As overexposures go, Viking Visanthe Shiancoe thinks his moment of nakedness on Fox could have been much worse.
"I didn't just hop out the pool, so I'm good," Shiancoe told me. Yeah, being photographed while in the throes of a bout of shrinkage might not have been so flattering.
I spied Shiancoe, a tight end, at safety Darren Sharper's party at Trocaderos early Monday morning, hours after the team flight from Detroit where the Vikings beat the winless Lions now QB'd by Daunte Culpepper. Viking defensive tackle Pat Williams was in Trocaderos' VIP section looking like a bear in his fur. Resident Viking party animal and tackle Bryant McKinnie was there, giving me lots of back, as you can see at startribune.com/video. Running back Chester Taylor was trying mightily not to be seen by me, hiding under a hoodie and turning his head; he was entering the Minneapolis nightclub as I was leaving.
Since many athletes walk around locker rooms naked, toweling off after a shower or stripping down while changing uniforms, how traumatic could this really be to Shiancoe? I mean, he was standing there in a room packed with people with a towel partly around his waist when the Fox camera crew caught a glimpse of his nakedness. "I know, but it's within the locker room, not with the nation," said Shiancoe, showing a modicum of propriety. "But you know, it's not too bad."
Shiancoe was surprised when I told him Fox had apologized for the gaffe. He also seemed puzzled by why he was getting so many messages about the incident: "I heard about that. I got a lot of calls about that." When I informed Shiancoe why so many people were aware of the incident, he exclaimed, "Is it all over the Internet? WHAAAAAT? Are you serious?"
As serious as the folks at Deadspin.com, which is airing a PG and XXX freeze frame of the exposure. (Very creative use of the Vikings logo.)
Shiancoe laughed when I told him about the big black bar covering the area of interest at the website Sportsbybrooks.com. Told that on Sunday night I had seen a youtube.com version before the site got around to editing it, Shiancoe cheekily inquired: "How'd it look?"
I gave it more than a passing grade.