Still can't get over the resignation of David Jackson. Does anyone have an opinion or inside info on anything that Gillen could have done to have kept him?(reduce other responsibilities, PBP for football only...). Just wondering??

weavneerfan wrote:Still can't get over the resignation of David Jackson. Does anyone have an opinion or inside info on anything that Gillen could have done to have kept him?(reduce other responsibilities, PBP for football only...). Just wondering??

A lot of us are still feelin' it; but we all have to move on. David has made a life-changing decision. That couldn't have been easy. He came to the realization that his need to get off from work at 5 PM each day was always going to be in conflict with a career choice that requires one to be married to the company. I mean DJ was never off-duty. He'd work 7:30 to 5 every day; and his second shift job started at 5. If he had a home basketball game, he might get home by 10 PM. If he had a BB road trip to Troy and S.Alabama, for instance, you figure the hours. I'd hazard a guess that over David's career at ASU, he probably worked many 80 hour weeks. He was not being fairly compensated; and for that we have CCobb to "thank." @#$%&!

Gillen was always behind the *8 ball* on this. From the HR/salary admin point of view, it's almost impossible to make an inequitable salary history "right." The longer the inequity has existed, the more difficult it becomes to bring in line. Sometimes it's simply not possible to fix issues to the satisfaction of your staff member. The damage is simply too deep to repair.

Sadly, it is what it is.

While I wholeheartedly agree with Chuck's assessment, David was being asked to be at his desk every morning at 9 a.m., even after he had been on the road in New York or Louisiana or Arkansas the previous night. That's inhumane. And that's not just a Cobb problem. That's a current administration problem.

AppGrad78 wrote:While I wholeheartedly agree with Chuck's assessment, David was being asked to be at his desk every morning at 9 a.m., even after he had been on the road in New York or Louisiana or Arkansas the previous night. That's inhumane. And that's not just a Cobb problem. That's a current administration problem.

If what you said is true, we're lucky he stayed around this long. With his resume, he should've told them to shove it a long time ago.

Perhaps the answer is to have the next PbP announcer be an employee of the broadcast company rather than an associate AD.

I really don't see the benefit in continuing to pick at this scab. All of us are mourning DJ's departure. I don't know either DJ or Gillen personally but both have made statements indicating that legitimate attempts were made but a reconciliation of positions wasn't possible. We all know that DJ was doing the job of two people (maybe more at times). Gillen inherited that, but without budget dollars there is no easy solution. In order to correct the solution, they didn't just need to give DJ more money, they needed to give him more money AND divide that job in two. Sometimes things just don't work out and the parties agree to party ways in a mature and friendly fashion. Personally, I think we need to LET that happen. I think the last thing DJ would want is for his decision to create another schism in the App family.

I only have one additional question - first, I will reiterate that David was the BEST. PERIOD!!! - He and Steve were the best football combo I have ever heard and I come from the days of radio --- Over the years I have been on this board there has always been talk of a "booster/boosters" who could "pay off" the remaining contract of whichever coach was the "coach-of-the-month" who should be fired. There were even, if I remember correctly, a call for "money men" to make a certain donation of a positive nature. Firemoose and I have discussed the hurdles of this situation in detail and I understand all that he has explained to me...Here's my question... If money was an issue in regards to David's duties and the hiring of another person/s to take over all the administrative and other non-broadcast duties - Why didn't one or more of our "money boosters" step forward to fund this situation??? - Do these people actually exist? I don't run in that crowd...

Sorry if this sounds snarky but I find it hard to believe after all the years of having DJ some folks around here are still struggling with his departure. Why don't you just count yourselves lucky for all the many years we had him?

DJ will land on his feet. He has bigger and better things he needs to do. Get over it already.

CVAPP wrote:Sorry if this sounds snarky but I find it hard to believe after all the years of having DJ some folks around here are still struggling with his departure. Why don't you just count yourselves lucky for all the many years we had him?

DJ will land on his feet. He has bigger and better things he needs to do. Get over it already.

