Politixia
In a stunning move, ESPN has cut ties with former NFL player-turned-analyst Ryan Clark, two years after he signed an extension with the company.
The Athletic was the first to report the news.
Clark, 46, was on “NFL Live,” the Emmy Award-winning program he featured on for several years, on Monday when the news broke online. According to Andrew Marchand, Clark was informed of the decision to cut ties with him during the show. He did not appear for the rest of the program.
The former player-turned-analyst was expected to be a fixture on the network as it prepares to air the Super Bowl for the first time next February. However, Clark’s name had come up for potential layoffs at the network and its sister platform, NFL Network. ESPN announced it had purchased NFL Network last August, and the deal was finalized earlier this year. In the process, the NFL obtained a 10 percent equity stake in ESPN worth around $3 billion.
Clark worked his way up from occasional guest to regular on ESPN programming, transitioning from the gridiron to television in small spaces during his final years in the NFL before going full-time in February 2015. During his tenure, he was a co-host on “Monday Night Countdown” alongside a rotating cast of former NFL players and longtime “SportsCenter” anchor Scott Van Pelt. He also starred on the aforementioned “NFL Live” and appeared on several programs, including “Get Up,” “First Take,” and others.
His star power expanded with the launch of “The Pivot” podcast alongside former NFL players Channing Crowder and Fred Taylor, which interviews various big-name guests from different walks of life.
Earlier this year, there had been discussions at ESPN that Clark would not remain at the company. According to The Athletic, many of those discussions centered on an on-air dispute Clark had with colleague Peter Schrager. Schrager asked Clark not to belittle him about his opinion because, unlike Clark, he did not play football. Clark would apologize for the incident later that day.
Clark has not publicly commented on ESPN’s move, as additional on-air layoffs are expected at the network.
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