NFL Player Speaks Out On Locker-Room Nude Shot

The NFL Network aired a clip that may as well have been football's equivalent to George Carlin's "seven dirty words." While Albert Breer interviewed cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones in the Bengals locker room, exposed players passed in the background.

In short, the NFL Network aired a video that showed a bunch of football players' private parts.

Officially speaking, credentialed reporters are allowed to conduct interviews in the locker room after a 10-minute "cooling off" period, although things only looked like they were heating up by the Bengals' clubhouse.

NFL Network reporters were horrified by what the channel aired. On Monday, NFL Network Executive Vice President Alex Riethmiller issued a public apology to the Bengals, saying, "It is a regrettable mistake by a production team, and one where we've already done a pretty thorough review of the procedures and processes that were dropped along the way to make sure that it doesn't happen again."

Cincinnati left tackle Andrew Whitworth will not bury the hatchet. Whitworth, who was caught naked in the clip, previously served as the Bengals representative with the NFL Players' Association before handing the role to Vinny Rey this year.

"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," the 33-year-old says. "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."

According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, NFL PR chief Greg Aiello notes the topic of locker room media availability "hasn't been discussed in years." This makes Whitworth, a father of four, queasy.

"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," Whitworth says.

There are no written NFL rules for locker room policy, but TV censorship rules dictate what can and cannot be shown on cable channels. Penises and butts do not fit the rating the NFL signs up for. Sunday's NFL Network mistake is rare, but it shows an easy accidental flaw in the system, and the value of framing.

Whitworth suggest that American men's sports, which mostly all have a similar locker room policy to the NFL guidelines, are overlooked based on gender.

"This is my office space," the former Pro Bowler says. "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. If I was a woman, this would be a completely different subject, and it would be a complete firestorm. We can't always just serve women and everyone else. Men deserve a right, too. We have rights. We have privacy. We deserve all the things we want as well. As a man, I think it's right the policy is changed."

The WNBA also has a 10-minute grace period before allowing reporters to enter. In the NFL's case, the policy includes not only games, but practices, as the league mandates teams to open their locker rooms for at least 45 minutes on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Whitworth says he would prefer a policy similar to European soccer. In England's Premier League, no locker room access is permitted, but players walk through a "mixed zone," where media wait between the field and the locker room.

Finally, there's this:

-- Follow Jeffrey Eisenband on Twitter @JeffEisenband.