With Leather is a little late in celebrating the Festival of Lights this year, but it would be a crime not to share this report of NBA players sending holiday wishes to their Jewish fans during Hanukkah. The level of awkwardness approaches "6th grade dance"… or that time I called my hooker "mom."

Enjoy these holiday wishes from Shaq, Kobe, and "Cube" Gooding Jr. And be sure to blow out those candles, Jews.

Wow, what a lineup for bowl games last night. For whatever reason, #16 Rutgers (10-2) was paired up with unranked and shitty K-State in the Unsponsored Texas Bowl, and the results were predictable: 37-10, Rutgers. That's how they roll in Jersey, yo.

In the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl, #20 Cal stomped the shit out of #21 Texas A&M 45-10, putting to rest that nationwide debate about which team is really the twentieth-best in the country. Also proven: Bears still dangerous. Not proven, but true nonetheless: Aggie fans are universally irritating.

Who would have thought that the only good game last night would be between two teams who have no business in a "bowl game"? Oklahoma State eked out a last-minute 34-31 win over Alabama in a battle of teams trying not to finish under .500. It was the NFC First-Round Playoffs Independence Bowl, I believe.

Riveting. Only another, what, ten days? until we can finally start arguing about how Rose Bowl winner Michigan needs to play a game against BCS winner Florida to determine a TRUE national champion. I can't wait. 

I guess this isn't a huge story, but it just creeps me the fuck out:

Wolves coach Dwane Casey said the club was aware that rookie Randy Foye has a rare condition called situs inversus, which means the guard's major internal organs are on the opposite side from their normal body positions… "They're working properly, functioning properly," Casey said. "They're just flip-flopped."

Gross, right? I mean, it's not like it matters if your right and left lungs/kidneys/balls are switched up, but what about the liver? And I guess his heart is canted to the right? Does he put his left hand on the right side of his chest during the national anthem? That's just fucked up, man. 

As of right now, you cannot convince me that Randy Foye isn't somebody's evil twin. He has to be. It's science.

Alternative headline for this post: THE GIANTS ARE FINANCIAL GENIUSES. Even though any baseball fan/analyst can tell you that any kind of contract for a pitcher longer than four years is generally foolhardy, the Giants know what the fuck they're doing: they signed possibly-on-the-downslope curveballer Barry Zito for seven years and $126 million. It's the largest deal ever for a pitcher, and the math works out to about $18M a year, with incentives if he continues to play the guitar and nail B-list tramps like Alyssa Milano.*

I don't really have much to say about this deal. I mean, I guess it could work out for San Francisco. On the other hand, the Giants are paying Barry Bonds something like $14 million this year, so I'm not going to give them too much credit.

The important thing to focus on here is that Zito once dated Alyssa Milano. Or maybe he was just photographed with her, I don't know. Whatever. Who didn't want her to become exactly what she became after watching her in Who's the Boss? I think you know I'm talkin' about Embrace of the Vampire (link NSFW). Those were the golden days, my friends.

*I probably made that up.

Tampa Bay's Chris Simms surprised some folks in the know by passing on the free agent market to sign a new two-year deal that could be worth up to $14.5 million if he meets several performance incentives. Simms signed the contract and even had a good attitude despite Coach Jon Gruden's constant criticism and public statements that Simms would have competition to win the starter's spot next year.

"Coach is going to make those contortions no matter who his quarterback is," [Simms] said. "If Peyton Manning was quarterback and he didn't complete a pass on third-and-10, I don't think Coach's reaction would be much different. He wants to win just as badly as we do, so he's going to continue to do that and be hard on the quarterback position. That's something that when you're playing quarterback for him you're going to have to deal with."

I'm almost impressed. Then you consider this:

Simms showed up at [practice] wearing the Christmas gift he got from the Bucs training staff. It's a black T-shirt with the phrase "Got Spleen?" written in white across the chest.

And that's pretty cool. It's kind of like my "Got Gigantic Balls?" t-shirt, only the opposite. Because I have gigantic balls, you see.

If you saw Casino Royale, you know that the best part of the movie besides the extremely sexy Daniel Craig Judi Dench Caterina Murino was the opening chase sequence where the bomb maker dude does all sorts of crazy shit to run away from Bond. Well, that guy is Sebastien Foucan, the sport is called free running, and there's a very long, very fucking sweet YouTube video of it (free running, not the Bond scene).

Seriously, this clip is worth your eight and a half minutes. It's the coolest thing I've seen all day. Which is saying a lot, because I've looked in the mirror at least three times. And one of those times I was wearing a fedora.

(You can see some more free running over at We Are The Postmen, if you're so inclined.)