Legally Speaking Podcast

Inside Sky Sports - David Jones - S2E12

April 20, 2020 Legally Speaking Podcast™ Season 2 Episode 12
Legally Speaking Podcast
Inside Sky Sports - David Jones - S2E12
Show Notes Transcript

This week on the Legally Speaking Podcast, we have a ONE-OFF Monday Night Podcast special with David Jones!

David is the well-renowned presenter working for Sky Sports and a Non-Executive Director for Sunderland Association Football Club. He currently fronts the live coverage on Super Sunday and Monday Night Football (MNF).

In this episode:

  • David shares his impressive journey of how he made into Sky Sports
  • Insights and impacts on football in light of COVID-19
  • A step by step behind the scenes walkthrough of day in his life preparing & hosting Sky Sports, Super Sunday & MNF shows. 
  • What it's really like working with Jamie Carragher & Gary Neville!

We are asking our listeners (old & new) if they can to kindly make a contribution to David’s wonderful charity initiative to help support the Association of NHS Charities. Please use this link.

Support the show

spk_1:   0:01
Thiss is a quick message from the production team. I hope you are enjoying the illegally speaking podcast due to the current covert 19 link crisis. The next few episodes will be recorded through our video communication software. Thanks for your understanding on Do Stay safe. Thie episode will now begin. Welcome to the legally speaking podcast Power by Consume Car. I'm your host, Robb Hannah. This week I'm delighted to be joined by David Jones, a well renowned sports presenter working to Sky Sports, not executive director. Sunderland Association Football Club currently front the live coverage on Super Sunday Monday Night Football. So a very big welcome. David, I

spk_0:   0:47
rather good to good to speak to you

spk_1:   0:49
Many Thanks for taking the time to join us today. You may not know, but on the legally speaking podcast we have a nice break, a question which is related to suits. But given we've got you on today, I wanted Teo mix it up a little bit and it's on is on a scale of 1 to 10. So we thought we'd make it. Oh, well related. So, as always, break of EU, how successful would you rate on the scale of 1 to 10. The inclusion ofthe via our since it's important to the game on Scatter wants 10.

spk_0:   1:21
Cool like may probably is less than five. I would stay, but I don't want to completely kill it before it's it's really got working properly. So maybe I'll say four. I think in principle it works. But the execution has not being good enough for much more than four right now.

spk_1:   1:40
Yeah, I think that's a fair, a fair judgement that fall was probably about right. I should I should point out I'm a little band, so I know we've had a few decisions, so I'll be a little bit quiet about things. Well,

spk_0:   1:53
everyone, everything's that bad decisions that have gone against them. So it's quite rare to speak some of the things that had decisions that

spk_1:   1:58
go for them exactly. But I do want to start at the beginning because you do a lot with in school and of course business. So the listeners probably not so normally very familiar with you in terms of your sky sports. But let's talk about you know a bit about your background before, before Sky Sports,

