Kansas City Wizards defender Michael Harrington, as a cat.

Kansas City Wizards player Michael Harrington was excited when he heard Maxim Magazine wanted to feature him in their magazine. Little did he know, his team had set up an elaborate April Fool’s Day joke on him.

Enticing the soccer player with the idea of a magazine shoot about athletes acting like animals, Harrington’s teammates hired a photographer to pose as an employee of the men’s magazine. He was brought to the team’s training facility and asked to wear kitten ears and face paint, which he happily agreed to, and told to crawl around the field on all fours and meow like a cat. The photographer even had him climb a fence and paw at the air.

Harrington actually fell for the entire thing, and it was only after the team had a chance to watch a video of the photo shoot and look at pictures that his coach had to inform him that it was all a hoax.

Needless to say, the Harrington prank became a hit across the web almost immediately after, with even Maxim giving its approval. To see more photos of Harrington acting like a cat, as well as videos behind the scenes, check out the Wizards official blog, HillCrestRoadBlog.com.