In the past decade or so, no one has muscled into actor’s celebrity turf more than the professional athlete. His appeal was once limited to his peers, aficionados of the game and a few “tom-boyish” women. But when Joe Namath dazzled women who previously didn’t care much for football, he opened the door not just for the athletes’ wider appeal, but for the recognition of a more demanding, involved, and intelligent woman fan. Now, as you can see in these eye-opening shots of Jim Brown, Dan Pastorini, Dan Ford and Bob Chandler, the athlete as star and the woman as fan have come of age.
Jim Brown
Football player, civil rights activist and actor (photographed for Playgirl by David Meyer)
Jim Brown.
Jim Brown.
Dan Pastorini
With nine years of quarterbacking of the Houston Oilers behind him, Dan Pastorini is a powerful player whose reputation is legendary both on and off the field.” He can throw the hell out of a football and you can’t intimidate him,” says one former coach. Dan’s finesse as a quarterback is frequently noted in the newspapers. So is his private life. His insatiable appetite for danger and excitement has spurred him on to fast-paced amusements like speed boating and race car driving. “A lot of things happen to you when you hit 150 or 200 miles an hour. You become part of the machine. I like to do things that a lot of other people haven’t experienced.” This zest Italian is also an avowed ladies’ man: “I like to pamper a woman. I’ll open doors for her or light her cigarette, not because I’m a male chauvinist but because I like to take care of her.”
Dan Pastorini.
Dan Pastorini.
Dan Ford
Dan Ford is best described as a contradiction in terms: He is a sexy baseball player. Basketball is like lovemaking at its best, spectacularly graceful and inventive. Football is raw and lusty. But baseball? A game of situations over action, it is among the least sexy of sports (…) Now you look at Dan Ford. His body is dynamite, especially in a sport with players boasting nicknames such as Moose and Whale. He holds himself like a relaxed cat, as if he hasn’t got a nerve in his body. He describes his playing style as “easygoing, graceful, fluid.” Like making love? “Exactly, like making love.” His nickname is Disco Dan.
Ford insists the name is undeserved, inspired not so much by his parting ways as by his enjoyment of music beyond the national anthem. “I love it all,” he says, “disco, jazz, soul. But I don’t go out much. You can’t play baseball every day and be out on the streets looking for a lady every night…
Dan Ford.
Bob Chandler
When asked to describe himself in ten words, Bob Chandler, the Oakland Raiders’ top wide receiver, says he’s ambitious, hardworking, very sensitive and dull. “That’s only five, huh? Well, see how dull I am?” Hardly. The six-foot-one-inch, 180-pound Californian possesses both the strength and vulnerability that make athletes among the sexiest men around. Classically handsome with soft blue, bedroom eyes and tinges of blond amid his wavy brown hair, the thirty-two-year-old Chandler belies the notion that athletes lack intelligence. This ten-year veteran of professional football has acquired a law degree and is now attending acting school, proving he’s both a striver and a survivor…
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Bob Chandler.
Bob Chandler.