spk_0:   2:15
I always wanted to be a journalist. I'd had working experience from quite a young age in various forms of journalism, newspapers, television, radio on DH. Was was really feeling it out a little bit because I think I was very lucky in that sense that a lot of people don't really formulate their ideas on what they want to sometimes until after they've left university on DH, sometimes even later than that. So I was. I was very driven, very focused from a young age. I'm pursued a career as a journalist on, tried to get work experience wherever I could did ah, history degree, then did a postgraduate course. After that in newspaper journalism. On it was it was really a case of picking up elements of law administration, basic journalism techniques, but also short hand, which was which was something which was actually Paramount's. Certainly, for those couple of years I worked on a newspaper and I worked. I did my post credit course in Sheffield, and I got my first newspaper job, my first job, but all at the darkest of times in Chesterfield. Now that was a weekly newspaper which I knew nothing off before I went for an interview well, that is that it's in research on the day you know, the days leading up to it. Andi On the actual day itself, I managed to get to town early and did a bit of ground work on Chesterfield and managed to get myself a little storey. Can't remember what it was doing something with the marketplace and traders on. I took that to the newspaper and told them I already found them a storey for their paper on. I managed to get a job there on. It was a great grounding for me because it was it was one of those places where you got to do everything, got to try hand in every aspect of the paper. So I was writing stuff on politics and we had. Tony Benn is our local MP, so I had early involvement with him. Lots of crime because it was a huge, huge deprived area and still is North Derbyshire after the pit closures, where's the lots of socioeconomic problems which which generated a lot of column inches in newspapers and on business sections as well? I was the business writing for the paper's or had contact with a lot of local businesses and didn't really get involved in sport until my settle last year there when Chesterfield managed to get themselves the F A Cup semifinals which, if you think now, Chesterfield not even a football league team. I mean, it was extraordinary that time. It was an amazing storey which a lot of people bought into. But they played Middlesbrough, which is my hometown in the Effort Cup semifinals and Old Trafford, and I went there and really wrote the colour pieces around the football rather than do football reports themselves. But I suppose off the back of that, then the sports desk would would lean on me at the weekend to help them out with match reports covering Chesterfield. So I got used to doing that a sort of genocide and found that very enjoyable and probably enjoyed it more than the day today that I was doing for the actual newspaper. So when it got to having qualified as a foot, be qualified professional journalists, when you have to sit more exams after a couple of years, then I was free, really todo over. I liked 32 to move from the newspaper and they were aware of that at the time, so they didn't try and stop me doing that. But I kind of thought my next job would be another daily paper. Maybe like a big city like Sheffield or Bristol on you can do something like that. But instead I plumped for this advert, which are storing the Guardian Use Focal, which was advertising the launch of Sky Sports News, the first ever 24 hour sports news channel. And they were taking on all comers to do all sorts of different jobs. So I threw my hat in the ring, didn't hear anything for several months and then was invited down for an interview, which I I turned up with an actual video of me out about around Chesterfield, interviewing people at the football club and then doubly sure, playing interesting field at that time, the cricket team. So I went into the head coach, so I put all this together with the help of a colleague who had a video camera on a really basic editing, too. Andi, you know, to that video VHS, down to my future boss on DH managed to convince him that I was worth a gamble on and it was a gamble at the time. You know, lad, from from the darkest of times in Chesterfield coming to work for a big national, A TV company on DH. Yeah, my foot was in the door.

spk_1:   6:21
Yeah, well, it's a fascinating storey and thanks for thanks for sharing that. I love the sort of inclusion of the old VHS and all the little bits of sort of hustling. He had two d'oh along the way, so that's a really, really insightful, But just in terms of sport, then where you always intersport at school was was football your main sport?

spk_0:   6:37
I was sports mad from from a very early age and I suppose I grew up really with a cricket bat in my hands. That was my big passion and play, you know, non stop with my brother and older brother is 2.5 years older than me in the back garden. My dad was cricket mad as well. Also big rugby fan. But he was less of a football fan. I suppose. I found that naturally growing up in an area which was which was big on football, as in the Northeast, we grew up just south of middle spread. And it was a big, passionate football area, that whole Northeast, so you couldn't really escape it. So I think I just kind of fell into that, really. And I was always obsessed with the statistical side of football in the same way that I was with cricket, you know, you should carry a wisdom around. I used to collect the football yearbooks as well on an annual basis on DH. Yeah, I mean, at school, I played everything I was captain of the cricket team for the district captain of the school football team is interesting. At the time when I was coming through the school system, there are a lot of strikes on DH, so we didn't have many fixtures. And when we did the coat, the teachers were basically saying that we were not going to organise this for you. Gotta get yourselves organised. 11 years old, I was picking the school team, so I had 101 130 boys to pick from at school. I went to I got mixed comprehensive school there, about 250 every year was big school, so I was doing that on DH was, you know, mad about that and really into my tactics and early age tryingto work out if there was another system rather than 442 I don't think we'll find that stayed on and then a man year, lots of athletics and then hockey as well. So I was pretty good all these things, but but not really exceptional, any of them. I think it's fair to say,

