Last week, we discussed Giancarlo Guida, the Auburn grad and former Tigers rugby player who had a massive tattoo of Toomer’s Corner inked on his back, as that was one diehard fan’s way of saying goodbye to those iconic oak trees that were so heinously murdered by Alabama fan Harvey Updyke, Jr. And as Updyke prepares for his upcoming jail stint, thousands of Auburn students, alumni and fans gathered on campus over the weekend to pay their final tributes and respects to the trees by “rolling” them one more time.

Basically, people toilet papered the hell out of the dead and dying branches, as had long been a school tradition. Now, though, it will likely be replaced by simply using the toilet paper for wiping butts. In fact, can we talk about that for a second? When I was in college, I had to lock up my toilet paper because it was more valuable than gold. Yet here are all of these people just throwing it around like it’s nothing. Perhaps it’s just the sign of different times, but in my day we wouldn’t have been so wasteful.

Sure, there’s also an absurd irony in decorating dead trees by wasting paper, but this is sports and people are idiots when it comes to college football. So celebrate with the Auburn fans on… Earth Day? Geez.

Read the rest of this entry »

Back in March, an Alabama Crimson Tide fan named Harvey Updyke Jr. was sentenced to at least six months in jail for admitting that he poisoned the famed trees at Auburn’s Toomer’s Corner, and I’m sure that Tigers fans everywhere were none too pleased about that light verdict. After all, those trees are so-called miracles, as they’ve grown and thrived for so long despite the fact that they can be harmed by the slightest changes in weather. They’re like nature’s Jose Reyes.

But what was so unique about their survival was that the surrounding environment of the Auburn campus actually kept them alive. That is, until Updyke dropped some Spike 80DF on them and pitifully ended their amazing legacy. To best understand what the loss of these trees has meant to Auburn and its surrounding community, ESPN.com recently re-ran Wright Thompson’s essay on the trees as a parallel for our own lives and the struggles that Auburn faces as a school in the SEC, but is that poetry enough?

Not for Giancarlo Guida, an Auburn alum and diehard fan who had Toomer’s Corner tattooed on his back. And I suppose the first question is, “Why?”

Read the rest of this entry »

“I’m tired of doing all this stuff for free. And this is where you make your money, the NCAA tournament.”

Those were the words that Ole Miss star guard Marshall Henderson uttered early on in the 2012-23 NCAA Tournament, leading many to believe that the brash, showboating junior SG from Hurst, Texas was calling his college career quits after this year and declaring himself eligible for the NBA Draft. Well, apparently that wasn’t true, and it just further proved that Henderson is full of words. Granted, he’s also full of talent, but NBA-ready talent? That’s up for debate.

Not up for debate is the fact that Henderson is widely loathed by pretty much every fan that doesn’t wear Ole Miss gear, and if he is indeed returning to the SEC Champion Rebels for his senior season, then he’s going to have a colossal bull’s eye on his back. You know, more colossal than the one he knows he already has.

Read the rest of this entry »

On Saturday, No. 23 Ole Miss men’s basketball had a pretty tough time holding off a less-than-stellar Auburn Tigers squad, as the Rebels just barely squeaked out a 2-point win. Auburn’s Frankie Sullivan missed a three as time expired, making the game’s hero junior guard and all-around spaz Marshall Henderson, who sank two free throws to make the difference in the final score. He was also second in scoring for the Rebels with 15 points, but we only care about those two points, because they show how clutch Henderson thinks he is.

That’s why, when the clock expired, Henderson made his way to the Auburn student section, as you can see in that delightful GIF above that was posted by College Hoops Journal (H/T to Storming the Floor). As you can see, Henderson is reminding the Tigers fans that he goes to Ole Miss, which is why he is extending the front of his jersey in an outward manner, as if to say, “Excuse me, opposing fans. Have you seen this jersey? It is mine.”

Or perhaps he just wanted to know if he got any ketchup on it. Either way, the above GIF is glorious, and there are many reasons why, but I wanted to highlight my favorites in our latest Scene Breakdown.

Read the rest of this entry »

Back To School Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr. “Tebowed” before presenting the Oscar for Best Documentary at Sunday night’s 84th Annual Academy Awards, briefly reviving a Kirk Douglas-aged meme and making people who think Robert Downey Jr. is funny think Robert Downey Jr. is f**king hilarious.

Gwyneth Paltrow should’ve worn a Knicks jersey and pretended she was Mr. Yunioshi from Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Next year the first 20 minutes of the broadcast should just be Cirque de Soleil planking with Touch Of Evil playing in the background.

But hey, Downey’s facetious Tebowing was far from the only Oscars sports news, as three important things happened — Robin Roberts joined Best Supporting Actress winner for The Help and Auburn alumna Octavia Spencer in namedropping “War Eagle” on the red carpet, Best Picture nominee Moneyball got completely shut out and Taiwan’s Next Media Animation did a recap where they called the Oscars the “gay Super Bowl” and had host Billy Crystal run a 9-hour relay race.

Of course that video is below.

Read the rest of this entry »

This gallery may not appeal to the more Hot-Cheerleaders-In-Slow-Motion-inclined members of the With Leather readership, but don’t be afraid to enjoy it, because at some point during the 1970s the Walt Disney Corporation teamed up with Wonder Bread to give away pennant stickers with loaves of bread that are literally nothing but Disney characters destroying college names with puns. Yes, that’s a sentence I’ve written.

As I see it, there are two fine ways to enjoy this:

1. Flipping through and trying to figure out which school each pennant represents, because some of them are a stretch.
2. Losing control of your neck and bashing your head against the desk in a full-body groan when you realize “Mickey Can Skate” is Michigan State, or whatever.

A third way to enjoy it is through the absurdity of the illustrations, like Cinderella doing 2,000 pounds of laundry in her ball gown or Goofy with a broken leg because you can only make so many puns about Tulane. And yes, ACC fans, here is where you learn about how Disney preappropriated your “dook” joke for Duke and made it about fowl royalty a decade or so before you were born. I kept expecting to see a Virginia Tech pennant where Shan Yu from Mulan is holding up a castrated turkey.

Note: Full credit for these goes to Disney, I guess, but credit for putting them on the Internet goes to Jason Liebig.

[h/t Disney Food Blog]

Read the rest of this entry »