NBA center Jason Collins came out today via magazine cover (the best way to come out, I think, if you have that luxury), and I encourage you to read everything you can about it. Here’s a snippet from the Sports Illustrated story:

I’m a 34-year-old NBA center. I’m black. And I’m gay.

I didn’t set out to be the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport. But since I am, I’m happy to start the conversation. I wish I wasn’t the kid in the classroom raising his hand and saying, “I’m different.” If I had my way, someone else would have already done this. Nobody has, which is why I’m raising my hand. (via SI.com)

You’re going to read a lot of unnecessary commentary about it today, so I’m not going to beat you over the head with another LIBERAL BALLYHOO thing about the importance of a gay athlete in pro sports in the 2010s. I will, however, help you deal with some of the shit you’re gonna read in advance, because it’s almost cripplingly obvious.

Here’s your field guide:

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A guy putting a coin on a treadmill and filming it for an hour (!) is the most Internet thing to do ever, but I’m happy he did it. It’s a fascinating watch, and you’ll want to know how it ends. Spoiler alert: that coin ends up swole as f**k.

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Links

This Photo Of Aziz Ansari And His Parents With Kanye West Wins Everything |UPROXX|

Extended Footage Of Addy, The Delightful Driving Test Stoner |Warming Glow|

Steven Seagal tries out his southern accent in ‘Maximum Conviction’ |Film Drunk|

This Looks Fun: Zamboni Waterskiing |With Leather|

Surprisingly, Red Isn’t The Most Dangerous Color You Can Wear Aboard The Starship Enterprise |Gamma Squad|

Bonnaroo Announces 2013 Lineup, Booked Everything Except the Kitchen Sink |Smoking Section|

GRUDEN TALK: Jon Gruden Discusses the Russian Meteor With Neil DeGrasse Tyson |Kissing Suzy Kolber|

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Often times, when I’m doing my morning interwebbrowsinggooglebingtumbletweet routine and sucking down 6 gallons of coffee, I’ll stumble across a picture or video that’s really cool, and I’ll be like, “Hey, the With Leather readers might like this” and then I realize that it’s three years old and it’s already been watermarked by 60 sites that had nothing to do with making it. But sometimes I’m willing to make an exception under the Burnsy Rule of “I ain’t never seen this” and today is one of those days.

Yesterday, CBS Sports re-blogged or re-Tumbled, whatever it’s called, a bigger version of the above image that features a collection of “What If?” city sports team logos. Basically, someone got all hopped up on Photoshop juice and asked the question that nobody else was asking – “What would it look like if sports teams in major cities combined their logos?” And I thought that was really cool. But the problem was, damn dude, why are those logos so tiny?

So I went back to the source of the image, thanks to Tumblr’s handy “Okay, who really posted this?” feature, and that was a dead end, because the person who blogged it 500 notes ago had nothing to do with making it. Thankfully, I know how to type and I have a functional IQ, and I was able to search a little and determine that not only did that awesome image come from a message board thread at Chris Creamer’s Sports Logos from earlier this year, but the creative kids commenting on that site went off with this fun idea.

Specifically, a commenter named “Firefly” had a field day with a variety of sports city logos from Washington DC to San Diego and back, and other commenters joined in to rep their favorite cities. Some of them are awesome and some need a little work, but after the jump you can pick your favorites and then go get them tattooed on your faces like good sports fans.

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The International Cycling Union has decided that based on the findings of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency’s extensive report on Lance Armstrong, the 7-time Tour de France winner has been officially stripped of all of his titles. Upon making and announcing the decision, ICU President Pat McQuaid poured a glass of elk’s blood, struck a match on a child’s forehead and lit his cigar before cackling with the echoes reaching the bottom of the world’s deepest trench.

“Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling and he deserves to be forgotten in cycling,” McQuaid said at a news conference. “This is a landmark day for cycling.”

“I was sickened by what I read in the USADA report,” McQuaid said, singling out the testimony of David Zabriskie. “The story he told of how he was coerced and to some extent forced into doping is just mind boggling.” (Via Fox Sports)

Is landmark really the right word here? I know this is monumental and unprecedented, as who can remember the last time that a sport figuratively eviscerated its greatest champion and every shred of credibility that cycling and especially the Americans had left? I just feel like “landmark” doesn’t reflect how awful this mess is. Maybe McQuaid could have made up a really terrible world like “monuterrorawfulAIDSbiebermental”. That’s a good word.

Surprisingly, Armstrong has already commented, telling a group of cyclists at a Livestrong event that he’s “been better” and “been worse”, as whatever’s left of his credibility is stomped into the mud by people who have behaved just as despicably as he reportedly has. (Except, you know, without all of the charity work and inspiration for cancer patients.) But I spent some time this morning trying to sort through the media and fan responses – both good and bad – and it seems that the hot fad right now is basting Armstrong with hate and baking him in the oven at 450-degrees for the rest of the eternity.

After the jump, check out some of the more colorful fan responses to Armstrong’s misdeeds. Seriously, people are pissed.

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Sandwiched between Gangnam Style parodies on The Daily What is the inspirational story of high school goalkeeper Daniel Cui, a kid who turned soccer futility into 10th grade popularity, and eventually into an advertisement about how Facebook changes peoples’ lives.

After freshman goalie Daniel Cui became the scapegoat for a losing season, the whole high school rallied to defend him. More than 100 students changed their profile pictures to a photo of Cui making a save and with newfound confidence, Cui returned the next season to play the game of his life and lead his team to a win.

An outpouring of support on social media isn’t exactly a bunch of kids helping a kid with spastic CP conquer Field Day or anything, but it’s heartwarming as hell, and a step in the right direction for everybody. And sure, it could be a pure marketing campaign and as legit as those FACEBOOK’S GONNA START CHARGING YOU IN NOVEMBER, CLICK HERE TO LEARN HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF chain letters, but I like to think we live in a world where seemingly-isnignificant but personally-amazing stuff like this happens on the reg.

I also hope this predates Linsanity, because I don’t want this poor kid walking into 11th grade wearing an ExCUIsite! t-shirt.

The Dallas Cowboys have mastered The Internet, but not in the way they’d intended.

Back in 2007, the Dallas Cowboys placed a winning bid on the Cowboys.com domain name, but never actually handed over the 275K they’d bid “due to an internal miscommunication”. Given the timeframe I’m gonna guess the internal miscommunication was “somebody saw a GoDaddy commercial and thought they should look into it, because dancing ladies”, but that’s unconfirmed. The report, from Domain Name News by way of Shutdown Corner:

The domain name brought in a $275,000 bid from a phone-in bidder at the recent TRAFFIC domain live auction in Hollywood, Florida. The bidder had been earlier identified to be a representative from the Dallas Cowboys NFL team. An inside source confirmed with DomainNameNews that the deal began to fall apart over a misunderstanding with the bidder on what the bid of “275″ actually meant. It appears the bidder thought they were buying the domain for $275.00 rather than $275,000.

Cowboys.com remained dormant for years, but now in the most Internet thing of all time, the site is operational … and it’s a cowboy-themed gay dating site. No, seriously, look:

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