George O'Leary is not master of his domain.
Turns out the University of Central Florida's head football coach overstepped his bounds when he allowed a local entertainment magazine called aXis access to the Knights' locker room for a photo shoot of UCF alum Shanna McLaughlin, better known for her pictorial in the July issue of Playboy. While it didn't include nudity, the aXis locker room shoot, in which McLaughlin suggestively tugged on her UCF-logoed tank top and bikini bottoms, proved too steamy for university officials once video appeared online Aug. 7.
"An employee without proper authorization allowed access to our football locker room. By the time the video of the shoot was brought to our attention, it had already made its rounds via the Internet," stated UCF associate director of athletics Joe Hornstein in a prepared apology. "Let me make this clear, UCF does not condone the photos and the video. We have spoken to the employee in question and we will speak to our entire staff to make sure that this does not happen again. To any fans who were offended by this, we sincerely apologize."
"I approved the magazine," O'Leary told an Orlando Sentinel reporter after practice Saturday. "The guy called my office and basically wanted to know if they could do a magazine shoot. There was a UCF girl who had her MBA and all that. And the only thing I asked is, 'Is that a magazine that is distributed on campus?' And they said, 'Yes.' "
O'Leary added that he thought he recognized the magazine as one that had produced an annual football preview in the past. He also admitted that he had seen the August cover shot of McLaughlin. "Eh, it's not what I expected," he said, "but I don't think there's anything outlandish on the thing."
Remember, O'Leary has a history of dealing in outlandish print materials.
