Sportspeople In The Media

The Role of Sportspeople in the Media: ‘Broadsheet’ Newspapers

The ‘quality’ newspapers have experienced an increasing tabloidisation within the past decade. This is most pointedly seen in the adoption of ‘compact’ size newspapers, or ‘Berliners’ in The Guardian’s case. The desire for increased readership is depicted by the gap in sales between the tabloids and broadsheets. While The Sunday Times can boast sales of 1.35 million, its tabloid competitor The News of the World dwarves this with 3.6 million sales. Obviously, tendencies to move towards the most popular ways of selling newspapers are likely to occur.


One way to achieve this is to use current and ex- sports stars as not just interview fodder, but to compliment the journalists who have taken a more traditional route to sports writing as columnists. This is seen at The Times, where, of 14 regular sports columnists, half are currently ex-professionals. These include Matthew Hoggard, Michael Owen and Martin Johnson.


The story is similar at The Independent, which runs a weekly column with Sheffield United manager Neil Warnock aptly titled ‘What I’ve Learnt This Week.’ What Warnock has learnt this year is that signing exclusive deals with newspapers for columns is easy money, while the newspaper has learned that the people involved in the game are welcomed by readers as knowledgeable ‘inside men’ who can give insight that journalists cannot.


However, in this case the column writer ranges from the self-indulgent to the downright patronising. Written from the angle of showing readers the life of a manager, it allows Warnock to preach numbered pearls of wisdom, such as “Growing up is hard to do”, which refers to his enjoyment of the latest Harry Potter film. The tragic situation of Mike Baldwin in Corrie is dedicated two paragraphs in the same article, which occupies a full page directly next to the weekend’s fixtures and tables.


Nevertheless, with the increasing number of sports pages for editors to fill, new and innovative ways of achieving this are required. As our trip to Colindale Newspaper Library showed us, as recently as 1989 the Times contained just two pages of sport. This has increased six-fold, giving scope for more sports stars to find niches in newspapers. Columns like Warnock’s do not require news to make them worthwhile, and no story needs to be generated. The life and experiences of the celebrity sports stars are deemed interesting enough to fill pages.


Mark Galli, writing on sports journalism blog collective www.sportswritingediting.blogspot.com, explains this. He alludes to sports writing becoming increasingly soap-operatic, though the possibility of Warnock’s tributes to Mike Baldwin provoking this is unlikely. Galli explains that “the game story is no longer about the game.” Due to such an overload of media coverage of sports, by the time newspapers come to cover events, their readers generally already know what has happened. They are looking for new angles and interpretations of what has happened rather than to simply read a report of what has happened. This is where columns like Warnock’s are invaluable, as they provide an added, more personal perspective.


Providing perspective in this manner is extremely worthwhile, especially when examining sports which the general readership do not consider themselves experts on – namely all sports except football. The Guardian’s daily 12-page sports section on average contains 7 pages devoted to football, with the remainder covering everything else: cricket, golf, horse racing and rugby, as well as events such as the Snooker World Championship, and the Masters at Augusta.


For coverage of events like this, the opinions of specialist sports star columnists is extremely insightful. This is why the Guardian and Observer always have at least one sports star opinion. Over a two-week period, in 13 of the 14 days articles from the likes of David Pleat, Bob Willis, Steve Cram, David Lloyd, Aravinda De Silva, Tomas Castaignede and Niall Quinn gave each sports pullout the presence of a sports star writer. For example, a journalist would fail to create the same impact as Aravinda De Silva does when discussing Sri Lanka’s chances in their upcoming Tour of England.


De Silva, who played for Sri Lanka between 1984 and 2002 gives the viewpoint of the opposition, and is a man who has been there and done it. He discusses Chamara Kapudegera, whose “straight drives will have the purists purring with pleasure.” It would be difficult for a journalist to discuss this technical aspect of Kapugedera’s game, as he has yet to play a Test match for Sri Lanka. This inside information is of interest to the reader, who will then look out for the youngster once the Series begins. This example shows that broadsheets often use sports stars for the improved situation they have to write an insightful piece in comparison to a journalist. De Silva is included because his column, not his name, gives the newspaper added value.


Thomas Castaignede is another example of this. His column works in a differing manner from De Silva’s but is equally effective. Playing rugby union in England, for Saracens, we get the view of a foreigner discussing the English in his April 10th column. This removes feelings of patriotism and bias, allowing more clarity of thought. Also, by playing with and against the players he is discussing, a sense of realism is created in the piece. While a journalist could only observe the incidents Castaignede reveals, the Frenchman lives them.


However, this can work in the opposite way. If still playing or involved in sport, people are often apprehensive about criticising their peers – there can be repercussions. This occurred when Kevin Pieterson called for the reinstatement of Darren Gough to England’s ODI squad. Pieterson was severely reprimanded for showing a lack of respect to the selectors.


This results in many dreary pieces by players like Michael Owen in The Times, which wish to give away nothing and upset nobody. This is a drawback of sports stars in broadsheets. However, this does mainly occur in football, where a saturation of coverage robs sports stars of any real opportunity to reveal anything new.


Chief Cricket Writer for the Daily Telegraph Derek Pringle commented on this. Pringle is a former England International, now occupying one of the most prestigious roles on sports writing. “It is very odious, people like Gary Lineker and Alan Hansen getting credited for columns they didn’t write, and things like that. It brings us down, gives us a bad name.”


However, he defended sports stars’ right to be in the media. “Certain people want to hear from sports stars. I didn’t appoint myself, and I like to think I do a good job. And anyway, we’ve got thick skins, we can take the criticism. We were professional sportsmen for God’s sake!”


It appears sports stars do have a role to play in the broadsheet newspapers. All senior sports journalists, such as Richard Williams and Kevin McCarra in The Guardian’s case, are allowed to voice their opinions in columns; all regular reporters, well, report, and the sports stars by and large are supplementary distractions. Of course, their presence is shouted from the rooftops with back-page Standfirsts and picture bye-lines; many help sell the newspapers with star quality. But many more in the broadsheets merit their inclusion. In reality they are additional to the sports journalists, not replacements.

Greg Rose