Patrick Reusse: Vikes' Shiancoe flashes more than good hands

There was the usual Wednesday crowd of reporters in the Winter Park locker room when a fully-clothed Visanthe Shiancoe entered and made the quick left to his cubicle.

There were good intentions by a sportswriter to ask Shiancoe about the excellent hands he has shown as an increasingly reliable Vikings tight end.

This lonely force of good was overwhelmed by a more crude media element wanting to quiz Shiancoe on the ongoing fallout from Sunday's fall out in Detroit.

Shiancoe had made it clear earlier in interviews with CJ, the Star Tribune's provocateur, and on Dan Patrick's national radio show that he wasn't undergoing pangs of embarrassment over the televising of his immodest moment in the postgame locker room.

Asked again Wednesday if he had been embarrassed, Shiancoe nodded and said: "It can be embarrassing because the whole world sees the real you, should I say."

You probably shouldn't say, but to review further, how long was it before you knew what had occurred?

"My teammates right after the game showed me," Shiancoe said. "Within the hour, I knew about everything. I got a lot of calls and texts.

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.

Amid this chaos, the force of good was able to ask a football question -- ask Shiancoe about putting behind his reputation as a pass-dropper in recent games and muffling 1 1/2 seasons of criticism toward him here in Minnesota.

"I don't care about that stuff," he said.

"It doesn't really matter. I work with both of them every day. If I work with Tarvaris during practice, I work with Gus after so I don't get shell-shocked ... so the ball won't seem different when it's coming to me."

How about the play of Arizona quarterback Kurt Warner, a former teammate with the New York Giants?

"He keeps his composure. He knows when to step up in the pocket. He makes accurate throws, which can hurt any defense."

What's the assessment of Arizona's defense?

"Tenacious ... aggressive. They remind me of the Packers -- twist your ankle after the play, stuff like that. It's a very aggressive, hit-you-in-the-mouth defense. So, we have to hit them in the mouth before they hit us."

"For what? I can just control what I control," he said. "I can't control what's outside the circle."

The circle is the team and the locker room, where most things remain private.

Shiancoe played college football at Morgan State, a perennially mediocre team among black colleges competing in Division I-AA. How did a solid football prospect such as himself end up there?

"I felt I wasn't really ready for a big school," he said. "I didn't want to get thrown into that fire. Morgan State was right down the street [in Baltimore], and I'm a mama's boy."

Plus: Even though he was contacted by some Division I programs, there weren't a lot of scouts attending Shiancoe's games for Montgomery Blair High School.

President-elect Obama?

"Yeah, change is here -- Obama, right?" Shiancoe said.

He looked at the remaining reporter and said: "That's all I got. Hope it helps."