spk_1:   8:26
Yeah, well, it sounds like you can't sell very, very busy so good to get to hear that. You know, fast forward to the modern day. Everyone would want me to ask. You know, it sounds like the Dream Job Sky sports presenter, but just just talk us through what a typical working week actually would look like. And you know how much of a logistical operation is it? But unlike a Monday night showing your involvement with that,

spk_0:   8:48
Okay, So if I if I'm doing a big Super Sunday, maybe in Manchester, which is he's quite likely, or Liverpool followed by Monday Night Football. My working week would probably start on the Wednesday or the Thursday I'm trying to hold it back until Thursday, and then the process When I start doing my research, I'll start, you know, researching the game, researching the teams in particular. Start building my my stats pages around those games, and we've got teams of guys that will pull together great documents of stats, and I will be very conscious about going through them on DH, then trying to condense this vast information overload down into half a page of 84. I'll do that for Super Sunday. Then I'll do a separate one for the Monday Night Football. So that's sort of the Thursday and Friday. Friday I'll go into the offices of Sky Sky Studios and no have a couple of different production things. One with the Sunday team, one with the Monday team. And that's just to kick a few ideas around Sunday at that stage is is quite becoming quite set in stone, even on a Friday. You know, we've got very strong ideas at that point. What will be talking about in the hour before the game? Andi? I will be starting to think about potential scenarios for after the game. What if this team has lost? What if it's a draw? What if What if that teams one. Where could these conversations lead? Because I never want to be in that last day of the programme on Sunday, scratching my head, thinking I'm not sure what I'm going to talk about now. I'm always thinking of what's next. So Sunday we'll deal with itself first on Saturday, then will involve travel. I coach my son's football team on a Saturday morning and then I will basically get home. Watched that game as much as it can a lunchtime kickoff and then I'm on my way, really, to Manchester or Liverpool on DH. My evening will revolve around again, watching evening game on DH, then revisiting my scripts for the Sunday to see the impact off Saturday football as much as anything on then reading around the local press and just trying to make sure that every stone has been turned on DH. You know, I haven't left anything to chance on this Sunday itself. We always meet for a production meeting at 9 30 we'll rehearse around 10 30 on DH. Then we go on air at one o'clock. We're affair. It's 7 30 generally, and if I'm up in the northwest, we've got to get back to London, so will generally catch a train. I'm getting back home about midnight Sunday night on DH, then into the office for a production meeting at 10 o'clock on Monday morning. Andi, you know that you've got to try and refresh your brain a little bit. So after a couple of hours of meetings in which we're knocking around ideas for the show challenging each other on what we want to talk about analysis rise. I'll then go off and do some scripting again. And what I mean by that I don't have a lotta Q. We don't use Arctic ur life football programmes. Well, at least I don't. Anyway, I'm not sure if others do, but I've got an iPad that I will refer. Teo. I've got some ideas of things I want to say at the top of the programme. Over certain pictures, things I might use the brakes and coming out. It breaks that that kind of thing. Then I'll go off and have a spin with Jamie Carragher Spin class and we'll blow the cobwebs away for an hour, which is a really important thing for me because it gives you a complete mental re fresh on day were in the studio again. We're rehearsing it 33 30 and we'll have a little break sort of half five for an hour and then Suited. Booted back in, made up 6 30 Ready to go at seven and a fair 11 and home by midnight. So bye bye time Tuesday comes along. I'm It's fair to say you don't get a lot out of me.

spk_1:   12:33
There is effortless as you make it seem on screen from what I'm giving from that, it's a lot of hard work is a lot of research is a lot of things that actually go into it. Andi, coupled with the travel well, since it's pretty along. But he and I thanks for a articulating that I think it's good people get an idea. But listen. There's loads of contentious topics around the world of sports at the moment, given we're in the unfortunate situation off the Corona virus and you know, notably one of the topics and that's been coming into discussion. But in football world of courses around furloughing of their employees under the Corona Virus job retention scheme and you know it walks your view on whether you know players should take a pay cut. You know, what more do you think football clubs could be doing for their local communities during this time?

