice said in a Wednesday conference call, the former Seattle Seahawks tight end and current Vikings head coach isn’t in any hurry to shoot down any of the rumors.
“I love Seattle, and I think everybody that knows me knows that,” Tice said in a conference call with Seattle-area reporters. “It would be a lifelong dream for me to work in the city where my children were born. But I have a job here, and I’m under contract until Jan. 31. I want to finish the job I have here.”
Washington might not be willing to wait that long, but Tice wouldn’t mind if the Huskies waited. Because his contract with the Vikings was not renewed before the 2004 season, rumors have been rampant that Minnesota might not want him back.
Vikings owner Red McCombs has been quoted as saying he did not want to consider Tice’s job status until after the season so there won’t be any distractions.
Tice said he would consider coaching at the collegiate level, but “there would only be two or three jobs that I would be interested in.” Washington, Tice said, is one of them.
“Certainly,” he said. “I thought I already gave you enough ammo to read between the lines, as they say. Who wouldn’t want to come home?”
Tice, 45, is originally from Long Island but spent 10 seasons with the Seahawks from 1981-88 and 1990-91. He once owned a deli in Redmond and has maintained a residence in the area.
He lives in Edina, Minn., during the season. But Tice, who has a wife and two children, maintains an offseason home in Allyn, which is about 70 miles southwest of Seattle.
As far as the possibility of becoming UW’s next coach, Tice is interested but not willing to devote too much time thinking about it.
“I have a job to do,” he said, “so I really can’t look at that.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
