Ryan Clark believes ESPN was trying to humiliate him with the way the network fired the former Pittsburgh Steelers safety during a summer episode of NFL Live.
‘Everybody that got laid off got told on Tuesday,’ Clark told the Breakfast Club podcast this week. ‘Only one person got told on Monday on set — me.
‘That’s the distinction [between being fired and laid off].
‘Only one person was let go on air. Only one person’s firing or layoff was leaked to a far-right, conservative sports site. Me. So when all those things line up, it lets you know that everything is not on the up-and-up.’
Clark also pointed the finger at ESPN, accusing the Worldwide Leader of leaking the news to Fox News‘ conservative sports website, OutKick, in an elaborate attempt to get him off the air during a live broadcast. The 46-year-old has been criticized by conservatives over his opinions on race in sports.
‘But it was also purposeful, and it was also meant in my opinion to humiliate, right?’ he asked. ‘And in leaking it to OutKick, you now know if anybody is going to curry favor for you in this decision, it’s going to be [OutKick]. Because it’s me.’
Ryan Clark believes ESPN was trying to humiliate him with the way the network fired the former Pittsburgh Steelers safety during a summer episode of NFL Live
An ESPN spokesperson declined to comment when contacted by The Daily Mail.
As first reported by The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand, Clark was dismissed during a recording of NFL Live, prompting him to drop his satellite feed early. The last 10 minutes of the show did not include the former Steelers safety.
TMZ later reported that Clark was going to be notified about his dismissal at a later date, but the network became aware of an impending story on the news and decided to tell him during the NFL Live broadcast.
Clark and ESPN agreed it was better for him not to complete the episode, according to TMZ, which stressed that he was not forced off the air.
However, Clark pushed back at the claim.
‘I wasn’t forced?’ he asked rhetorically in a post on X. ‘I ask, ‘should I be done now?’
‘The answer was “yes,”‘ he added.
Turning the page, Clark will be taking his popular interview podcast ‘The Pivot’ to Netflix years after the show ended its relationship with Fanatics. He hosts the show alongside ex-NFL linebacker Channing Crowder and ex-Jaguars running back Fred Taylor.
Clark carved out a starting role for himself with the Steelers before moving on to ESPN
Netflix and the people behind the podcast agreed to a multi-year partnership which will bring video episodes to the platform beginning September 8, according to Boardroom.
The hosts will stream new episodes exclusively every Tuesday and Friday. The show’s back catalog is also going to move to Netflix, while also remaining on YouTube.
Clark will also give Netflix first-look rights on all new content from Pivot25 Productions, a company he co-founded with Alicia Zubikowski. Bonus episodes will be produced by Netflix.
For now, Clark is contractually prohibited from analyzing the NFL until his old ESPN deal expires.
‘There’s reasons why I can’t be on a network, right?’ he told the Breakfast Club. ‘Because as the contract goes, if you are laid off, you get to be paid. Which for me is the last day of February. So until that point, I still have an opportunity to make money from them.’
