IT’S NOVEMBER, SO it’s only a matter of time before the world is overrun by well-meaning souls wearing poor excuses for facial hair.
To ease the blow like a great big bushy beard protecting your face from an upper-cut, here are some of the best and bushiest the world of sport has had to offer – and the communities they have made so, so proud.
George Best (Football, Manchester United and Northern Ireland)
Alongside anybody else, Tommy Docherty would have looked proper dapper here.
Erik Lund (Rugby, Biarritz and Norway)
In England, Lund was just another bruising lock. In France, he grew a beard and became a legend.
PA Wire/Press Association
Dick O’Hara (Hurling, Thomastown and Kilkenny)
Beard? Check. Curly mop? Check. Three All-Irelands? Check…. Out of control eye-brows and skin-tight sportswear? Yep, O’Hara has it all.
James Harden (Basketball, Houston and USA)
Harden’s three-point shooting suffers when he trims too much. Fact*.
Gordon D’Arcy (Rugby, Leinster and Ireland)
(not pictured: an extra seven-year-old trapped inside D’Arcy’s new face furniture)
Andrea Pirlo (Football, Juventus and bearded men everywhere)
We were briefly horrified when he ‘celebrated’ Halloween by donning a mask, but otherwise, he’s an icon, the standard by which all facial hair should be judged.
Eric Cantona (Football, Manchester United and artistic film hounds)
Ah, would you look at him – like he’s been eating a bowl of cornflakes without the spoon.
Brian Wilson (Baseball, SF Giants and the great state of California)
His beard’s so long it needs a ponytail.
Joe McMahon (Gaelic Football, Omagh and Tyrone)
We thought McMahon went missing during the league, turned out he had just shaved. Good to have him back.
John Afoa (Rugby, Ulster and New Zealand)
So, so bushy!
©INPHO/Russell Cheyne
Conor McGregor (UFC, Ireland and anybody with a sense of style)
©INPHO/Donall Farmer
Olof Mellberg (Football, Sweden and blondes who have more fun)
Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP/Press Association Images
Brett Keisel (NFL, Pittsburgh and manly men from Utah)
Aw, can we keep him?
Tony Grealish (Football, London and Ireland)
A beard to be proud of.
Carl Hayman (Rugby, Toulon and New Zealand)
Not content with being a marvellous scrummager, the Taranaki man also has the most lumberjackish beard sport could allow outside of lumberjacking.
Paul Galvin (Gaelic Football, Kerry and Gaelic footballers with notions)
Because there’s nothing fashionable about being clean shaven.
Alexei Lalas (Football, USA, USA, USA, USA!)
He’s had the hair-straighteners out since he retired, but that extra long goatee is still in pristine shape.
Zach Tuohy (Gaelic Football, Australian Football and hidden babyfaces)
That’s him on the left, by the way.
INPHO/James Crombie
Sebastian Chabal (Rugby, France, Darwinists and Diji the emu)
Rumour has it that he was never let out of this zoo.
-Which hirsute hero would you have included?
