Supersport's Good Week / Bad Week: Justice hits out

A good week for...

Senator John McCain is campaigning for a posthumous pardon for the first black heavyweight boxing champion. Jack Johnson was convicted of transporting a white woman across state lines in 1913. A McCain bill in 2004 was bounced by Congress, but the senator reckons Barack Obama, the man who knocked him to the canvas in the presidential title fight, will back the cause.

Saffer Sarries

The South African rugby diaspora looks set to get a second wind. London club Saracens has been taken over by some of our chums from the Republic, who hope to make the side a first port of call for Europe-bound Yarpies. They're also hoping to cash in on the 750,000 expat South Africans living in London. The short-term result: Saffer players leaving for a sniff of the pound at a younger age. The long-term result? Get ready for a future generation
of England representatives called Frikkie and Hennie.

Good effort

Well done Hilary Lister. The quadriplegic English sailor will next month attempt to sail solo around Britain. She has only a restricted-range of movement of her head and sails a boat controlled by a tube which she blows into. Shaming stuff, for those of us able-bodied masses too lazy to drag our backsides off the sofa on a sunny day.

What the caddy heard

If you're not a fan of the game, watching golf on the idiot box can be rather like watching people, well, spoil a good walk. So the PGA is to be applauded for a proposal that would see the caddies wired for sound. If television viewers were privy to discussions about club selection, they might find the sport a more compelling watch. So will it happen? Hell no. You think Tiger wants us to know what he's really saying to Steve Williams about that "prick" Phil Mickelson?

Glad tidings

We tend to grizzle a lot about rugby these days. So hoorah to the news that the All Blacks will face the Barbarians on December 5.

A bad week for...

No idea

SuperShorts (which is, according to our email inbox, the home of lazy journalism) hesitates to chuckle when another publication errs... but only for a minute or two. Lleyton and Bec Hewitt are suing New Idea after the magazine claimed the actress was seeing another man. The trouble for New Idea is that the bloke in the photos was in fact her brother. The magazine described him as the "the kind of hunk every young mum dreams about". Hmm, "every young mum dreams about"? Maybe every young mum in the backblocks of Southland dreams about her brother.

Unhappy, not gay

The ranks of Serie A defenders - that famous breeding ground of open-minded liberals - have produced another gem. Juve defender Nicola Legrottaglie says homosexuals should visit him for correction. "Being a gay is seen as a fashion statement these days. For many it's a way of being contrary. However, it's clear that to be gay is to be wrong. I can only advise gay people to read the Bible and change - and my personal discussion meetings on Mondays are open to all of them.

"Some gays nowadays even have a wife. That's taking it too far."

Unequal rights

The IOC's charter insistence upon "the principle of equality of men and women" is under a legal spotlight. Fifteen female ski jumpers are suing the Vancouver Olympic Organising Committee under equal opportunity laws in a bid to get their sport included in next year's winter Olympics. As for that IOC charter, at last count, the summer Games featured 124 events for women and 164 for men.

Welcome return

Can one athlete be bigger than a sport? Yup. In the eight months that Tiger Woods was out of golf, television ratings for big tournaments dropped by half. Not a healthy game.Cheers!

As NZ Cricket pats itself on the back for its handling of Jesse Ryder's boozing tendencies, they might wonder who will watch him in South Africa. He's playing for the Royal Challengers Bangalore, a team owned by liquor magnate Vijay Mallya. Bottoms up, lads!