Controversy has hit the National Football League (NFL) as players on some teams and at least one club – the Cincinnati Bengals – announced that they would not be doing interviews in their locker room. The decision has been taken to prevent players being caught on camera in uncompromising situations or totally naked.

Cincinnati Bengals’ Ted Karras, who is also the team’s union representative, said, “As you’ve heard from a couple of teams now and the NFLPA is going to come out with a statement, in an effort to protect the sanctity of the locker room and the comfort of the players, each team is going to figure out a program to where we conduct our interviews outside of the locker room.”

“Now, this doesn’t bar you from the locker room. We can’t do that. But what we want to do is get cameras off guys in private moments in our locker room,” he added.

The new ruling is not for NFL’s game-day media policy. On game days, players are not allowed to decide that they be interviewed outside the locker room.

In a statement, the NFLPA’s executive committee said on Friday, “The NFL’s current media policy is outdated.”

“We … urge the NFL to make immediate changes to foster a more respectful and safer workplace for all players. In the meantime, we encourage each player to ask for interviews outside the locker room during the week,” the statement further added.

Karras also revealed that the new development was a topic of discussion since the Covid-19 pandemic. He further revealed, “It’s been brought up several times since then. And now we figure it’s the time to do it. But everyone will still be available. … I think what brought it to light was a couple guys naked on camera this year. … This will not affect game day, I don’t think. But we’re going to come up with a good solution to make the week as smooth as possible, get everyone the time they need and, again, protect the sanctity of the locker room.”