Not the kind of exposure Visanthe Shiancoe wanted
During some postgame video that aired on Sunday from inside the Minnesota Vikings' locker room was a very brief shot of a partly exposed Visanthe Shiancoe.
The tight end's towel had slipped in an image that lasted only a fifth of a second, according to NFL and Fox Sports spokesmen. (It was a Fox station that originally filmed the postgame segment of the Vikings celebrating the victory over Detroit.)
Within an hour, the image was on the Web. According to the editor of one of those sites, some viewers who thought they saw something naughty rewound their DVRs, used freeze frame and found out that they had indeed seen something naughty, and then e-mailed off the photos.
Commentary on what this means our society is coming to -- I mean, really, taking photos off TV because a guy's towel slips and your first instinct is to post them on the Web? -- aside, Fox Sports apologized and NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league regretted the incident.
"It was unfortunate," Aiello said. "These are long-standing procedures we have. The televising network, upon request and with the permission of the club, is allowed to record and videotape in the post-game locker room setting. We'll review the procedures with the networks this week."
As of midafternoon Monday, one clip of the locker room scene reportedly had received 145,000 hits and was on track to become the leader in one-day hits (beating out a compilation of ESPN anchor Chris Berman's angriest moments).
By the way, a gossip columnist at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune did track down Shiancoe, a 6-foot-4, 250-pound tight end, at a private postgame party. Shiancoe wasn't thrilled to know how famous he had become for non-football-playing reasons.
-- Diane Pucin
Photo: Visanthe Shiancoe of the Minnesota Vikings is shown after scoring a touchdown against the Chicago Bears on Oct. 19. Credit: Jeff Gross/ Getty Images
"I mean, really, taking photos off TV because a guy's towel slips and your first instinct is to post them on the Web?"
Well isnt that the potato chip calling the pretzel salty! Taking little things and blowing them way out of proportain is what the media is all about. Guess you guys are just jealous someone posted it before you got a chance to run it on the front page.
Posted by: Me | December 09, 2008 at 03:49 PM
why care about something thats not that big of a deal? so his towel slipped and showed something for .00000005 seconds. who cares. they won shouldn't that be the main topic. get over yourselves. I bet something like this has happened to almost everyone. Even me. stuff happens.
Posted by: john spahos | December 10, 2008 at 12:00 AM
Was this incident fined like Janet Jackson's...No
Posted by: misty | December 12, 2008 at 08:30 AM