Last week, the only Vikings news story was of Pat and Kevin Williams. Detroit got a story in a smaller column to the side, and when Sunday's game started, the defense led off with 4 off-sides penalties. Their minds were out of the game, focused on legal issues affecting their team.

After the Vikes won the game, Shiancoe got caught naked on camera much to the chagrin of the BOX network and Shiancoe.

However, it's the news story that's been focused on all week, and that can't be better. With the Williams Wall vs the NFL, players were on the defensive in interviews. Now...

Asked if he could recall a text suitable for a family newspaper, Shiancoe paused and said: "Everyone said, 'I didn't know, ah ... that's how, ah ... you are ...'"

There you go, folks. That's the message Visanthe considered classy enough for the mainstream media.

It also was an answer that caused Benny Sapp, an eavesdropping teammate, to shout "Wow!'' and go howling with laughter across the locker room. Sapp gave a synopsis of Shiancoe's response to several other Vikings, and they joined in the howling.

A laughing locker room is a loose locker room. A defensive locker room is a tense locker room. When things are tense, energy is wasted in that tension. When things are loose, that energy is saved for when it is needed.

So sure, Shiancoe's been publically exposed. He's rolling with the punches, and in doing so, he's broken the tension in the locker room. Aside from his hands becoming like Velcro after week two, this is the best thing he's done all season. Way to take one for the team.