Watch Super Bowl Champion Julian Edelman Eat Burgers Naked for ESPN Body Issue (Video)

“My body is my temple, that’s why I like to feed it burgers — only one burger a day to keep the conditioning away,” New England Patriots star says in behind the scenes video

There’s two things every New England Patriots fan knows about wide receiver Julian Edelman — he’s very good at football and he loves burgers.

The Super Bowl LI champion celebrates both of those things in the 2017 ESPN the Magazine Body Issue, as shown in behind the scenes footage from his naked photo shoot shared by ESPN on Friday.

In the video, Edelman proved he’s just as good at making jokes as he is at catching passes from quarterback Tom Brady, and he happily dropped one-liners about his food obsession.

“My body is my temple, that’s why I like to feed it burgers — only one burger a day to keep the conditioning away,” the NFL star said.

“What is on your burger is like your children, you never know how they are going to turn out but you’ve got to love them all,” the beef patty connoisseur continued. “Sometimes I’m feeling a little thousand island, sometimes I’m a feeling a little BBQ bacon.”

While we’re pretty sure he doesn’t eat a burger every day, Edelman’s diet is a far cry from Brady’s organic vegan diet that cuts out all white foods and even nightshades

“Everything is to fuel your body, the only thing I have for pleasure is a burger,” the pro athlete said. “Other than that it’s blueberry, flaxseed, kale, and a little love.”

The five-foot-ten receiver made one of the greatest catches in Super Bowl history in the Patriots’ comeback win over the Atlanta Falcons in February with his gravity-defying reception in the fourth quarter, leading to a 34-28 victory.

“I was fortunate to keep the eye on the ball and catch the ball,” modest Edelman said of the play that helped earn his second Super Bowl ring. “The No. 1 rule you’re taught as a receiver: You’ve just got to watch the ball. You hear about the guy who was lucky,” he expanded in the full ESPN the Magazine article. “But the guy who was lucky got an opportunity, and he was prepared for it. Sometimes the ball falls your way, and, you know, we’ll take it.

As for stripping off for the Body Issue cameras, “my body tells my story as I’ve got a lot of scars … with injury, that’s part of the game and you just have to keep your body right to perform at a high level.”

In a studio interview with ESPN on Friday, Edelman was asked why he posed with a messy burger for the shoot. “I was doing what I do with a burger — I don’t dip my toe in, I like to dive in the water,” he replied. “That’s an old Bill Belichick saying — so I incorporate that with my burger eating.”

As for what he eats on his cheat day — of course, it’s burgers. “I like whatever the chef prepares, I want to see whatever his piece of art looks like, what topping, what kind of sauce, what bun, what type of meat,” the California native gushed.

Ezekiel Elliott, Isaiah Thomas, Caroline Wozniacki, Marine Corps Sgt. Kirstie Ennis, Novlene Williams-Mills and Gus Kenworthy are among the athletes who stripped for the the ninth annual ESPN Body Issue, which hits newsstands on Friday, July 7.

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