Reigning UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva is already one of the most likable stars in professional sports, but in case there were any stragglers out there who didn’t like Spider before, this video’s about to change all of that. Twelve-year old Joao Pedro is suffering from a bone disease called Epiphysiolysis that has left him bound to a wheelchair for the past 9 months. Doctors aren’t sure if he’ll ever walk again, which is obviously a terrible reality for any child to face, let alone one who loves sports.

One of Joao’s idols in Silva, so a friend reached out to Silva’s doctor, Eduardo Picanço, for an autograph to help lift the child’s spirits. Dr. Picanço and Silva did him one better and agreed to go meet him in person. And sure, we’ve seen plenty of these videos, but damn it all to heck if Joao’s reaction doesn’t just melt your heart.

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Oh boy, you guys. It’s about to get super dusty up in here.

Kevin Durant further proved that he’s one of the greatest guys on the planet – seriously, he can bounce a ball of a woman’s face and she’ll just laugh – when he joined in the Twitter hashtag campaign #DressNathanOut that some students at Owasso High School in Oklahoma started to get some attention for the their basketball team’s manager, Nathan Mitcham. A special needs student, Mitcham also gained fans in Toby Keith, Carrie Underwood and Johnny Manziel, who all Tweeted the hashtag to help get Mitcham in this past Tuesday’s game against Sand Springs High School.

Based on the outpouring of support and the amazing stories in the aftermath, I don’t think that Mitcham’s playing time was ever in question, but he nevertheless received his coach’s permission to play, and he took the court for the final 3 minutes in Owasso’s 20-point victory that night. And not only did he close out the game, but he also scored 8 points as 2,000 people in a 1,400-capacity arena cheered him on.

God, I love sports so much sometimes.

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Last week, a Jalopnik reader posed a challenge to the automobile-enthusiast site, as he wanted someone to design a custom car per his four-year old son Eli’s instructions. Specifically, Eli wanted his new super car to include:

• It’s a BMW
• 42 wheels, and of course 42-wheel drive
• It is powered by 19 Porsche engines, each producing 459 horsepower. I think they will need to be water-cooled turbocharged boxer 6s. This was entirely his own idea, but I commended his choice of using boxer engines for a multi-engine setup since they will stack so well.
• The engines are all linked to a single transmission. He didn’t specify, but I think viscous couplings for the inputs would probably be a good idea.
• Power output is subdivided to all those wheels via a series of limited-slip differentials
• There are seats and three steering wheels, and all three can drive the car at the same time.
• The trunk is full of toys and you can play in it

To recap, that’s a BMW automobile with a Porsche engine, 42 wheels and a trunk full of toys. Sign me the f*ck up.

So as Jalopnik’s faithful readers started posting their designs in the comments of that article, someone at BMW apparently took notice and decided to take care of Eli’s wish himself. And as you can see above, Eli’s new supercar has been brought to life.

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As we prep for our week of incredible, unparalleled coverage for Super Bowl 47 (screw you, Roman numerals!) next week, I feel somewhat ashamed for not already pointing out what an outstanding job our friends Danger Guerrero and Dustin Rowles have already done in bringing you important Puppy Bowl news at Warming Glow. In fact, I want the Pulitzer committee to know that those two have my full endorsement for the highest writing awards for their efforts on the Animal Planet locker room live stream and hedgehog cheerleaders, respectively.

Trust me, the Pulitzer committee has With Leather bookmarked.

That said, it’s time to focus on the actual Puppy Bowl itself and the brave four-legged critters who take the field for such intense and dangerous action each year. Animal Planet has finally released the lineup for this year’s Puppy Bowl and I think we’re in for the most exciting game yet. However, I have two quick recommendations that I would like to offer…

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There’s nothing like turning our attention to the BCS National Championship Game with a little game of what I like to call “Who’s Got the Sports Karma?” This is where I compare both teams – in this case the No. 1 Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the No. 2 Alabama Crimson Tide – by not using boring stuff like statistics and offensive or defensive matchups, but by what they’ve done to earn our “Awww”s and “That’s cool”s. And as you can see in that banner pic, ‘Bama is already going after one of our soft spots – the troops.

Specifically, Tide fan Justin Crisler founded an effort known as “Tide for Troops”, and through his Facebook group “Can I get a Roll Tide?” he was able to make 180 shirts bearing his group’s rally cry to deliver to a Huntsville, AL unit that deploys to Guantanamo Bay this weekend. Additionally, Crisler was able to send shirts along to the 167th Infantry Battalion in Afghanistan so they could cheer on their beloved Tide as well.

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When it comes to Christmas and birthday cards, I’ve always been a lot like Jerry Seinfeld in the sense that I’ve never known how long you’re supposed to keep a card for. I mean, it’s just a piece of paper with something already written on it, and then your mom’s or a hot Asian model’s signature. But just to be safe, I now have a box of cards that I keep in my home office (AKA the Fart Factory) in case one of my insane relatives ever calls and demands to see whatever Snoopy joke they sent me in 2002. And now I just want to scratch my name out and send all of those cards to 9-year old Dalton Dingus in Kentucky.

Dalton is dying from cystic fibrosis and his one wish is to break the Guinness World Record for receiving the most Christmas cards. It started as something with his family, friends and neighbors, but then, as always, the Internet went to work. Excuse me while I set the world record for most allergic reactions.

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