I truly don't believe any of us are questioning your points - it is a discussion where we can honor all he has done and I think most of us would only want the best for David - After listening to the podcast it certainly sounded like he would have liked to continue with the PbP if other things could have been worked out.

Yosef84 wrote:I really don't see the benefit in continuing to pick at this scab. All of us are mourning DJ's departure. I don't know either DJ or Gillen personally but both have made statements indicating that legitimate attempts were made but a reconciliation of positions wasn't possible. We all know that DJ was doing the job of two people (maybe more at times). Gillen inherited that, but without budget dollars there is no easy solution. In order to correct the solution, they didn't just need to give DJ more money, they needed to give him more money AND divide that job in two. Sometimes things just don't work out and the parties agree to party ways in a mature and friendly fashion. Personally, I think we need to LET that happen. I think the last thing DJ would want is for his decision to create another schism in the App family.

This is the best post in this thread! Sometimes there is no good guy and no bad guy, there is just a situation where an agreement isn't possible and both sides move on. We can look back fondly on the memories DJ gave us and we can trust that this administration will find the best replacement possible given the parameters within which they have to work.

It appeared to me that David needed to make a career move as he is at a different point in his life than he was 10 yrs ago. That role required a certain lifestyle commitments that he could no longer sustain. I thought he did a great job and will miss him but completely understand it was a decision he needed to make. Money may not have been the issue. Yes a lot more money may have allowed him to justify the long days and business travel but it probably would have still eventually caught up with him. I work with a lot of consultants and most eventually get tired of the travel. IMO that is what happened to DJ.

Let's not assume he was somehow wronged. The broadcast role probably fits a young possibly single person better due to nature of responsibilities.

I think most of you are missing the point - my question...I didn't say I thought it was more money he was asking for, my guess is he was asking for less duties while maintaining a similar salary - exactly what? I have no idea but my guess would be to give up all the administrative duties and do only the broadcast roles - Sure, he wouldn't be home everyday at 5 on some game days but he wouldn't have to be in his admn chair at 8am either - Again, if the problem was something to the tune of - Well we don't have the funds to pay him in the ballpark of what he was currently making because we would then have to hire someone else for all the athletic admn duties...... my question being - Why didn't we have a moneyed booster come to the rescue??? Some have always talked about these people who could buy out a coaches contract, etc., Why not buy a beloved broadcaster's contract?

WVAPPeer wrote:I think most of you are missing the point - my question...I didn't say I thought it was more money he was asking for, my guess is he was asking for less duties while maintaining a similar salary - exactly what? I have no idea but my guess would be to give up all the administrative duties and do only the broadcast roles - Sure, he wouldn't be home everyday at 5 on some game days but he wouldn't have to be in his admn chair at 8am either - Again, if the problem was something to the tune of - Well we don't have the funds to pay him in the ballpark of what he was currently making because we would then have to hire someone else for all the athletic admn duties...... my question being - Why didn't we have a moneyed booster come to the rescue??? Some have always talked about these people who could buy out a coaches contract, etc., Why not buy a beloved broadcaster's contract?

My guess would be that it would not be a one-time deal. I also think DJ was ready to move on professionally to other ventures.

Many play by play guys from all over have had concurrent "other ventures" and still do ---

WVAPPeer wrote:I think most of you are missing the point - my question...I didn't say I thought it was more money he was asking for, my guess is he was asking for less duties while maintaining a similar salary - exactly what? I have no idea but my guess would be to give up all the administrative duties and do only the broadcast roles - Sure, he wouldn't be home everyday at 5 on some game days but he wouldn't have to be in his admn chair at 8am either - Again, if the problem was something to the tune of - Well we don't have the funds to pay him in the ballpark of what he was currently making because we would then have to hire someone else for all the athletic admn duties...... my question being - Why didn't we have a moneyed booster come to the rescue??? Some have always talked about these people who could buy out a coaches contract, etc., Why not buy a beloved broadcaster's contract?