spk_0:   13:16
Looking from the outside, I'm really chuffed that they came up with this initiative by themselves for the N. H s. I think that's a brilliant move. They didn't have to be corralled into that. Those those plans are on going there in negotiation to do that. But you're talking about a lot of players that you've got to get physically. To have these conversations at the moment is actually a real challenge. We're finding that it's sky right now, actually, where we're trying to have any kind of conversations. It's it's very difficult to do on 20 trying to speak to more than one person, so you know they were going to do that. And that's a brilliant initiative. I welcome. What's that Hampton had done? Which is that a 10% deferral, which which I think probably when you go through the numbers on DH, looks about right to me. I mean, it's get the thing is it's a club by club basis, so you could say the family should be doing this, but it's a totally different thing. If your elite to club and you're living hand to mouth, you don't have ah, building that very fact that you don't have million's multi £1,000,000 television contract to fall back on. You know you've got none of that. So you literally are waiting for pennies to drop from the sky on DH. Thankfully, some have already, but I'd be amazed if there are clubs that by the end of this, haven't making making the most of those furlough possibility. It's now from what I've read today, when I've seen from NFL today, I don't think I'd be seeing football before junior year at the earliest because players have been told our clubs have been told not just consider training until the middle of May. So, you know, I think we're still a long way off. And for a lot of football clubs who might have had multiple home games between now the end of the season, on which they relied massively upon the revenue from the gate receipts, you know that that's a massive problem. So So, having come up with these schemes, what football needs to do is now make sure that money physically gets to these people because they still have outgoings. They've still got to pay their non plain stuff as well as their They're playing stuff and come to the decisions which are right for their for their own football clubs, not worrying what everyone else is doing.

spk_1:   15:25
Yeah, no, Well said, Well said, And you've touched on it. There are people that don't know you are Ah, Sunderland Band and it'll be great just to sort of tell us a bit more about your your any D positions. I know you're adopted United Announcement currently someone actually and what, What? That sort of involved?

spk_0:   15:39
Yeah, I didn't know too much about

spk_1:   15:42
Sort of life is in any day before the Oxford United role

spk_0:   15:45
came along on DH. I was introduced to a guy who became the owner of the club who background was private equity and himself he doesn't on did sits on a lot of the other boards, advising them on how they should be conducting their business and actually open up my eyes and made me realise the possibilities out there and the impact that I could have. I was quite surprised how quickly a well, I was able to make a positive impact in Oxford United, not just with the background of contacts in the network, but I have within football, but also so the communication skills, which is pretty fundamental aspect of it. On of any successful business, I would say I don't think my skills are purely suited for football. You know, I think they could be used across many different businesses, and that's something I've learned in terms of leadership as well and how you approach different situations. The ability to speak to be people is something that I probably taken for granted, but it is actually quite a skill within business. So So I was able to use that in Oxford in a positive way and got quite heavily involved in recruitment. I guess particularly I also recruited, wasn't involved in their lead the recruitment process for two different managers. While I was in the club on DH, I left. It was quite natural time for me to leave because the club was taken over by a tycoon sortie and who had their own ideas on DH. I wasn't really interested in waiting around to hear what they were in truth, because my role at Sky was changing in that time and I was taking on a bit more responsibility with the Super Sunday and Monday Night Football strands on DH, then the Connexion with Sunderland. Not just that, I'm a fan there, but the guys that run it. And some people would have seen the Netflix documentary. The guys in charge. There are the Oxford fans. Esso. They knew you have me than you. My work at Oxford From my time there on, it was just a case of the right time for me to go in. I haven't been able to have the impact that I would have liked so far, but it's been a rapidly changing, fluid situation in terms of the ownership, because the fans of last the current industry of Donald Lilly really find a new owner for the club on that process is sort of still ongoing. So anything that I'd hoped to achieve had to be sort of put on hold. Andi, wait and see how that situation's resolved, really, And and this this whole pandemic as well before we can start thinking about how we move forward again.

spk_1:   18:19
Yeah, No, absolutely. And it isn't. The other point I was going to ask about is, you know, women's sports and football. It's very much on the rise, which is great. What more do you think needs to be done to getting bad into more primetime sky sports? TV?

