- Jake Humphrey left his role as TV presenter for BT Sport in the summer
- The 45-year-old is now focusing on his successful High Performance podcast
- Aaron Ramsdale’s father has every right to support his son: It all starts
Jake Humphrey has opened up about his departure from BT Sport and reflected on the issues he faced during his time as a presenter on the channel.
Humphrey, 45, stopped presenting Champions League coverage on BT Sport (now TNT Sports) this summer after being scaled back from hosting their Premier League coverage the year before.
Since then he has continued to develop his High Performance podcast, which he co-hosts with Professor Damian Hughes.
The show – which launched just three years ago – has now been downloaded 100 million times and its success has also seen live performances regularly sold out, while a second book is due to be published in December.
However, Humphrey explained how his work with the podcast – which aims to bring in guests who have “experience of high performance in a variety of areas” – led to him choosing to leave his dream job.
Jake Humphrey has opened up about his departure from BT Sport as a TV presenter over the summer
Humphrey (left) hosted the Champions League and Premier League coverage on BT Sport
‘“I’ve always felt that time passes very quickly,” he said The Telegraph. ‘And the longer I did the High Performance podcast, the harder I found it to be a football presenter. I didn’t always feel comfortable.
‘That boyish stuff isn’t for me. I have a bit of trouble with the modern world – where we mainly value fixed opinions.
“I often felt like I was doing High Performance all week, and empathy and understanding and leaning into people.
‘Then on Saturday I had conversations about sacking managers and dropping players, criticizing referees’ decisions.’
Humphrey is a character who can regularly disagree, with the broadcaster undoubtedly being hugely successful in his field, but also regularly having to deal with abuse from those who do not like him.
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Since leaving football, Humphrey has continued the success of his High Performance podcast
And the 45-year-old admitted that criticism on social media hurts him, bringing back memories of when he was bullied at school, but also stressed that the challenges people face make them who they are.
“All I can ever do is share what I think,” he added. ‘I’m not fixated on these opinions. (But) when it’s the same messages from the same people, I feel exactly the same as when I was bullied at school.
‘If I learned one big lesson from High Performance, it is that you should be grateful for all your employees. You might think about your first boss, great colleagues, some of the great people who changed the way you see the world.
‘But we also have to look at the people who bullied us, because they built our resilience. I think when things are hard… I think there’s real value in that.”