As dedicated sports fans, we love the annual ESPN Body Issue.
This year’s issue has just hit newsstands, and it features a stunning collection of images of bodies in peak physical condition.
Included in the issue is out Olympic skier Gus Kenworthy, Chicago Cubs’s Javier Baez, tennis player Caroline Wozniacki ,NFL player Ezekiel Elliott, Julian Edelman (New England Patriots), San Jose Sharks teammates Brent Burns and Joe Thornton, and adaptive snowboarder/mountaineer and retired Marine Corps sergeant Kirstie Ennis.
Olympic track and field medalist Novlene Williams-Mills of Jamaica is the first breast cancer survivor to appear in the issue.
ESPN has been promoting its different covers across its social media channels, and the images and promo video of Ezekiel Elliott have proven a little more than some straight, male fans can handle.
‘You can now add “cover boy” to Zeke’s resume,’ said ESPN in a tweet.
You can now add "cover boy" to Zeke's resume. pic.twitter.com/DSS8r0Jzef
— ESPN (@espn) June 26, 2017
‘You can now add “Homosexual” to his resume…’ responded an unimpressed @RobRothschild69
Other twitter users were quick to respond.
‘Just because it turned you on doesn’t make him gay,’ said @KellyScaletta
Other users pointed out that if the cover star was a female, few of the men would be complaining. In fact, one of the other cover stars was female – tennis star Wozniacki.
Despite this, the image of Elliot prompted hundreds of comments, with many men clearly uncomfortable with it – to the bemusement of others.
As for Elliot’s own take on the image, he says in the issue, ‘I think my body just shows a true transformation from a little kid to a grown man.’
The ESPN Body Issue is out now.
