With the 2012 Summer Olympics a week away, we’re incredibly thankful to have something so important to take our minds off of the St. Louis Cardinals sucking the annual summer lull. While the biggest Olympics news so far has been the opening of the world’s largest McDonald’s at London’s Olympic Park and the company’s subsequent monopoly on French fries, we finally got some juicy details from the athletes’ village earlier this week when U.S. Women’s Soccer goalie Hope Solo revealed that errbody is getting freaky in London.

I pray to everything sacred that my precious Alex Morgan is behaving herself.

‘There’s a lot of sex going on at the Olympics.

‘I’ve seen people having sex out in the open, getting down and dirty on grass between buildings.’

She added: ‘I may have snuck a celebrity into my Beijing room without anybody knowing and snuck him back out. But that’s my Olympic secret.’ (Via the Daily Mail)

It’s not really a secret, because she revealed that she was hanging out with Vince Vaughn and some other celebrities and they all went back to the U.S. dorms (or whatever they’re called over there, flats maybe) despite the oh-so-serious rules and curfews that the athletes must obey – wank, wank. But since the entire world knows that all of these teenage and 20-something athletes are going to party, the fine people at Durex have sent over 150,000 condoms to be dispersed amongst the 10,000+ athletes.

That’s roughly 15 condoms per athlete for 17 days of action. That means that some of those female athletes are coming home +1, if you know what I mean. I mean they’ll be pregnant. Especially if they’re American teenagers.

Read the rest of this entry »

I think we all need to take a seat, maybe form a circle and just relax for a few minutes. We get a little bit too crazy about sports sometimes, and we tend to overreact toward athletes and media analysts for their decisions and/or opinions. I mean, take Twitter, for example. Have you seen the horrible verbal venom that is spewed at famous people on that “social media” site on a daily basis? Hell, I’m as guilty as the next guy for making cracks at some athletes, but I’m talking about the violent threats.

It’s really getting out of hand, and it’s been spilling out into our stadiums and arenas now, ruining the idea of fun competition for everyone. What the hell’s the point of going to a game or a bar these days if you constantly have to look over your shoulder and wonder if someone is about to stab you? Sports are supposed to take our minds off the really sh*tty things in life and provide hope and inspiration. Instead, we have people slaughtering each other in the streets.

Everybody calm down and let’s remember why we’re here in the first place… to hope that the other team loses and pray for people to be fired. That’s what sports are all about, dang it.

Read the rest of this entry »

Oh, sorry, the Kate Upton Sports Illustrated cover story is AFTER the Morning Links, this is a guy literally busting nuts. With his butt. Sorry for the confusion!

(via The FW)

- Follow us on Twitter @withleather
- Follow me personally @MrBrandonStroud and Burnsy @MayorBurnsy
- Like us on Facebook.

Links

The Best Of #Kenny Powers - “So, besides getting shot in the back of the head do you know what else Abraham Lincoln did? He was a champion wrestler in high school and no, I’m not making that up.” [UPROXX]

One ‘Community’ Character Will Die: Let’s Place Odds - Can it please be Chang? There’s nothing Chang does the Dean can’t do better. [Warming Glow]

5 Reasons “Comic Book Men” Stinks - Reason number f**king one: we are not 18 anymore, and “tell ‘em Steve-Dave” just doesn’t have the same impact. [Gamma Squad]

Sports, Illustrated: In Celebration Of Alex Morgan’s Body Paint Bikini - Lots of swimsuits this week. Make sure you didn’t miss the one made out of paint. [With Leather]

Nicki Minaj Offended The World At The Grammys - or, “Nicki Minaj did something on purpose to make headlines because she isn’t good at music and people bought it, because people are dumb”. [Smoking Section]

Henry Rollins’ awesome letter to Chris Farley from 1995 - Sadly, not the same Chris Farley. “YOUR FILM BLACK SHEEP WAS MALICIOUS AND CAPRICIOUS.” [Film Drunk]

Inevitable ‘Who The F*ck Is Bon Iver?’ Reactions Vastly Improved By The Rise Of ‘Bonnie Bear’ & ‘Bony Bear’ - Dude should just change his band’s name to Bonnie Bear and be done with it. I’d listen to Bonnie Bear. [UPROXX]

NYU Girls’ Newt Gingrich Slumber Party - Nowhere near as awesome as Kent State’s Dennis Kucinich parties, where all the girls are 6-foot-3 vegan redheads. [Buzzfeed]

