Brace yourselves …
Ryan Clark has spoken for the first time since ESPN cut bait earlier this week, and folks, it was a DOOZY. Frankly, I’ve never, in my life, seen anything like it.
For those who missed it, Clark was part of several ESPN layoffs on Tuesday. Cam Newton was let go. Karl Ravech was let go. Tim Pelissero was cut. It was a bloodbath.
ESPN PARTING WAYS WITH NFL ANALYST RYAN CLARK AHEAD OF NETWORK’S FIRST SUPER BOWL BROADCAST
The Clark situation stood out because he was actually told on Monday … during an actual taping of NFL Live … after OutKick had obtained the story and asked ESPN for comment.
That forced ESPN into panic mode, and, essentially, forced them to tell Clark during a live taping of an actual show because they didn’t want OutKick to break the story. Instead, they let the insufferable Athletic do it.
Amazing.
Ryan Clark of ESPN’s Monday Night Football Countdown before the NFC Wild Card Playoff game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Los Angeles Rams at State Farm Stadium on Jan. 13, 2025, in Glendale, Ariz. (Getty Images)
SPORTS MEDIA RUSHES TO CAST RYAN CLARK AS VICTIM WHILE PORTRAYING ESPN AS THE VILLAIN
Anyway, that’s all he said/she said stuff, and I’m quite sure Bobby Burack will address it later on. I’m not here to relitigate that.
I’m here to break down Ryan Clark’s first comments since that moment, and they came on his podcast — “The Pivot” — and included him openly weeping into the camera:
Ryan Clark can’t be serious here
“All I ever wanted to do was be accepted,” said Clark, as he weirdly sobbed because he … got fired from a job?
One of the wildest videos I have ever seen. It’s amazing. I can’t stop watching. The pandering and the grifting and the insane theatrics from Ryan Clark here are so painfully spot-on, it personally makes ME want to cry.
Bravo, Rhino. Just an incredible performance. Truly amazing. It’s all BS, of course, but that’s what makes it top-tier.
Ryan Clark, who joined ESPN after retiring from the NFL in 2015, is being let go by the network. (Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)
Ryan Clark is not that sad he got fired from ESPN. Come on. What are we doing here? Nobody in their right mind has even been this sad over a job — especially a professional athlete!
Ryan Clark has been cut before. I assume this isn’t the first starting job he’s lost. ESPN is a business. The NFL is a business.
When you start becoming bad at your job, businesses usually move on. When you start becoming a pain in the butt and a headache and not worth the trouble, businesses usually cut ties.
When you make asinine declarations – on air – about a car crash, and publicly humiliate your colleague, and weirdly fixate on a former colleague’s White wife, and spend all your days race-baiting and gaslighting, businesses usually cut ties.
ESPN is parting ways with longtime NFL analyst Ryan Clark following an 11-year run at the network. (Michael Allio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
No need to hop on your podcast and weep about it. The writing was on the wall here. It’s embarrassing. It’s pandering. It’s nonsense.
And, more importantly, folks see right through it.
Like former NFL defensive back Asante Samuel, who played in the NFL at the same time as Clark:
“ESPN Ryan, I tried to stay quite pimp but you’re taking this fired s–t too far,” he tweeted Friday night. “Why are you so sensitive and emotional brother? People get fired everyday B.”
Yeah, I’m gonna have to agree with Asante here. You dug your own grave, Ryan. You can sit there on your fancy podcast and peddle nonsense and sob all you want, but how about a little humility? How about some remorse? How about an ounce of self-respect and reflection?
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Instead, we got sobbing.
What a week.