spk_0:   18:33
Well, I think there is a competitive, tender process, which we were the only involved in the bidding for and will be in future years. I mean, I can't speak for my bosses. I think we'd all like to see some of it on sky. But, you know, they're the guys that controlling the purse strings. Um, I think, you know, it's it's popularity is growing. It's there for all to see what more needs to be done. Well, I think it would be great if the England team could win a World Cup for a major tournament. And I think that would, you know, put it on the map. Even Mohr on DH start being even more successful, I suppose we need to talk about it more as much as anything, and with more investment in it, it becomes more professional on becomes more attractive as a result.

spk_1:   19:16
Yeah, no, absolutely absolutely on, You know, this is a legal podcast. I was going to ask if you could change or include one. Lauren football, we think, is missing. What would it be?

spk_0:   19:26
I would like to see maybe in stadia were asking a lot of officials and ability to communicate at the moment. But if if we could have sort of clocks on view in the stadia that the referees were acting on thing, that that would be quite interesting. So even in the first half, everybody's aware that one minute has been generated because of X, y or Zed. And at the end of games rather than you know, sometimes it feels like they're just picking a number from thin air. We can see that build up of time as the second half goes on. Perhaps every time there's been a substitution, or every time there's Bean, a prolonged goal celebration or an injury to lay, you see the clock going long longer. That would be an interesting seeing. I think that would be you or entertaining certainly for those fans that they're actually at the games.

spk_1:   20:15
Yes, so in terms of some short, sharp questions, then you can't you can't sort of dance around Who's your favourite pundit to work

spk_0:   20:22
with? Never give me a straight answer on that question.

spk_1:   20:26
I think they're all brilliant, very fair aunts of Mariner, I think you alluded to earlier as I mentioned, I'm a Liverpool band. So, you know, in terms of little being announced champions, you know, it's been 30 years of her. Do you think there's quite a long waits that I had done and you see the season, you know, following its course? It's just a case of time. What do you think? Things may have to be adjusted? My hunch

spk_0:   20:49
is still very much that everybody stakeholders, clubs, players, managers are desperate to get it this season completed. And now the NFL of sort of said that that would take in 56 days. They think, from start to finish, including playoffs. Which takes us if it's going to be a June start, probably into August realistically, so you know everything is going to have to get shows back. I can't see a situation now where we're starting next season as it's supposed to early in August, having completed this season, you know, I think something is going up to change and we'll get pushed back. You know, if I was a betting man, I'd say We'll be playing behind those doors football for for a considerable time before we see fans back in stadia as well.

spk_1:   21:32
Yeah, on DH, I joked at the start about the A R. But there is an emergence of tech coming into every sector sport business at the moment. Do you think there's other technology that could be included into two football? There's missing. We think we may see in the future or not

spk_0:   21:48
at my My lunch on that is that we kind of have to get this bit of technology right before we consider any other technology. And I still think we are somewhere else from doing that. If you think about how every different league on DH every given governing body have their own ideas about how it should be implemented, then you know, until we're all on the same page on that we can't consider anything else. But football's like anything it's you can't stand still, it has to move forward. S o. I would you know, I'd imagine that Yeah, there will be more technology around the corner, but it's anybody's guess what that will actually look like at this stage?

spk_1:   22:21
Yeah, on DH, it's worth pointing out. You're a big advocate of linked in, and we were very kindly connected through that platform and then thanks very much taking part. And I know you were a top voice for 2019 Arlington as well. But people perhaps not so familiar with the platform do you want to tell people have been about that and sort of, You know what you are and what you get up to on that,

