Visanthe Shiancoe Naked Video Results from Fox Sports Locker Room Footage

Visanthe Shiancoe is a YouTube sensation. The Los Angeles Times reports that a video clip featuring one fifth of a second is receiving more than 145,000 hits as of Monday. The numbers are climbing because it shows Shiancoe, the Vikings tight end, quite exposed. Or, to say it more clearly, the Shiancoe locker room shot has turned into the Shiancoe naked video on YouTube.

Viking's Naked Thanks to Fox

The shot of Shiancoe naked comes courtesy of Fox. Pro Football Talk quotes Fox's V.P. of Communications Dan Bell in apologizing for what he terms "an obvious oversight." It is this oversight that has now turned an unintentional Shiancoe naked video into a YouTube locker room extravaganza that has fans and weirdoes perusing the footage with the same kind of attention conspiracy buffs might lavish on the Zapruder film.

Fox Has a History of Transmitting Naked Athletes' Footage from Locker Rooms

Fox Sports also featured front and center when Australian rugby player Michael Robertson got caught without his pants in 2007. Of course, instead of simply providing footage sufficient for about a fifth of a second with a slipping towel, Robertson appears to have engaged in some puerile shenanigans involving his, uhm, manhood.

The Daily Telegraph reported that this incident led to the firing of at least one Fox Sports crew member.

Robertson and Shiancoe Exposed. Are Cameras In The Locker Room Really Necessary?

In the aftermath of the Michael Robertson fiasco some online comments suggested that his antics were a well planned publicity stunt that landed him with a naked video on YouTube. This is hardly the case with Visanthe Shiancoe. Unintended or not, are Fox cameras in the locker room after any game really a necessity? Should athletes not enjoy the same kind of privacy protection as nannies?

A nanny cam is not supposed to be set up in a portion of the home where the nanny may reasonably expect privacy, such as in the bathroom. Granted, these cameras are hidden and it is most likely impossible to say the same for the Fox Sports team. Nonetheless, the fact that athletes usually visit a locker room to clean up after the game, and given the inescapable truth that showers generally take place in the buff, it is somewhat surprising that the cameras are still rolling in the lockers room.

What nuggets of post game information could possibly be so crucial that they must be filmed at this very minute and not after the game? Of course, the team itself governs who has access to the locker room shots, and it is part and parcel of the network contract negotiations. This begs the question why the sports leagues are exposing - in more ways than one - their players to the potential for having their likenesses splashed all over YouTube.

Sources: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blog/2008/12/of-deadspin-the.html; http://www.profootballtalk.com/2008/12/07/fox-apologizes-for-showing-shiancoes-schlong/; http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22559687-5001023,00.html