An NFL Network video interview of Cincinnati Bengals player Adam Jones was broadcast on Sunday, but it really wasn't just of Jones -- a handful of his Bengals teammates were visibly naked in the segment.
Among the nude players in the team's locker room -- after their away win over the Buffalo Bills -- was offensive lineman Andrew Whitworth, a former Bengals representative to the NFL Players' Association. While some fans giggled at the NFL Network's XXX producing, Whitworth, thinking from a player's rights and privacy perspective, was upset by the incident when he addressed it to reporters on Monday.
“Being a guy that has been a player rep and a guy that’s always been against this policy, it’s a great example of why the open [locker] room policy is old and needs to change,” said Whitworth.
“You can’t judge us off who we will and won’t accept into our locker room and then say all these things we have to do, but then also put us in a situation where every single day I have to change clothes and be naked or not in front of media. It’s just not right. There’s no office, there’s no other situation in America where you have to do that. It’s dated, it’s old and it needs to change.”
The NFL locker room policy, similar to the NBA, MLB and NHL's, allows open access for media at designated times. NFL players are allowed a 10-minute cooling off period before media's allowed in the locker room following games. On Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, the NFL mandates an open locker room to media for at least 45 minutes. To avoid issues like Whitworth encountered on Sunday, league media generally avoids filming or photographing anything potentially NSFW.
Whitworth, however, would like to see the locker room policy changed for a simple reason: He doesn't want complete strangers seeing him naked. At all.
“This is my office space,” Whitworth said. “I shouldn’t have to change in it and be in front of people I don’t know or really don’t have any purpose for being near me other than the fact they are interviewing other people."
The NFL Network apologized to Whitworth on Monday and according to the Cincinnati Enquirer, NFL public relations head Greg Aiello says changes to the locker room policy haven't been discussed in years.
“This is a big issue to me," Whitworth said.
“For me personally and my wife, we’re fine, but I think of it as if my daughter, Sarah, (was) 16, and she had to go to high school and listen to all the crap that’s going on today in the media about me being naked on camera, whatever would happen to her to ridicule or mock her, that’s the way that I see it, and as a father and a man, it’s wrong," he continued.
Denying reporters a chance to interact with players doesn't help anyone though. In any case, Whitworth's points here are taken -- players shouldn't be caught naked when they don't want to be. Media access to players helps make the league more robust, but perhaps the NFL and the NFLPA would do well to coordinate a longer cooling-off period for players before media floods into their "office space."
Let's let the players keep their junk to themselves.
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