Tice, who spent 13 years with the Vikings as a player and coach, landed the next month as an assistant head coach to Jacksonville's Jack Del Rio, his former Vikings teammate. Now Tice is back in the spotlight, with the 5-5 Vikings playing the 4-6 Jaguars in Jacksonville today. Tice sat down Friday with the Pioneer Press to discuss his life and his former team.

Q: How are you doing?

A: Well, we're losing, so not too well. Right now, everything's about, "What can we each do - each man, each coach, each player - to help us get off the schneid and win a Football game." ... It's never good when you're losing, especially when you go into the season with high expectations, which we had.

Q: How quickly did you get this job?

A: It was right after the Senior Bowl, because I remember taking a trip to L.A. to visit some friends with (wife) Diane and just get away for a few days. (Del Rio) called me the night before I flew out and wanted to know why I wasn't at the Senior Bowl. I basically told him I needed to take a breath, and he said, "Hey, I want you to come in. I want to talk to you." I flew in the next week and left here with a job.

Q: How has your experience been?

A: First year, I was bored. I was a walk-around assistant head coach. I was trying to install how you put an offensive game plan in, revamp some of that structure, how you meet as an offensive staff during the week.

At the end of the year, it was kind of apparent to me that I wasn't going to enjoy not having a group of guys to work with. We have a bright young line coach in Andy Heck, who was a teammate of mine in Seattle, so I certainly didn't want his job. So we came up with the tight ends.

It's good because I get to coach a position I know, plus we had a first-round draft pick (Marcedes Lewis) that needed to be developed, and I still get to work with Andy.

Q: Does anything gnaw at you about how things ended in Minnesota?

A: No. I look around and see how things are done with other teams, and how (the Vikings) are developing a winning formula and how the budgets are set up. I just wish we could have had a little more support for the things we were trying to do.

But that's the way we set things up, and it was understandable. Red (McCombs) was trying to sell the team, and (the Vikings are in a) small market. But that would have been better, that could have helped more, not having to swap players out. "OK, you get this player, but you got to swap this player out." And never spending to the cap -- I think those things gnaw at me, a little bit.

And the way Diane was treated.

Diane was never treated like a head coach's wife. She never traveled with the team, didn't have a suite, all the things that I see these other wives having the ability to enjoy. Diane worked so hard to support my career and has been a cog in our family, and not getting a chance to be treated the right way, that bothered me, too. Her having to sit in the stands and get heckled.

Q: Any feelings about how you were fired?

A: That's water under the bridge. The way it ended is the way it ended.

You had a guy (Zygi Wilf) who was new at owning a Football team and took advice from somebody to end it. And that's just the way it goes.

I'm sure if they had to do it over again, they might have handled it a little bit differently. But you know what? If I had a chance to do some things over again, I would have handled them differently, too.

That's nothing. I don't even think about that.

Q: Do you ever wonder, "What if" when you see some of the offseason splurges the Vikings have made since you left?

A: I'm so caught up in my own world of trying to do what I can to help the Jaguars win that I don't look at it that much. I'm not a big paper reader anymore, so I don't follow it that close.

I don't ponder what might have been, what could have been. You have to move on. I'm going to be 50 soon (on Feb. 2), and I need to win a Super Bowl. I have 27 years in the league now, and I don't have a Super Bowl ring. It's like a void. I want to do what I can do to help fill that void.

Q: Did you see any way that you could have kept your job, given everything that happened?

A: I did. I felt if we could have beaten Pittsburgh (the Vikings lost 18-3 to fall to 8-6), who knows what would have happened. Then, after the Pittsburgh game, we laid an egg in Baltimore (a 30-23 loss).

One of those two games, you go 10-6, and who knows what decisions are made.

Q: What have you learned if you ever get another chance to be a head coach?

A: One of the things is my posture. I don't think Mike Tice will ever be even-keeled. But being humbled, and being beaten down, being talked about, getting fired -- the humility of it all makes you think and step back a little bit. I'm probably not as emotional as I used to be. I think that has a lot to do with maybe being humbled and maturing and learning.