The salary would have to be supplemented on an annual basis to do what you propose. I have no idea how far off the two sides are, but I would imagine we have very few people that could afford to give 5 figures a year to supplement a broadcasters pay.

WVAPPeer wrote:Why didn't we have a moneyed booster come to the rescue??? [/color][/b]Some have always talked about these people who could buy out a coaches contract, etc., Why not buy a beloved broadcaster's contract?

Ego. Big difference in bragging about getting a coach fired to be replaced by your guy, than throwing in money to keep a broadcaster.

D J wanted to get paid the same or more and work less hours.......DJ has also gotten a whiff of what he is worth on the market too and just like Josh Norman you sometimes have to go somewhere else. We've all changed jobs. As far as play by play goes we can find another. We got comfortable with DJ and he knew App. Now if it was just money...would you rather have golf or DJ?

Rekdiver wrote:D J wanted to get paid the same or more and work less hours.......DJ has also gotten a whiff of what he is worth on the market too and just like Josh Norman you sometimes have to go somewhere else. We've all changed jobs. As far as play by play goes we can find another. We got comfortable with DJ and he knew App. Now if it was just money...would you rather have golf or DJ?

They way I interpreted his exit statement was all about the work/life balance, i.e. too much travel, many long hours, not enough family time, etc. That sounded to me like he had had enough of the lifestyle. I also said, assuming that to be true more money can make that easier to palette but eventually he will reach a point where it isn't even enough.

On the other hand, as Rek and others have eluded, if DJ's move is mostly about money, i.e. he got a whiff of what he is worth on the market, hey, go for it. He more than deserves it and I wish him well. If he was at 50-75% or less of what he can make I think that was absolutely the right thing for him and his career/family/etc. But if that is true, the stuff about travel, family time is merely a smoke screen and I would have rather him just say, "I loved App and role but I can make a helluva lot more doing similar stuff so it is time to move on". I would be cool with that. He would not have had to give me the story about the lifestyle balance for me to continue to respect his decision.

So what was the true story? Work/life balance or I can make a lot more money? You guys have me curious now.

AtlAppMan wrote:

Rekdiver wrote:D J wanted to get paid the same or more and work less hours.......DJ has also gotten a whiff of what he is worth on the market too and just like Josh Norman you sometimes have to go somewhere else. We've all changed jobs. As far as play by play goes we can find another. We got comfortable with DJ and he knew App. Now if it was just money...would you rather have golf or DJ?

They way I interpreted his exit statement was all about the work/life balance, i.e. too much travel, many long hours, not enough family time, etc. That sounded to me like he had had enough of the lifestyle. I also said, assuming that to be true more money can make that easier to palette but eventually he will reach a point where it isn't even enough.

On the other hand, as Rek and others have eluded, if DJ's move is mostly about money, i.e. he got a whiff of what he is worth on the market, hey, go for it. He more than deserves it and I wish him well. If he was at 50-75% or less of what he can make I think that was absolutely the right thing for him and his career/family/etc. But if that is true, the stuff about travel, family time is merely a smoke screen and I would have rather him just say, "I loved App and role but I can make a helluva lot more doing similar stuff so it is time to move on". I would be cool with that. He would not have had to give me the story about the lifestyle balance for me to continue to respect his decision.

So what was the true story? Work/life balance or I can make a lot more money? You guys have me curious now.

some how you guys are still missing this - my understanding is it wasn't about money per se ... here's my point from earlier ---
...I didn't say I thought it was more money he was asking for, my guess is he was asking for less duties while maintaining a similar salary -

I wish David the best and appreciate all of his contributions. From a work/life balance perspective, there was a time when I struggled with that and I ended up walking away from a officer position with a Fortune 500. I totally get it. Sometimes you just have to change direction order to maintain the priorities that are most important in life. David is talented. I hope he finds the right "fit" that allows him to grow professionally and as a family man.

As for App, we've had some mighty talented broadcasters call our games over the years. I have no doubt we'll find another good one.