15 Funny Valentine’s Day Quotes By Comedians - “Those flowers fer yer wife fer Valentine’s Day? NOPE, just thought I’d do a lil’ mid-February gardenin’! Here’s yer sign!” – Bill Engvall [HuffPost Comedy]

Jay Z’s ‘99 Problems’ Recreated with Film Clips - See, THIS is what the Internet is for. [Brobible]

Movies That Should Get The 3D Treatment - Not gonna lie, I would go see a 3-D re-release of Snow Dogs. Country Bears, too. [Adult Swim]

20 Favorite Rom-Com Actors Under 40 - I feel like you shouldn’t be a “rom-com actor”, you should just be an actor who has appeared in a romantic comedy. Once you get into Kate Hudson territory it’s time for retirement. [Moviefone]

8 Animal Misconceptions Rundown - Number 9: Dogs can’t look up. [High Definite]

Because our hearts pump normal, human blood, we have a little crush on Western New York Flash forward Alex Morgan. Because we follow sports closely (and have Kate Upton Google Alert boobytraps set up on every corner of the Internet) we know that the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue goes on sale tomorrow, and because God is looking out for us, Alex Morgan appears in said issue wearing a painted-on bikini.

Our friends at SI Hot Clicks were kind enough to leak the photo and an interview snippet on Friday. From that interview, a condescending question with an awesome answer:

SI.com: What was more intimidating: posing in bodypaint or taking on Japan in the World Cup finals?

Morgan: I have been playing soccer my entire life. I know how to stay calm and not get too nervous for games. That’s why I would have to say posing in bodypaint was a little more intimidating. It was a completely new experience and definitely took some getting used to before I felt comfortable in bodypaint. I had to look in the mirror every five minutes to make sure I actually had a swimsuit on.

I’m still not entirely sure why the SI swimsuit issue exists. For the longest time I thought maybe female sports fans who subscribed to the magazine used it as a shopping guide of sorts to keep abreast of the latest bikini fashions, but then they started just dumping paint on ladies and glitter-gluing sand to their boobs and it lost me. I mean, it found me on a personal level, but it lost me intellectually.

Oh, and before I ramble on too much, here’s Alex Morgan wearing absolutely f**king nothing:

Read the rest of this entry »

Man, time sure does fly. It seems like just yesterday I was praising Drew Brees. Actually, it was just yesterday, but I was referring to when I named Brees and the New Orleans Saints winning Super Bowl XLIV the top Sports Moment of 2010. And you know what? That was a boring, predictable pick and it left nothing to the imagination of you, our beloved readers. You deserve more than just the run-of-the-mill year end list, because With Leatherites are smarter than the average sports blog reader, and I know that because I was called an idiot by you guys plenty this year.

You also have a better sense of humor than the average sports blog reader, so when I was entering the qualifications for this year’s Best Sports Moments into my sophisticated super computer (read: old yellow notepad) I wanted to kick the sentimental crap to the curb and really focus on what makes us all tick – namely, poop jokes and hot models. But mostly fun sports moments. As always, I don’t expect everyone to agree, and I’m sure that I left out a few moments here and there (sorry hockey). So feel free to school us on your biggest moments of the year, and let’s all hope that 2012 is a little more sex scandal free…

Read the rest of this entry »

One of my professional goals as editor is to get myself and the With Leather domestic readership into soccer.

It’s a hard sell sometimes, but it’s getting easier thanks to the fact that we’ve got tons of great soccer happening across the country at any given point; for example, the United States women’s national team took on Canada’s national team in an exhibition game in front of 18,570 at Jeld-Wen Field in Portland on Thursday night. It was a reminder that we can (and should) like these women outside of their 15-minutes of Letterman fame and that Abby Wambach — who scored two second-half goals one of them a header — should be showing up at every Kids and Teens and ESPN choice awards things to win a trophy.

In case you weren’t one of those nearly 19,000 people who saw the game, I’ve put together a gallery that should simultaneously tell you “the U.S. Women’s National Team is pretty great” and “Alex Morgan looks amazing in those little shorts”. Because they are, and she totally does. Be sure to click through thoroughly enough to get to the fan photos, as they are wonderful. Yes, girls lift their shirts and write things on their stomachs at U.S. soccer games.

All photos are via Daylife by way of Getty Images, unless otherwise noted. The video in slide 2 is from Oregon Live. The increasing desire to know everything about these people is totally mine.

Read the rest of this entry »