admin @ Tue, 2005-10-11 11:00
Texas-El Paso football coach Mike Price felt vindicated after a settlement was reached with Time Inc. over a Sports Illustrated article recounting a night of drinking at a topless bar in Florida.
"I'm one happy man right now," Price said Monday. "I can't tell you how much I appreciated my wife, Joyce, and my family's loyalty and love. Without their strength, encouragement and support, I don't know if I would have made it."
Price sued the magazine for $20 million, claiming he was defamed and slandered by a story detailing his actions the night he visited a topless bar in Pensacola, Fla., in April 2003, while still head coach at Alabama.
He acknowledged being heavily intoxicated but denied allegations of sex at his hotel that the magazine reported. Alabama fired Price a few days before the article was published.
When asked about that night at the strip club, he paused Monday and said, "I definitely would have made a different decision that one night, no question. That was a bad night."
Rick McCabe, a spokesman for Time Inc., said the settlement also resolved Price's claims against reporter Don Yaeger, who wrote the Sports Illustrated article and still works for the magazine.
Attorney Steven Heninger also issued the following statement through Price: "We have won every legal battle at every corner. We think we have vindicated his name. Two and a half years ago we said we would, and we think we have."
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