Ryan Clark believes that he was fired, not laid off, from ESPN.
The veteran NFL analyst was let go by ESPN last week. Clark, a former LSU Tigers star and longtime NFL veteran, was among those laid off by the Worldwide Leader in Sports last week. Other names laid off included David Lloyd, Karl Ravech, Bart Scott and Cam Newton, among others.
Clark believes that he was essentially fired for sharing too many opinions that his bosses didn't like.
"They're using layoffs as a cover and a camouflage for what they already intended on doing," Clark said. "But there was no cause for it. So because there was no cause for it you couldn't just fire me, so you had to wait until the layoffs so you could camouflage it and veil it.
"If I was laid off like everybody else, it came out on Tuesday. Mine came out on Friday."
Robin L Marshall/Getty Images
Hill appeared on Fox Sports Radio’s The Odd Couple with Rob Parker and Kelvin Washington on Tuesday. After Parker, a former ESPN star, chided Clark for "boo-hooing on a podcast” about his firing, Hill came to his defense.
The former ESPN star essentially blamed Clark's firing on his bosses, saying that he got a tough draw with how thinks shook out.
Hill comes to Clark's defense
Hill spoke highly of Clark after spending multiple days with him this week.
“I spent the last two days with Ryan. And then even before this, having been in a relatable position, I knew exactly what he was going through,” said Hill, per Awful Announcing. “So this is why I think it cut him so deep.
“Rob, you gotta look at it like this. And your perspective is not wrong. All it takes sometimes is a boss changing and it could change your whole trajectory in a place. Good or bad, it’s what comes with the business. We know this. But Ryan was in a little different position because, as you know, a lot of times these networks, they bring in big names, big-named athletes. Those athletes, I want to say names, but typically they don’t work as hard in terms of getting the reps. He had to literally climb the stairs because while he had a storied career… he wasn’t like some big name that everybody knew… He’s just getting reps, you know, going on the different shows, doing what we had to do, frankly, a grind that resembled ours to build his profile. Finally built it to a point where he’s one of the mainstays on Get Up, First Take, Monday Night NFL Countdown. Became one of their notable personalities.
“And what made him emotional about it was not only the way that they did it, and you’ve experienced this, Rob, and Kelvin, I know you’ve experienced this too. Y’all know in our community, when one of us makes it, we feel like we all made it. And what he was talking about was the fact that he made it to this position. He’s a New Orleans guy who was undrafted by Pittsburgh, won a Super Bowl, played in two. So his whole trajectory of his life and career has been a little engine that could. You wind up at ESPN, you win an Emmy, you doing all these things, they let you go.
“And in his real life, and especially New Orleans, that’s a different kind of community. It’s like real close-knit, everybody family. And they all coming up to him because he’s on ESPN. ‘Thank you for representing us. Thank you for speaking out for us. We love you out there representing us.’ And then you feel like you let them down because you’re not there anymore.
“So it’s like deeper than just, ‘oh, this is just a job.’ This is not just a job. This is like a position that you held. And that’s not to say that these people are disappointed or that people will be like, ‘Ryan, let us down.’ But he felt that. He felt that love.
“I felt it too. You know, being from Detroit and the number of people that … when I was at ESPN, they’d be like, ‘man, we’re so happy somebody from Detroit is representing us.’ It means something to them, and you represented that. So that’s why it cut a little deeper for him, even though we know the realities of this business, like you said, Rob.”
It'll be interesting to see where Clark lands next.
