MN Vikings Wife Throws Cold Water on Love Boat 2.0 Planning

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Andrew Van Ginkel - Minnesota Vikings practice
Credit: Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Vikings

The Minnesota Vikings are officially on their 2025 bye week, but it’s been a rocky road to get here. JJ McCarthy lasted an underwhelming two games (1-1) as starter, before he sprained his ankle and was replaced by recently signed Carson Wentz.

In the three games Wentz has been under center, the Vikings have gone 2-1, including a 1-1 European business trip that concluded Sunday with a miraculous 21-17 victory over the Cleveland Browns that required a 10 play, 80-yard closing touchdown drive to see through.

Had Wentz — who was riding the struggle bus for much of this game — not been able to dig deep and find open receivers during the MN Vikings final drive yesterday, the Vikings would have flown out of London 0-2 on their overseas experiment and 2-3 overall.

Oh, and the most grueling part of Minnesota’s 2025 schedule hits immediately after the bye (see below). Thankfully, that is not the case and the Vikings will enter week 7 very much in the early NFC playoff picture.

Minnesota Vikings bye week comes at perfect time

But in the meantime, players and coaches are planning for a few much needed days off, following their 11-day international business trip. While other teams around the league are preparing for week 6 games, Minnesota Vikings will be resting, recovering and vacationing.

Some will hit a beach somewhere, others will happily enjoy more time at home, following so much time away. But there was a certain group of Vikings players, friends and family members who were making plans to take advantage of the warm(ish) mid-60 degree October weather forecasted for the Twin Cities this week.

What better way to spend a bye week than in 80-degree weather on Lake Minnetonka, right? That’s what these players, their friends and family members were thinking. So, they started planning out a party boat on arguably the most popular lake in the Land of 10,000 Lakes… right Fred Smoot?

Fred Smoot - Minnesota Vikings
Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images

Luckily, there was one wife within that group of unknown Vikings players who saw the massive problem brewing within their seemingly innocent bye week plans.

See, while a fun, relaxing day of drinking and cruising Lake Minnetonka might sound like a great bye week event, in a vacuum, it’s not the type of off-field activity you want to reach the public in this town, especially this time of year.

Sam Van Ginkel stops Vikings Love Boat 2.0

In fact, it was exactly 20 years ago today, on October 6, 2005, that former Vikings cornerback Fred Smoot organized a not-so-innocent party boat on that same lake, a moment in franchise history now infamously known as “the Love Boat scandal”.

Related: Jordan Addison Reveals Bye Week Plans

Thankfully, MN Vikings linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel isn’t just a great football player, he’s a good ole’ midwestern boy who grew up in Rock Valley, Iowa and married his high school sweetheart, Sam Van Ginkel — a lifelong Vikings fan.

And any real fan of this team can only think of one thing when they hear/see “party boat” or “cruise” associated with the Vikings and Lake Minnetonka. Thus, as soon as Sam Van Ginkel caught wind of the idea, she quickly put a stop to whatever early planning had started on Love Boat 2.0 (the PG-13 edition).

As a lifelong Vikings fan, I’ll never forget what happened the last time a boat was involved… so when a few people started planning a cruise on Minnetonka for bye week, I dropped an article in the group chat with allll the details. Safe to say, no one’s setting sail this week 😂

The reactions were the best:

  • “No fcking way”
  • “How many of them had wives??”
  • “Wait, that’s not true tho, right?!”
  • “Ur kidding”
  • “Oh god this is going to cause a ruckus”
  • “We should make it a theme”
  • “I had no idea”
  • “Ok nvm, let’s just go to dinner”
Text from Sam Van Ginkel (@Sam_VanGinkel)’s replies to @Vikeologist on Twitter – 10/6/25 (above)

Related: Confirmed: Vikings Kicker Robbed by Stadium Cable and NFL Replay

The fact that they discussed doing a Love Boat theme and making it a thing makes me want to party with whatever Vikings player’ families are in that text chain.

Of course, the Minnesota Vikings had to blow up their entire organization after the Love Boat scandal, so that idea never would have flown by the Wilfs, who were new owners at the time of the original incident and likely still have nightmares over the stress it caused them two decades ago

Obviously, it never got that far. But a very large part of me wishes it would have because the headlines on a Vikings Love Boat themed party boat on Lake Minnetonka on the 20th anniversary of the original event would have been worth whatever backlash it would have created.

For those who need to catch up on MN Vikings Love Boat history

We (and everyone else) have documented that infamously historic event in Minnesota sports history one way or another, and in far too great of detail. But the Spark Notes version is pretty simple, though there is some cloudiness on who exactly was involved.

Smoot rented a massive ship on Lake Minnetonka for the 2005 Vikings bye week. Then, had it packed to the tailfins with alcohol, pot, coke and escorts before trolling out for an evening of fun with teammates.

Hours later, Fred and and other Vikings players could be seen taking FULL advantage of all provided Love Boat amenities by onlookers sailing by or standing on shore. For those who need it, here is the full-length 2018 (14-minute) Barstool Sports documentary on the subject: “The Vikings Love Boat”.

2025 Minnesota Vikings didn’t need any sort of Love Boat distraction off bye

In week 7, the 4-1 Eagles come to U.S. Bank Stadium. A day or two later, the Vikings will get back on a plane and head West to LA on a short week for a cross-country Thursday night matchup against the 3-2 Chargers.

In week 9, they are in Detroit against the 4-1 NFC North rival Lions, at Ford Field. After that, they wrap up their hell schedule back at home against Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens, who have started a surprising 1-4.

Obviously, Love Boat 2.0 would not have compared to the original… but less distractions going into such an important stretch of games is probably best.

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