What's the best way to compete against a widely popular sports magazine that showcases half naked bodies (eh-hem Sports Illustrated)?  Showcase female and male athletes engaging in a sporting activity while in the nude and call it the "Body Issue." 

Simple enough, I guess.

This idea appears to be the marketing strategy for ESPN's The Magazine with its first "Body Issue" hitting newsstands this fall.  No doubt The Magazine will be competing with one of the most successful sports magazine on the shelf.  So while it might seem like a competitive ploy to feature naked athletes for profits and perhaps bragging rights over SI, The Magazine's editor Gary Belsky insists that "The magazine won't do anything that would compromise ESPN and Disney brands [The Magazine's parent company]."

The idea, see, is to "use equipment and pads . . . to obscure body parts" so that, in the very least, the photos won't tread soft porn territory.

Well, call me curious Georgia then because a gal like me is eager to see how the editors and photographers might strategically place a basketball on, say, a body like Dwight Howard's.  Yaozahs!

Photo courtesy of Dimemag.com

There's no arguing that back when humans were throwing rocks as shot puts, athletic bodies were, in and of themselves, considered masterpieces of art.  Dodai over a Jezebel, points out that the Ancient Greeks participated in sport while nude (although, while men might have participated in sports, it's been noted that women were forbidden to compete in the ancient Olympics and if they did 'play' a sport they might've worn something like this).  

But perhaps it's not so much the idea of naked bodies gallivanting around while engaging in sport that's shocking, but rather the titillation translating into profits that might rub folks the wrong way.

Only time will tell (October 19th, to be exact) if the "Body Issue" will prove to be a modern example of dignified art through sport or just another excuse to sneak a peak at Amanda Beard’s boobs.

Feature photo courtesy of ESPN "The Magazine"/Clint Clemens