Mike Tice, who was fined by the NFL for scalping Super Bowl tickets, is upset with Minnesota Vikings fans who sold their tickets to last Sunday's game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Minneapolis (Minn.) Star Tribune reported Tuesday.

Tice was upset because he felt there were so many Steelers fans at the game that the Vikings didn't have much home-field advantage, the newspaper reported. Tice estimated there were 15,000-20,000 Steelers fans at the game, the newspaper reported.

Minnesota's 18-3 loss damaged the team's faint playoff hopes.

"It confuses me, I guess," Tice said, the Star Tribune reported. "Maybe they're not really diehard season-ticket holders or maybe they needed the money for Christmas presents. I don't know. One of the two."

Tice was fined $100,000 by the NFL in June for scalping his Super Bowl tickets.

At the time, Tice issued a statement through the team, in which he said he used “poor judgment.”

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Tice has acknowledged reselling some of his personal allotment of 12 Super Bowl tickets last season and had also resold his tickets as a Vikings assistant coach from 1996-2001.

Each NFL player has the right to purchase up to two Super Bowl tickets at face value, which this year was $500 and $600 depending on the seat. But they must sign a document saying they won’t resell them at a profit. Individual teams determine the number of tickets available to coaches.

"Look, when you go to some stadiums, it's so deafening that you can't hear. When you have 15 to 20 thousand of the opponent's fans in there, it's not deafening," Tice said, the newspaper reported. "There is a difference. The fans that were there were great. But it wasn't like a big game when it's just your guys in there.

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"Maybe, in their defense, they sold the tickets when ... we were 2-5. Maybe they said, 'The heck with it, I'm not going to that.' Maybe that's the case. Or maybe Pittsburgh fans are just a little more diehard than our fans are."

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