spk_0:   22:41
Yeah, I mean, for me, it's a very different place to Twitter on DH Instagram. ITT's somewhere where I'm expecting to be dealing with serious people generally, who treat my put on their face value and without sort of prejudice on DH. It's I'm not. I'm not approaching it from really a football perspective, but what I did I always had a long standing sort of interesting, I suppose, in a zoo platform on DH, I suppose Mohr and Mohr, as people have found me on there are lots of questions. So lots of students who asking my advice on the route that they should take and people who are starting out its journalists wondering how they get Teo sort of into role. That perhaps that I have for had down the years on DH rather than go around everybody and answer individually because I do get a lot of these same questions that come through. I decided to sort of put post a few vlogs on their, um on. Previously. If you post about the kind of processes that I go through something some of things we've talked about here about on DH, you know, just sort of collect them in one sort of safe place, if you like. And I suppose I was amazed with some of the early posts. I'm going back to last year that we're getting some two million views on there. I was a bit sceptical of numbers on the social media platforms getting sometimes you khun to brush over something and encounters of you. But still there was a lot of eyes going going onto it s oh, so it does have a value. They did grant me one of their top voices, which was, which was nice, not quite sure what it means, but they're also granted me life status. And I'm still working that out because and unless you're very clear, I think very regular in your sort of time slot, almost like a TV show. I think it's very hard to generate numbers to your live platform, so I'm not sure whether that has got legs from here. I'll know I'll still be experimenting with it a little bit, but yeah, I found it. Ah, really good place. And I've met some interesting people through it. Andi have actually done some good connexions networking as well. So I've got work out of it, you know, because I also do some workers an event host on DH. Some interesting contacts have come through Arlington,

spk_1:   24:54
Right? Great way Sort of joked about it again earlier as well. But as we look to to wrap up, do you think England could ever win a World Cup?

spk_0:   25:01
I don't see why not really know if you if you're being really selfish from a football perspective, I think the idea that we were the euro has been postponed for 12 months is not nothing at all, because if you think about how young, ask what is right now into Gareth Southgate and how much better. Hopefully it will be with another years, years maturity. I think that's really quite exciting because you get players like Harry Kane and Sterling really at their peak. At that point, you get another year. Teo bed down a defence of central pair of Harry Maguire again, Who's who's gonna have it had another year at Manchester United and finding a really reliable partner who have that is going to be there. I think there's something to be sorted out with the gold people that only any of us. We're quite sure going into this one who was gonna be the number one choice is a goalkeeper you've got for me. One of the best footballer in the Premier League, Trent Alexander Arnold, who will be again blossoming in a further year down the line, and all these exciting talents at the top of the picture as well. The likes of Jaden Sancho, Marcus Rashford Plenty of this. I can't think about the top of my head. Well, the likes of Jack really should Madison, I guess. Where will they be in 12 months time as footballers? So so I think, you know, 12 months from now, the Euros is a realistic target. And then if Qatar is still happening in 2022 then would go into that with a bit of

spk_1:   26:26
the men's. Yeah, well, fingers crossed. I'm an eternal optimist, and I'm confident that I will be there. I was actually out, unfortunately, in Japan for the Rugby World Cup just gone. And it was such a shame the chaps did so well to get to that final. But it'll be great to see England in my lifetime. So I've heard so many great things about 66 will be nice toe to live through it. So I'm staying is an eternal

spk_0:   26:49
yeah, absolutely. I mean, I'm probably the same. And the closest you get to these tournaments, the more excited I tend to get. Yeah. No.

spk_1:   26:56
Absolutely. Well, David, from from from all of us on the legally speaking podcast, we really do appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to to sort of party. We will also share the links with this episode with the guards. Teo, I know you're going to be setting a just giving paige as well, which I believe is being focused will be contributing towards for all the Fabrice work that the just doing during this tough time. But is there Is there anything else you'd just like to say on that watch? You got opportunity to, you

spk_0:   27:24
know, that's That's brilliant, Robert. Thank you. And yeah, you know, just to add to that the stuff that I've been doing over leads and I think there is something there is potential around it in terms of if you're speaking to maybe half a dozen different people from from one business over, zoom on. They all have a chance to put the questions to you. I think it would be not just interesting for them, but also quite a nice team building experience at a time when people are working from home part struggling for motivation and inspiration. I think I can maybe help with

spk_1:   27:56
that. Yeah, most most definitely what all day, But it's been an absolute pleasure. Thanks ever so much. Once again, we look forward to seeing on our screens when we are back. Live in the hope of the simple season resumes. But thanks very much.

spk_0:   28:07
Thank you. Thanks for having me