Sexiest Athlete
Dhani Jones
Why: Because how often do you come across a hard-partying, trash-talking football player who’s also a Renaissance man? At six foot one and 240 pounds, the 25-year-old Giants linebacker is big but not beefy, his hair combed back for what he calls “that Frederick Douglass look,” which suggests “artist” rather than “athlete.” The son of black activists, he created his own art major at the University of Michigan and now dabbles in mixed-media portraiture. Plus he’s played the washtub bass with the Roots, is studying Islamic texts to get over a “religious impasse,” and, après-football, wants to become a pediatric neurosurgeon.
Still, he has his fun: Jones recently made “Rush & Malloy” for sharing a $5,000 bottle of cognac with teammate Jeremy Shockey at the opening of Jay-Z’s 40/40 club while models gyrated around wearing only watches on their nipples. That said, he claims that what he really wants in a woman is “an intellectual giant.”
Phone sex: Even his voice-mail message is sexy, if, okay, a little Barry White: “Moments like this don’t come very often . . . ” he purrs. “Believe that when you leave a message for Dhani Jones.”