Two months after getting cut by ESPN, former NFL analyst Ryan Clark is throwing down a yellow flag. He says the ESPN meant to “humiliate” him when the network cut ties with him in July.
In a new interview on Power 105.1’s The Breakfast Club, Clark said he knew he was fired and not just laid off because all of ESPN’s other castoffs that week were informed of their job loss on Tuesday.
“Whether it was Cam Newton, who’s an NFL MVP, Karl Ravech, who had been there 33 years, Charles Davis, who was respected in this business, or the people behind the scenes, you didn’t hear about any of them on Monday. Only one person got let go on Monday. 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’s not on the up and up, but it was also purposeful. It was also meant, in my opinion, to humiliate.”
And Clark believes ESPN leaked the news to OutKick and did so strategically. “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 them, because it’s me,” he said. “And in truth, a couple of days later, I think it was Sophie Cunningham, that’s when she … was talking about the trans women playing in the [WNBA], someone from OutKick, their first tweet was, ‘What a great rebrand week for ESPN. Ryan Clark is let go, and now Sophie Cunningham is leading news.’ So, it’s letting you know what they think.”
He went on “[There are] so many reputable sports publications. Whether it’s, you know, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, The Athletic. If this is going to be as big of news as it turned out to be, why not give it to them? Because you knew who you were giving it to. You knew the small amount of people within that building that knew it. And then, you know, the humiliation that you at least purposed it to come along with me being let off.”
Clark, a former Pittsburgh Steelers player who had been an ESPN employee for more than a decade, was appearing on NFL Live that Monday when he heard of his job loss and walked off set mid-broadcast. ESPN sources told The Athletic Clark was informed of the decision on Monday instead of on Tuesday because network bosses were afraid the news was going to leak before they could talk to him.