Desperate Prudes

This from the front page of the Washington Post:
After receiving complaints from viewers and the NFL, ABC Sports apologized yesterday for airing a sexually suggestive segment using Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Terrell Owens and several stars of "Desperate Housewives" to introduce its "Monday Night Football" game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Eagles.
"It was the most disgraceful thing I've ever seen," Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney said in a telephone interview yesterday. "It's on at 9 o'clock. Kids are watching, and everyone starts to think this is the NFL. I've written a letter to the commissioner [Paul Tagliabue], and I don't think he can be very happy about it, either. We can't allow that kind of thing to happen." ...
The segment opened with actress Nicollette Sheridan, clad in only a towel, standing near Owens in the Eagles' locker room. On ABC's new hit series, Sheridan plays a character named Edie Britt, a multiple divorcee who has had a number of sexual conquests in her fictional neighborhood.
Sheridan: "My house burned down and I need to take a long, hot shower. . . . So where are you off to looking so pretty?"
Owens: "Baby, it's 'Monday Night Football.' Game starts in 10 minutes."
Sheridan: "Oh, you and your little games. . . . I've got a game we can play."
Later, with her back to the camera, Sheridan dropped the towel and Owens said, "Aw, hell, the team's going to have to win one without me."


This is such a ridiculous non-story. The NFL is not about sex (not to mention graphic violence)? Have they seen their commercials? I wonder what people are more worried about: the fact that Nicollette Sheridan is naked, or the fact that she is white and Owens is (whisper) black. Either way, this was the leadoff story on some local New Orleans news show last night ("If you were offended by last night's opening of the NFL, you were in good company") and on the front page of the Post today. Somebody please tell me why.