Bizarre Tale Of Vikings Green Threatens Suit If Two Owners Don’t Sell Shares To Him

Perhaps seeking revenge for what he perceived as a conspiracy against him by some of the Minnesota Vikings’ owners, coach Dennis Green has stunned the organization with a takeover threat.

Green is threatening to sue two owners unless they sell him their shares next month. That revelation comes in the final chapter of Green’s autobiography, “No Room for Crybabies,” which hit Twin Cities bookstores Thursday.

“I cannot believe it,” co-owner Jaye Dyer said Friday. “I absolutely cannot believe it.”

The Vikings have 10 primary owners. Although Green does not identify them directly, Dyer and Wheelock Whitney are believed to be the primary targets of his threat.

Green contends the two undermined his authority and damaged his reputation last season by contacting former Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz in an unsuccessful attempt to make a coaching change.

Whitney did not return a telephone call Friday, but Dyer denied either he or Whitney ever contacted Holtz.

“If he claims that Lou was seeking the job or if he claims that any of the (owners) sought out Lou as to his availability, he’s just wrong,” said Dyer, who considers Holtz a close friend.

Dyer admitted Whitney made comments praising Holtz, but Dyer contends that did not constitute an attempt to replace Green with Holtz.

“I think (Whitney) was quoted as saying, ‘If we were looking for a coach …” Dyer said. “That was just his personal opinion about the quality of the guy (Holtz). It didn’t represent any kind of a move the board was taking.”

Green refused to comment on the book Friday, threatening to walk out on reporters unless questions related directly to Sunday’s game at Tampa Bay.

President Roger Headrick, Green’s biggest supporter among the owners, met with Green on Friday and also talked twice with NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue. Headrick said he was unaware of Green’s plan until reading the book Thursday night.

“I told (Green) … that he should have spoken to me before he went public,” Headrick said in a prepared statement. “We are both aware that any dispute between a coach and an owner that cannot be resolved at the club level is subject to arbitration before the commissioner.”

The timing of the book is curious.

The Vikings (5-2) have won three straight games and are tied with Tampa and Green Bay for first place in the NFC Central. The furor Green’s threat has caused seems certain to be a distraction.

Although he praised the job Green has done as the Vikings coach, Dyer said he was “a little stunned” by the book’s timing.

“One of the high criteria that I think most people would place as a responsibility for a head coach is to be a buffer between distractions and the team,” Dyer said. “Your first reaction here is, ‘Gee whiz, our coach, rather than being a buffer, has created (a distraction). And we’re 5-2 with a big game coming up.”

According to the plan Green details in his book, he would remain coach and assume the duties of general manager, which currently are divided. Headrick would remain president.

The sale would have to be approved unanimously by the 10 principal Vikings owners and the NFL. Asked if he would sell his share to Green, Dyer said, “I think that’s a little farfetched.”

Green claims the 10 principal owners each own 9 percent. He says the other 10 percent is owned by a silent group of investors who never have been identified.

Although Headrick is believed to be a principal owner, Green’s book said Headrick owns only 2 percent. Headrick said this week that Green’s numbers were inaccurate and that each of the 10 principal owners owns nearly 10 percent.

Green’s plan begins with buying a total of 10 percent from the minority owners. He would offer $1.3 million for each 1 percent share. He also would buy Headrick’s supposed 2 percent stake for $2.6 million. That would give Green 12 percent.

Green then would purchase the shares of Dyer and Whitney at the Vikings’ board of directors meeting Nov. 13. The key to this phase is his argument that the two owners “caused harm to me and my players, as well as our families” by contacting Holtz.

Green cites a state law and a precedent-setting court case that he says support his plans for a lawsuit.

Backed by an unidentified “money mentor” in California, Green would end up with 30 percent ownership, with the option of buying the remaining 70 percent in two years.

The plan would allow the Vikings to meet the NFL’s demand that the team have one majority owner with at least a 30 percent share.

“Maybe it’s time for the guy who cut through the Harrisburg (Pa., his hometown) Cemetery and cut through the whites-only turf of major-college and NFL head football coaching jobs to cut through all … in the ownership soap opera and provide some sorely needed action,” Green writes at the end of his book.