HOT CORNER

A consumer’s guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise. Ground rules: If it can be read, played, heard, observed, worn, viewed, dialed or downloaded, it’s in play here.

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What: Rugby T-shirts and bumper stickers to raise money for victims of Sept. 11 attacks.

Price: Bumper stickers, $2.50; short-sleeve T-shirts, $18; long-sleeve T-shirts, $23.

Where: Hooker Rugby Supply, (877) 968-4665 or www.hooker-rugby.com

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It has been widely reported that Mark Bingham and Jeremy Glick, two passengers on United Flight 93 who are believed to have confronted the hijackers, were rugby players.

On its Web site ( www.oldbluerfc.org ), the Old Blue rugby club in New York has identified 22 rugby players who were victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.

A few weeks after the attacks, John “Montana� Thomas, who plays rugby for the Potomac Athletic Club in Washington, was wearing his jersey on a flight when a passenger told him she was relieved to see there was a rugby player on board. That gave Thomas an idea for a bumper sticker, which he e-mailed to Pat Laczkowski at Hooker Rugby Supply in Arlington, Texas.

Laczkowski had been looking for an idea for a fund-raiser, and jumped on Thomas’. The sticker--which costs $2.50, $1.50 of which goes to the victims--says: “Terrorists Beware: Rugby Player Onboard.� The first order of 1,000 sold out in 90 minutes. Laczkowski has since sold almost 7,000 more.

The response was so strong that Laczkowski added a T-shirt--on the front, “Terrorists Beware: I Play Rugby�; on the back, a menacing looking player under glass with the notice, “In Case of Emergency, Break Glass.� About $9 a shirt goes to the fund.

Laczkowski already has raised $7,500 and hopes to raise at least $20,000. The money either will go directly to the victims’ families or be used to create scholarships in the victims’ names.