Minnesota Vikings TE Visanthe Shiancoe Embarrassed by Fox Sports On-Air Nudity

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Minnesota Vikings tight end Visanthe Shiancoe led the Vikings in receiving with five catches for 65 yards and a touchdown during yesterday’s 20-16 win over the (still) winless Detroit Lions. But those stats are not what earned him a lot of publicity since. After the game, Visanthe was accidentally filmed by Fox Sports with no clothes on in the Vikings locker room. Oops. Fox issued an apology and despite all the hubbub about Visanthe thinking it was funny (I guess he made a few jokes about it afterward), he was eventually embarrassed by the incident. His agent, Tony Agnone, said:

“He’s embarrassed by all of this. He’s sorry it got on TV. When you’re in the locker room, you’re not paying attention to cameras, and you think they’re going to keep them up, above the waist. He hopes people understand that it wasn’t intentional on his part. His greatest concern are the young fans, that they understand it’s a locker room situation.”

Actually, I can’t believe these “locker room situations” don’t happen more often. My feeling has always been and continues to be that the locker room is no place for reporters. As a football writer whose been in plenty of post-practice and post-game NFL locker rooms, I think it’s a poor place to conduct an interview. Teams have this so-called “cooling down” period before writers, etc. can invade their space, but that’s really worthless. They’re not cooled down — whatever that means. They’re trying to get out of their uniforms, take a shower and get dressed. I won’t even approach a player until he’s had time to put his clothes on. And they’ve actually thanked me for taking the courteous approach (I know, I’m very special). Other times, it’s like, “Dude, can I get you a towel?” Geez.

Anyway, my solution is to designate an appropriate area where media can talk to the players after practices and games. Currently, the head coach, quarterback and some of the “stars of the game” will make a podium appearance (since they are presumably in higher demand by the media), but another area should be set aside where fully clothed athletes can answer questions before departing from their workday. It’s a common courtesy to the players where they can fulfill their media responsibilities. And a more comfortable (and sensible) solution for writers and reporters.

(Note: By the way, Visanthe’s TD catch came on a naked bootleg. Really.)

Source: TwinCities.com