Social media feeds are flooded with drippy tributes and images and favourite Ali quotes about social justice and equity and they're liked and retweeted because, well, it's Ali.

I wonder how many of these people have watched one of his fights, or anything beyond the Will Smith movie?

Meanwhile, around the same time, Adam Goodes is shutting down his Twitter account as the AFL barks at Facebook to delete a rancid post comparing the former Swans star to the gorilla shot dead at a Cincinnati zoo.

Goodes was bullied from the game and continues to be bullied now in retirement.

Why do we celebrate Ali as a hero … but continue to admonish and ridicule Goodes? The hypocrisy is breathtaking.

As the ever-wise broadcaster Debbie Spillane mused this week: "Because racism is someone else's problem, not ours."

In death, Ali is being remembered on many scores because he lived more life than any of us could ever hope.

But as he was leaning back on the ropes in Zaire and copping sledgehammers to the body from George Foreman, he was also living fearlessly in extraordinary times as the world wrestled – and killed itself – over racial equality and civil liberties.

Few black athletes of that era cut against the grain.

I've seen ESPN's epic documentary on OJ Simpson, to be released in Australia later this month, and the underlying theme reminds us how the college and NFL football star ran away from his race in search of celebrity and the millions that went with it.

Simpson's philosophy was "I'm not black, I'm OJ" and he was prepared to let white America bend him whichever way it wanted as long as it kept writing the cheques - until he was charged with a double homicide, and his lawyers wooed a predominantly black jury to acquit him.

Ali was never going to bend. He was prepared to go to jail and have world titles stripped for what he believed in.

Tommie Smith and John Carlos weren't going to bend either. Wearing black leather gloves, they defiantly produced the "black salute" from the medal dais after the 200 metres men's final at the 1968 Mexico Olympics.

Australia's Peter Norman stood alongside them as the silver medallist and he was later acknowledged by the two black American sprinters as being fundamental to their protest, that continues to echo through time.

Norman was shunned by the establishment when he returned to Australia and overlooked for the Munich Olympics four years later. He remains a forgotten man in his own country but considered a hero – like Smith and Carlos – in the US, where October 9 stands as a day in Norman's honour.

Maybe, in time, Goodes will be lauded and celebrated for his bravery in calling out racism, repeatedly, and attempting to further important dialogue about his country's easily forgotten history.

You can almost hear the squawking of the right-wing commentariat now who will say it's offensive to compare Ali's deeds and sacrifice and influence to that of Goodes. It's not a competition.

They could do worse than read Stan Grant's haunting book, Talking to my Country, to understand the sacrifice Goodes made and the effect it had on his people.

Grant writes: "The winter of 2015 has shaken [my children] as it has me. If Adam Goodes can be laid so low, then we are all at risk. I have told them over and over that in this life we must cover up and never leave an opening for racism to strike us … The Adam Goodes booing debate enraged me, sickened me, saddened me and made me feel helpless. Here was everything I had thought – hoped – we had left behind. All of those words: tolerance, freedom, inclusion – I wondered now whether any of it was ever real."

So mourn and celebrate Muhammad Ali, because we should. He excelled at his craft and used it as a platform to change the world.

Perhaps Adam Goodes will be afforded some of the same respect and admiration one day in his own country for also believing that a right can never be wrong.

Rumour mill rolls on

The rugby league hills are alive with the sound of music.

No they're not. They're alive with the sound of match-fixing and sinuendo​ about drug-fuelled orgies and gambling sprees with seedy underworld figures.

Hottest rumour doing the rounds this week is one player connected to the match-fixing investigation has "rolled over" to the NSW Organised Crime Squad – although those close to the player scoff at this.

Last week, I sat down with the man at the centre of the scandal, Eddie Hayson, and he presented his side of the story.

He made one comment about league Immortal Andrew Johns that raised many eyebrows: "I just knew before most people if he was playing or not. That's all. We would find out if he was playing before the bookies. He was either in or out. That's good information. What's wrong with that?"

In 2006, Hayson led a betting plunge on the Warriors when he learned Johns would not be playing for the Knights, who were short-priced favourites. An NRL investigation did not to find any evidence of wrongdoing.

"He never told me once if he was out of that game – or any game," Hayson said on Thursday. "I found out through other sources."

Costly conversion for one

Our heart bleeds for Network Ten sports reporter Adam Hawse, who missed out on $15,000 when James Maloney landed a sidelined conversion, off the upright, in the final minute of the Sharks' 20-18 win over the Bulldogs.

The great Hawsey was leading the Crown Bet tipping competition ahead of 13,000-plus tipsters and stood to win big time if he was still there at the halfway point of the season.

