American soccer goalie gets naked for ESPN Magazine

31-year-old U.S. soccer star Tim Howard is the featured "nude" athlete in this year's Body Issue for ESPN Magazine. Howard, who is best known for his stint with Manchester United in the U.K., was actually essential to America's minor success in this year's World Cup.

"Howard's distribution to Landon Donovan led to the game-winning goal of the last first round game against Algeria, giving the USA passage into the round of 16," reminds Wikipedia. We didn't forget his help -- although we certainly didn't recognize him without his goalie uniform in the above photo.

On top of this photo, ESPN teases us with this press release about the issue:

We’re doing a story about athletes crapping their pants. It’s funny, it’s interesting, its personal, its revelatory…It’s a story that will get the most buzz because it’s a place where no sports magazine, as far as I know, has ever dared to go. [via]

You know what, ESPN? Let's stick with just having random athletes -- like Venus Williams for this issue -- get naked for no reason. Right on.