NFL analyst Ryan Clark didn’t hold back while discussing his ESPN firing.
During a Thursday interview on “The Breakfast Club,” Clark — who was fired on-air in July, a day before a round of layoffs at the Worldwide Leader — accused ESPN of intentionally leaking the news of his lay off to “humiliate” him in the public eye.
The Super Bowl champion former safety added that he has a non-compete with ESPN for the remainder of his contract, which expires at the end of February.
“Everybody that got laid off got told on Tuesday. Only one person got told on Monday on set — me,” Clark said. “That’s the distinction [between being fired and laid off]. If it was fair, if it was right, if it was because of the reasons everyone else was laid off — ESPN merged with NFL network so they were bringing in outside people … so there had to be budget cuts, whether it’s Cam Newton, Karl Ravech… or the people behind the scenes you didn’t hear anything about them 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 is not on the up-and-up.
“But it was also purposeful, and it was also meant in my opinion to humiliate, right? 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 them. Because it’s me.”
Clark explained that he can’t work as an NFL analyst on a network until his contract with ESPN expires.
“There’s reasons why I can’t be on a network, right? Because as the contract goes, if you are laid off, you get to be paid. Which for me is the last day of February,” Clark said. “So until that point, I still have an opportunity to make money from them.”
Clark — who joined the company in 2015 and won a Sports Emmy in May 2023 for Outstanding Personality/Studio Analyst for this work at ESPN — learned he was laid off by the Worldwide Leader during a Monday appearance on “NFL Live” in July.
ESPN broke the news to Clark during the show due to concerns that it would leak, per The Athletic.
Clark — who co-hosts a podcast, “The Pivot,” with former NFL players Fred Taylor and Channing Crowder— started his own show, a weekly live NFL studio program.
The trio also inked a deal to bring their hit podcast to Netflix.