The other thing that's changed is, you want to be nice to people and you want people to know what's going on, and I think sometimes certain things are better untold.

I mean, am I going to stop being funny? No, I like being funny. Am I going to stop laughing? No, I like laughing. Am I going to stop ribbing people? No, I like ribbing people.

Q: Does it give you hope when you see head coaches such as Bill Belichick get a second chance?

A: I don't spend as much time yearning to be a head coach as I did when I was younger. I would love the opportunity to be a head coach. I think I'll be better prepared if I get another chance to be a head coach. I think I'll be improved. But I honestly don't go home on weekends or sit in my hotel room the night before a game and think about being a head coach.

The whole thing is, first and foremost, it's hard to be looked at as a head coach unless you're on a hot team and unless you're winning. My energy is spent right now trying to put the best game plan together, trying to help my players get better.

One thing that's ironic: I'm the oldest coach on the offensive staff.

Q: You were always the up-and-coming coach. How does it feel to be the old guy now?

A: (Laughs) Uncle Mike. That's what they call me.

Q: Is being a head coach still a realistic goal?

A: I don't know. I'm the wrong one to ask that question. The only ones that hold those answers are the owners.

Q: Were you a serious candidate for the Miami Dolphins' job?

A: That was one of the opportunities. We had the same agent (Jimmy Sexton). There was going to be some discussion there. I think I was going to be the bridesmaid, because they had their guy (Tony Sparano). He's done a great job, by the way. He was a great selection.

Q: Do you think the Love Boat will hurt you?

A: Diane put it best. She watched my interview (Thursday). She said, "You know, you've given the wrong answer to that question, about the Love Boat. You shouldn't be apologizing for it; the players should be."

That's why I married her, she's a lot smarter than me.

I shouldn't be apologizing for that. The players should be. And that's it. And from now on, that's all I'm going to say about it. I told her, "I wish you would have told me that three years ago."

Q: What about the ticket-scalping scandal?

A: I made a mistake. I was wrong. Totally wrong. Inappropriate. And that's cost me a job opportunity. Cost me money. Embarrassed my family. But this is America, people are forgiving and hopefully they'll understand that I made a poor choice in judgment and it doesn't make me a bad person.

Q: Do you want to be a college head coach?

A: I have no interest in coaching in college. I have too many years invested in (the NFL)... I have an interest in winning a Super Bowl ring. I would retire tomorrow if I had one.

My body is getting tired. My legs are hurting. I have trouble walking on Thursday and Fridays. My knees are bad. My ankles are bad. My toes are bad. My back is bothering me.

I've been lifting twice a week, to help my legs. I've had a series of injections in my knee. I'm getting old, and my body hurts. If I had a Super Bowl ring, I'd retire.

Q: Ever see Brad Childress?

A: I saw him at the combine. We joked around a little bit. He's a good guy. Very serious about what he's doing. I think he has a great handle on things, a great approach.

A lot of people forget I played for the Vikings, so I'm still a Vikings fan. I still have Viking shirts that are in my wardrobe in my house in Seattle. My longest touchdown pass was with the Vikings (34 yards).

A lot of people think that I wake up every morning and hope the Vikings lose. But that's far from the truth.

Q: Any hard feelings toward Zygi Wilf?

A: I don't have any animosity toward Zygi Wilf. The guy has the total right to bring in his own people. I mean, it's his Football team. You know, if I would have won the division, it would have been hard for him to fire me. But we didn't win the division.

Q: Let's go back to the 2005 NFL draft. Did you really push for Shawne Merriman (over Troy Williamson at No. 7)?

A: Well, it's not that I wanted Merriman. As in any draft room, there's a faction that wants certain players and a faction that wants certain other players. I'm not the lone ranger that wanted him.

Q: But you did want him, right?

A: But the grades didn't warrant it. In fact, Jack and I talked about that, and the Jaguars' grades didn't merit it, either. So we did the right thing.