Doc: How NFL should handle nudity incident

Paul Daugherty
Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis, left, gives Cincinnati Bengals tackle Andrew Whitworth (77) a high five after the Bengals scored in the third quarter Sunday at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, New York.

The Morning Man is in a mellow-yellow mood this AM. The leaves are showing fabulous dying form this year. The back 40 is a blaze of yellow and red.

What, Doc?

The trees look great.

Just say that.

OK. The trees look great.

Andrew Whitworth is hissed off, and he has a right to be. The nation had a little chuckle at the extended sight of his derriere after the game Sunday. That's because a cameraman and a reporter for NFL Network decided it'd be a good idea right after the game to interview Pacman Jones with the camera pointed into the middle of the locker room, instead of at Jones' locker.

As a result, the world got full back-al nudity of Whitworth and a few other players.

The anchors back in the studio made light of it, too, though they can be excused for being caught unawares.

It's funny for about a second. Then you realize it's a full-on invasion of privacy, Whitworth has young daughters and, really, what if that were your butt being displayed in your workplace?

"There's no other situation in America where you have to do that,'' Whitworth told the Enquirer's Paul Dehner Jr. "It's dated and it needs to change.''

Actually, the same thing occurs in the Reds clubhouse. But point taken. It needs to change.

I don't know if players or the public think we heathen hacks enjoy these postgame scrums. I can tell you it's a lousy way to do business. Discomfort all around.

It's especially bad after a road game the Bengals lose. The visiting locker rooms at most stadiums are usually less than half the size of the home locker room. In Cleveland, for example, the visitors space is about the size of your kitchen and living room.

Into this space are crammed more than 40 very large men and, after games, their helmets, pads, shoes etc. Add another 20 or 30 media types, some with cameras. It's a mess.

I've always admired the players and coaches who are able, 10 minutes after a crushing loss, to gather their wits and discuss rationally what happened in the previous three hours. If you're a huge fan think how you are, 10 minutes after the Bengals lose to the Stillers.

I don't want to be in there, I can tell you that. It is their space. It shouldn't be mine. Schlepping through acres of shoulder pads while trying not to trip over camera cords is a trick I'd rather not perform while dealing with 300-pound men who'd rather have acid poured in their retinas than talk to me.

And we're not even talking about what it's like to be a woman doing her job in that scenario.

I know, I know. Players make lots of money, deal with it. They do deal, almost always professionally and without complaint. But what does a paycheck have to do with simple privacy and courtesy?

And I'm not a tough-guy journalist, right? I need to be in a guy's face with a digital recorder, ASAP, to get the raw emotion and all that.


Most players now are well schooled in saying nothing of substance. They've been blinded by the media light enough, they're pretty deft when it comes to avoiding it. The Bengals, for example, do a fantastic job of repeating what Marvin Lewis says in his postgame presser.

(Not talking about you, Whit, or G. Iloka, Pacman, D. Kirkpatrick, J. Hill and a few others. Always appreciate the perspective, intelligence and candor.)

Occasionally, you get a bolt of naked honesty, pardon the pun. Far more often, the words are so familiar, you could write them before they're said.

Here's what the NFL should do. Should have done decades ago:

Have team PR reps ask the media which players they'd like to speak to after the game. Make sure the players show up. UC football does this. Ohio State does as well. Get the players into a room. Ask them questions. It gets you out of the locker room, and them away from prying cameras when they're trying to take a shower. Is this hard, NF of L?

Now, then. . .

ON A RELATED SUBJECT. . . Getting players out of the super-heated macho of their dressing room can help media get better info. Away from their caves, players tend to be more expressive. We see that every Tuesday at 7 at Moerlein. The interviews there are always less confrontational, more informative and usually highly entertaining. The guy we get in the locker room at PBS is never the guy we get at the desk on Beyond The Stripes. The transformation is remarkable.

How's that for a self-serving segue?

Tonight is Special Teamers Night. We have Harris, Huber and Nugent. Come watch PDJ, Jim-O and Lindsay Paige Patterson fire highly journalistic queries at the trio, as I bemoan the passing of Pumpkin Beer Season and await the Christmas Ale Stash.

THE WISDOM OF PATIENCE, IN AN IMPATIENT LEAGUE. . . They're mad in Indy. They wanna fire Chuck Pagano after two-plus years, for the crime of ordering a stupid fake punt Sunday night, v. the Patriots.


