Sexism: Not 'triffic, Richard

We're pretty much at the arse end of the Sky Sports sexism scandal now, so I feel I can comment without all hell breaking loose again and seeing once respected pundits having their heads put on spikes.

This particular issue is a classic case of having 2 easy to argue sides, thus:

"These clowns are professional broadcasters and shouldn't be seen or heard making comments and/or gestures like that. They make me sick. It's just another example of how men think they can objectify women and treat them like things to be looked at and judged rather than respected"

or

"At the end of the day, we all say stuff like this when in private company. They weren't on air at the time so it's a bit unfair that something they kept between themselves has come back to bite them on their well-upholstered behinds"

Basically, there's no real point arguing the toss with each other because you're bound to fall into one of these categories and you'll be in your cold, cold grave before you reach a satisfactory conclusion on the matter.

Personally, I think it's utterly disgraceful that people still think that way in modern society. I'm not going to pretend that occasionally I see an attractive women and don't think of her in anything other than sexual terms, but I do draw the line at talking about 'smashing it' with my mates. Yes, they were off air, but they were also in a bloody great studio, which tends to be littered with all manner of recording equipment, so it might have been a good idea to keep it to themselves until they were out of earshot.

Richard Keys talked of 'dark forces' at work to oust them, which appears to have been translated into some kind of smear campaign against him and Andy Gray; as if there are people who don't like them and have been recording their myriad indiscretions for the opportunity to hang them out to dry. If that is the case, then they've only got themselves to blame for a) saying the things what incriminated them and b) rubbing people up the wrong way to such an extent that they were smeared in the first place.

Sky's speed to deal with the situation can only be deemed a good thing. Regardless of which side of the fence you sit on on this debate, if they had left them in their jobs it would have set a precedent that this kind of behaviour is tolerated. Then again, these two have been in this position for nearly 20 years now, so maybe Sky used the opportunity to kick them out and bring a bit of fresh, hopefully politically-correct talent into the studio (hopefully with a nice rack)*.

No matter which way you've looked at this issue, however, we can all agree on one thing. That it's a damn shame that it wasn't Jamie Redknapp caught doing it. For he is the crappest pundit there has ever been.

* Only joking. I'm a leg man.