KEY POINTS:
Big Foot or, more specifically, a long overdue update on the state of the on-going Big Foot investigation was to be the subject of my column, but recent events in New Zealand sport have forced me to save that until next week.
In hindsight that's not necessarily a bad thing, as by then the test results from a faeces sample will be available for inclusion. Stay tuned.
Jesse Ryder received much-needed support this week from infamous sports bad boy Brett "Gibbo" Gibson.
Perhaps nobody in the history of New Zealand sport has personified the image of sport's bad boy more than the "Jack Ass" of New Zealand rugby, Brett Gibson, and it's this experience that will undoubtedly be a comfort to the vulnerable Jesse Ryder.
Gibson has joined the bulk of New Zealanders who, according to a recent poll, believe that the public and the media should get off Jesse Ryder's back.
"New Zealanders are becoming increasingly unimpressed with press conference apologies in which sport stars have to for some reason apologise to people they don't know or have done little or nothing to support their career. I never did that," says Gibson.
Gibson believes that there is nothing wrong with Ryder having to apologise to friends, family and those hospital staff he abused, but why should he have to apologise to the "people of New Zealand"?
What have they done for his career?
Most of them wouldn't have even been to a cricket match, let alone supported his career to date.
Ryder was asked to do a job, score opening runs for the team, and he did just that, which is far more than many opening batters in recent times, and one wonders why they aren't encouraged to go on live television and apologise for letting down the country week-in, week-out.
Many of those surveyed also wondered why Adam Parore has never gone on TV, or if he felt more comfortable on the cover of a women's magazine, to apologise for being such a tosser.
Kenny Williams, who is a psychologist and part-owner of a Dunedin massage parlour, believes that this focusing on the negative the whole time is what is wrong with New Zealand sport.
"This coming clean and apologising on somebody else's terms does nothing to benefit the person," he says.
"They need to make changes if and when they are ready. There is nothing wrong with a bit of denial every now and then, if there was I would be out of business."
Brett Gibson has been granted a two-week visitor's visa to promote his new book How I Lost My Battle with Booze and Stationery Adhesives.
His first book Look at Me Now - one man's brave battle against alcohol and stationery adhesives spent 66 weeks on the worst-sellers' list, and at one stage the publisher bought all the copies back from the retailers so they could recycle the hard covers, for Chris Cairns' biography.
Cairns was unavailable for comment but has never denied the fact that his book had a recycled cover.
Gibson's latest book documents his crazy Keith Moon-like lifestyle on and off the rugby field, his two days in detox, and then continues with his crazy Keith Moon-like lifestyle on and off the field.
Besides the free beer coaster giveaway on the back cover of Gibson's book, the first thing you notice is how - when compared to Gibson's - Ryder's problems are insignificant.
Ryder metaphorically put his actions down to a "mindless brain explosion", but Brett Gibson's brain literally exploded after one too many flaming sambuca shots in 1991.
Patrons in the lounge bar next door heard the explosion, and, like Jackie Kennedy, those standing nearby were covered in tiny bits of grey matter and ear wax.
Gibson made an impressive recovery but has lost a substantial part of his medulla cerebella, or the part of the brain responsible for being responsible.
This obviously further compounded the problems he already had.
Many experts believe that it was this incident that led to such high-profile slip-ups as being ejected from the Rugby Awards in 1992 for urinating on a margarine sculpture.
Gibson believes that rather than having a problem with alcohol, for some reason many New Zealand sports people merely have a problem with windows.
Ryder and Norm Hewitt are just two cases who immediately come to mind, but there are known to be many others.
Gibson never admitted to a problem with windows as such, but many of his high-profile falls from grace involved them.
He got incredibly drunk and fell off the stage while MC-ing the annual Smith and Smith Glass Christmas party, he sold all the ranch-sliders at the Papanui Rugby Club to pay for his addictions, and when his curtains were open, passers-by could often see him drinking through his window.
So what advice would "Gibbo" have for Jesse?
Gibson believes that Ryder, like Big Foot, needs to stay out of the spotlight for a while. More on Big Foot next week.
