During his 13 years as the editor of the Sun, Kelvin MacKenzie showed little, or no, interest in sport - except on the occasions it became the news.
Events like Heysel, bungs, the pants down activities of Premiership footballers or Gazza's various meltdowns would turn Macca into a temporary sports fan. But the whereabouts of Hillsborough - let alone the name of the team that plays there - would still be a mystery to him but for the fact that a large number of people died there in 1989.
Now, if you believe his Sun column, he is an expert. In between the predictable rants about travellers and Muslims, MacKenzie also has definitive sporting opinion on everything from the Harbhajan Singh affair to a new book about the life and times of Brian Clough. He has got tips for the Premiership title and wise counsel for sacked managers. Macca has been a closet sports fan, with a typewriter, all along.
But of course he's not, and never has been. Anyone who knows MacKenzie will tell you that he doesn't have an opinion about very much at all, and certainly not about sport. Like many columnists, he reads the news bulletins and then attempts to reflect a populist opinion. Pound for pound, it's probably one of the best jobs in the world. The production of his £100k a year column probably takes him three hours a week at the most.
MacKenzie is now 61 and not exactly representative of what the Sun believes is its target audience. But it's pleasing to see the newspaper looking after one of its own in his dotage; as good as a pension, really.
MacKenzie, however, should really have resisted the temptation to prove to the rest of world something of which journalists have been aware all along. Like most newspaper editors who spend large parts of their careers telling others how it should be done, he can't actually write.
Events like Heysel, bungs, the pants down activities of Premiership footballers or Gazza's various meltdowns would turn Macca into a temporary sports fan. But the whereabouts of Hillsborough - let alone the name of the team that plays there - would still be a mystery to him but for the fact that a large number of people died there in 1989.
Now, if you believe his Sun column, he is an expert. In between the predictable rants about travellers and Muslims, MacKenzie also has definitive sporting opinion on everything from the Harbhajan Singh affair to a new book about the life and times of Brian Clough. He has got tips for the Premiership title and wise counsel for sacked managers. Macca has been a closet sports fan, with a typewriter, all along.
But of course he's not, and never has been. Anyone who knows MacKenzie will tell you that he doesn't have an opinion about very much at all, and certainly not about sport. Like many columnists, he reads the news bulletins and then attempts to reflect a populist opinion. Pound for pound, it's probably one of the best jobs in the world. The production of his £100k a year column probably takes him three hours a week at the most.
MacKenzie is now 61 and not exactly representative of what the Sun believes is its target audience. But it's pleasing to see the newspaper looking after one of its own in his dotage; as good as a pension, really.
MacKenzie, however, should really have resisted the temptation to prove to the rest of world something of which journalists have been aware all along. Like most newspaper editors who spend large parts of their careers telling others how it should be done, he can't actually write.
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