Coming down to the final game of the round, he wondered if he should change his tip from the Doggies to the Sharkies, who were favourites.

"But you never change your tip," he says. "I ended up equal first but leapfrogged on margins. It was the most brutal experience of my life."

He told us this on Thursday on the way to Sharks training, where he was thinking of asking Maloney for a sling to ease the pain.

Whistleblowers to return

The match-fixing malarkey consigned Origin to a footnote but it will crank up again next week ahead of the second match in Brisvegas.

Referees boss Tony Archer has no choice but to pick game one whistleblowers Gerard Sutton and Ben Cummins despite heavy criticism from Blues coach Laurie Daley.

Oh, and despite this bizarre comment from Queensland Kevin Walters: "Being honest, we really got some nice, favourable calls. You need that to win at this level. You can't do it yourself you do need a bit of assistance in different areas."

Notwithstanding any brain explosions this weekend, both refs are expected to be appointed next week.

In terms of changes to the NSW side, don't expect many: Wade Graham possibly for the injured Boyd Cordner (although Tyson Frizell will probably get the nod) but we're hearing the likes of James Tedesco and Jack Bird won't be parachuted in.

Raiders powerhouse centre BJ Leilua has been discussed, too, but it'll also surprise if he's selected.

Jones backs Te'o  

If you need any indication the Rugby Football Union has handed Eddie Jones the keys to the Ferrari, it's right there in Ben Te'o.

Jones remains highly critical of the way English rugby managed Te'o's former South Sydney teammate, Sam Burgess, in his failed conversion to the 15-man code that ended in tears at the World Cup.

Asked if he received any murmurs of discontent from his superiors about rushing Te'o into his touring squad to take on the Wallabies, Jones told this column matter-of-factly: "No problem, mate. The RFU has given me the responsibility to look after the team, and my responsibility as national coach is to pick the best players who are English qualified. And he's English qualified [Te'o's mother is English-born and raised] and he can play – and he will only get better."

I interviewed Te'o at length a few days before Souths' emotional 2014 grand final win, and he was looking forward to getting out of the country, the grind of the NRL and away from fans reminding him from the other side of the fence about unproven allegations he assaulted a woman in Brisbane in 2013.

Eddie, of course, is also blunt about what he's trying to achieve with England.

"Having watched their games closely during the World Cup, I knew a few things I had to do and one of those was re-create an English identity because they'd lost their identity as a team," he said. "They were trying to play rugby like the All Blacks and there's only one team that can play rugby like the All Blacks and that's the All Blacks. What I've tried to get back into the team is that identity. The good old fashioned values of English rugby: the set piece and defence. But that's not good enough to be in the top three in the world. So now a more up-tempo phase-type of game is what we're working on."

Taste of things to come?

Greater Western Sydney hosts the Swannies in a ding-dong derby on Sunday afternoon at Spotless Stadium and some predict it could be a grand final dress rehearsal.

Former AFL boss Andrew Demetriou hopes so. If not this year, in the next three years before ANZ Stadium is permanently refigured.

Asked if an all-Sydney grand final would be a beautiful thing, Demetriou told this column: "It would and they need to do it before they change ANZ Stadium into a rectangular stadium. Or they could play it at SCG, which wouldn't be a bad thing, either."

A sell-out of about 22,000 is expected for Sunday's clash. While critics point to GWS's smallish crowds, the club has a long-term view and already envisages a new stand being added to the existing stadium.

The week

THE QUOTE

"I'm probably going to get my arse handed to me going so close to the rocks." – South Coast surfer Russ Bierke, 18, was less fearful of the deadly conditions he mastered at the Red Bull Cape Fear event off Botany Bay as his parents, watching from the cliff above.

THUMBS UP

Benn Robinson's Waratahs teammates once mused he was the identical twin of Kyle Sandilands, which is very unfair because one's a lovable and outstanding prop and the other makes your ears bleed. Robinson (72 caps for Australia, 155 for his state) was forced into retirement this week. Well played.

THUMBS DOWN

Maria Sharapova says she will appeal her two-year ban for "unintentionally" taking a prohibited substance. Good luck with that. Since she first tested positive, she has gleefully spruiked products and fashion shoots on social media, appeasing whatever sponsors she has left, like nothing has happened. Two years. It must stand.

It's a big weekend for … Trent Barrett, who must know what it's like to be a waterfront mansion at Collaroy. A woeful run with injuries and now a match-fixing investigation are weighing heavily on the rookie Manly coach. Sea Eagles v Panthers at Brookie on Sunday.

It's an even bigger weekend for … Israel Folau, who started the Super Rugby season slowly at fullback, then flourished at centre, and is likely to be switched back to fullback when the Wallabies meet Eddie Jones' England at Suncorp on Saturday.