It’s difficult to write a column when the facts being written about are not publicly known, and intentionally so.

If this were a pagan holiday, it would be so easy to equate it to the world of sports. Just pick up the paper and have at it.

Dallas Cowboy Terrell Owens’ latest debacle is spitting in the face of an opponent. He has such a laundry list of stupid and outrageous acts going in his NFL career that a Dallas paper runs an ongoing timeline of his derelict sports history.

Then there is the latest NBA brawl in New York between the Knicks and the Nuggets. Lots of Xmas cheer there.

Every sports page has some form of police blotter going. There is no lack of material for that on a daily basis.

Better this time of year to look for the other side of the coin, although sometimes in sports you begin to wonder if there is such a thing.

In the best tradition of doing good, most who do are not seeking publicity and in fact don’t want any. That’s why writing about it can be difficult.

Thus, the good deeds go publicly unrecorded, as they should, but the public then lacks the other side of the scale to balance out the bad stuff we do read about daily.

There is Rick Reilly, the columnist for Sports Illustrated, whose efforts to buy mosquito netting for a nation ravaged by diseases spread by the flying pests has saved thousands of lives.

The sports public responded to his requests for help and that is how we know.

There is former football player Emerson Walls who this week came forward to donate a kidney to his former teammate, Ron Springs. Springs wanted the public to know in order to move others to donate organs.

The two refused, however, to talk about the when and where of the donation. That is to remain private.

There is former Celtic great Bob Cousy working for the benefit of those who played in the NBA long before the big money existed. He speaks for the down-and-out players who need help today and pushes the NBA and the current players to give.

How often are such works of gracious charity extended by sports figures? There is no answer to that.

It would be nice if there were. It would be comforting to see those headlines instead of the dolts of sports filling the papers every day.

Yet, if that were the case, the very beauty of the giving might be lost. The whole idea is to give without seeking reward or notoriety.

That is the beauty of the season and the very concept of giving and kindness.

To all in or out of sports who reach that wonderful plateau, Merry Christmas and have a wonderful holiday.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and ABC sportscaster.