Price, SI reach settlement

The $20 million libel lawsuit by former University of Alabama football coach Mike Price against Sports Illustrated has been settled out of court, bringing finality to legal action regarding Price and his short tenure with the Crimson Tide.

The settlement, the terms of which are confidential, was reached late Friday night and was announced Monday morning.

“We had won every legal battle at every corner,” said Steve Heninger, Price’s Birmingham-based attorney. “We think we have vindicated his name. Two and half years ago we said we would, and we think we have.”

Price, who is preparing his UTEP Miners for a Friday night Conference USA game vs. Tulane, said he is glad to put the episode behind him and focus on the future.

“Even though we had a bye in our schedule, I got a great victory this weekend. Two and a half years ago Sports Illustrated published an article about me, written by Don Yaeger. For two and a half years I continued to state that the article was not true and that I would prove it and clear my name. My attorney, Steve Heninger, filed a suit against Time Inc. and Sports Illustrated magazine. We continued to win court battles as we kept recording interviews with people who would prove what was in the article was not true.”

“We were ready to go to court and prove it to a jury. We knew it would be a David and Goliath situation, but we were determined to make the truth come out. However, faced with the possibility of two more years of waiting, we agreed to go to mediation with Sports Illustrated. The mediation was concluded on Friday night. I’m very happy and satisfied with the results of the mediation. I’m a very happy man right now.”

“I’m living in a great community, working at a great university with a great administration. I love our team and my coaches. I’m very appreciative of everything I have here at UTEP. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate 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. Steve Heninger, my attorney who I now consider a true friend, gave me tremendous advice and did a great job representing me. I also want to thank all the thousands of supporters who “believed in me.” I’m elated to put this behind me; it is over and done with. Both parties have agreed that the terms of the resolution are confidential.”

“Mike Price and Sports Illustrated have amicably resolved the lawsuit brought by Mr. Price following publication of the story ‘Bad Behavior: How he met his Destiny at a Strip Club’ on May 12, 2003,” Sports Illustrated spokesman Rick McCabe said in a statement. “Mr. Price asserts that certain events were falsely reported in the story. Sports Illustrated continues to stand behind its story. Both parties have agreed that the terms of the resolution are confidential.”

“That is all that can be said about the negotiations and the resolution,” Heninger said. “Coach Price and his wife Joyce are very happy and glad it is behind them.”

A three-judge appeals court panel in September refused to reconsider its ruling that would have allowed Price to learn the name of a confidential SI source.

The panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request by attorneys for Time Inc. and SI writer Don Yeager for a rehearing. The panel in July upheld a federal judge’s ruling that a magazine is not a newspaper and is not protected by an Alabama law that shields journalists from identifying sources under certain conditions.

The panel’s decision would have required Price, through his attorney, to question four women, one of whom is likely the source for a 2003 article at the center of Price’s libel lawsuit.

Price was fired in 2003 after just four months as Alabama’s head football coach. Alabama’s president cited drunken behavior after Price’s highly publicized outing at a Pensacola, Fla., topless bar in April 2003.

Sports Illustrated reported that Price got drunk that night and had sex with strippers. Price has admitted having too much to drink but denied the magazine’s report about having sex.

He was replaced by Mike Shula.

Reach David Wasson at david.wasson@tuscaloosanews.com or at (205) 722-0229.