The bearded Sharks stars are featured in the 2017 edition of the magazine in a way you’ve never seen them before, posing full frontal in nothing but their birthday suits and sporting glorious facial hair extensions that put even their own legendary playoff beards to shame. As in their careers, there were no cups involved during this photo shoot.
This is the first time hockey could count one of its athletes among the participants since Tyler Seguin in the 2015 edition.
Thornton and Burns spoke at length about the experience in an accompanying interview with ESPN.com:
There are even more behind-the-scenes photos over at Yahoo Sports’ Puck Daddy.
“You never know what to expect with something like this," Burns said. “They were like, ‘Boom, let’s go!’ We both just dropped our robes and looked up into each other’s eyes and laughed: We’re both naked right now doing a faceoff, so this is kind of interesting.”
Thornton, a pending unrestricted free agent, may soon see an end to his 12 years in San Jose. At least now he and Burns have a keepsake should they part ways.