Yeah. The same Pagano whose team went 11-5 last year, won a playoff game, before losing at New England in the Deflategate contest. The same Pagano whose players went 11-5 the previous year for fill-in Bruce Arians, when Pagano battled leukemia.

That guy.

We have pounded Mike Brown around here. He is not seen as patient, but rather stubborn. Call it what you like. The Bengals are a model of stability in a knee-jerk league with more than its share of jerk owners, who flex their egos and fire people whenever things go south.

I can't tell you how many Bengals coaches have cited the stability here as a reason for the team's success. There is a System in place, for lack of a better word. Personnel types know the kind of players the coaches want. Coaches know what suits their needs. There is a trust and familiarity among coaches and players here. G. Atkins can look to his left and right along the D-line and see basically the same guys he has seen since he's been here. A. Dalton hasn't had to worry about his blind side since the day he arrived; Whitworth is there. Other than center, the O-line has been together longer than some countries.

In Indy, they want to fire a third-year coach with a 25-13 overall regular season record, and a playoff W.


Apparently, there is also a rift between Pagano and GM Ryan Grigson. That's not unusual. M. Lewis and Brown haven't always seen eye to eye. But they worked on it, Mike kept Marvin after 4-12. And look where they are now.

THE STILLERS LOOM. DON'T THEY ALWAYS? When I asked in This Space if you'd become a True Men Believer yet, I got a few e-mails suggesting that corner would be turned in a couple weeks, if the Bengals go to Pittsburgh and win. The Steelers somehow are 2-1 w/o Ben, the two Ws coming against one decent team (San Diego) and one good one (AZ). Now they're suggesting Ben could be ready this Sunday at death-spiraling KC, but certainly for The Men a week from Sunday.'s Bill Barnwell:

The surprise, instead, is the much-maligned Pittsburgh defense, which might very well have saved the Steelers' season. A group that was 30th in DVOA last season was up to 15th before Sunday's game, and they'll rise even further in the rankings this week. They held a Cardinals offense that had been averaging 32.2 points per game (38 if you include return scores) to just 13 points on 11 meaningful possessions. The Cardinals scored their lone touchdown after taking over on the Pittsburgh 47-yard line; Arizona's 10 possessions that began on their own side of the field produced a total of two field goals.

How did the Steelers pull that off? There isn't one obvious smoking gun, but it starts with what is quickly becoming one of the league's best run defenses.

NEGATIVE TRAVEL NOTE O' THE DAY. . . I adopted the 5 Hour Rule probably 20 years ago, when it came to deciding whether to fly or drive to an assignment. If I could drive in five, I'd blow off flying. I'm thinking of upping it to seven.

It takes seven hours to drive to Buffalo from here. It took me 8 ½ to fly home yesterday. Same old airline crapola – flight mysteriously delayed, connection missed, rerouted, circling waiting for clearance into O'Hare, then sitting on the tarmac at O'Hare – "ladies and gentleman, this is the captain speaking, we are currently 497th in line for takeoff'' – that makes you wonder if renting a unicycle or a stage coach might be preferable.

Do you always fly for work? Or do you drive? What decides it?

BECAUSE TV IS MY LIFE. . . If the rest of the Fargo season is as entertaining as the opener was, it's gonna be a good year. The oddball nature of the characters, and the dark subject matter, is reminiscent of the first season of Twin Peaks, which was classic. I miss Steve Buscemi, but the writing remains crisp and the situations are laugh-out-loud hilarious. I mean, who drives home after hitting a guy with your car, with the guy still on the hood, his head and shoulders through the windshield and inside the vehicle?

UH-OH… ESPN's Outside The Lines report on the stripper scandal at 'Ville comes up with this:

Five former University of Louisville basketball players and recruits told Outside the Lines that they attended parties at a campus dorm from 2010 to 2014 that included strippers paid for by the team's former graduate assistant coach, Andre McGee.

One of the former players said he had sex with a dancer after McGee paid her. Each of the players and recruits attended different parties at Billy Minardi Hall, where dancers, many of whom stripped naked, were present. Three of the five players said they attended parties as recruits and also when they played for Louisville.

Said one of the recruits who ultimately signed to play elsewhere: "I knew they weren't college girls. It was crazy. It was like I was in a strip club."

Watch the video, in which the madam bluntly says "How could he not know?'' when talking about R. Pitino.

TUNE O' THE DAY. My favorite version of After Midnight. Nice, steady groove from Mr. Slowhand hisself.