Steelers Now
On the latest episode of The Pivot Podcast, former Pittsburgh Steelers free safety Ryan Clark opened up on why he was let go by ESPN.
Clark, who clarified that he was fired, went on an emotional rant on how ESPN executives wanted him out.
“Let me put this to bed, I wasn’t laid off. I was fired. [ESPN} is using ‘laid off’ as a cover and a camouflage for what they already intended on doing,” Clark told his co-hosts Channing Crowder and Fred Taylor.
Clark added the he pulled back on controversial takes last season because he felt like ESPN executives were out to get him.
“For three years we never shied away from any topic. We did this year… I couldn’t be too Black,” Clark said. “What makes me sad is, in even trying adjust to be more of what certain people wanted, they still fired me.
“There’s a group of individuals who wanted to devalue my voice…I feel like I let them win.”
Clark believes ESPN is run like a dictatorship.
“This was a dictatorship. A person, or group of persons, very small group, they did the poll majority… I know how important you think he is. And you work with him every day. I don’t care how important you think he is. I don’t like him. People like me don’t like him,” Clark said.
Clark was notified he was fired in the middle of a live broadcast of “NFL Live” on Monday because ESPN feared the news would leak to the media before they could tell him in person.
That was it for Clark’s 11-year run at ESPN. He didn’t finish the show.
“I wasn’t forced?” Clark wrote on X Wednesday in a response to a headline by TMZ Sports.
“’I ask, should I be done now?’ The answer was ‘yes,’” Clark revealed.
Clark believes ESPN leaked news of his firing to OutKick because they had “targeted him” and would praise the network for letting him go.
“They were gonna get ahead of it by leaking it to someone who they know hated me,” he said.
Clark along with several other prominent personalities were fired by ESPN this week.
Clark had served a role on ESPN’s “Monday Night Countdown”, a pregame show, and the network will broadcast is first Super Bowl in February. Clark also regularly appeared on one of ESPN’s flagship daily programs, “First Take.”
Since 2022, Clark has been part of The Pivot Podcast, a show he hosts alongside fellow former NFL players Fred Taylor and Channing Crowder.
Clark said on The Pivot Podcast that he believes he’s the “best football analyst in the world.”
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: Ryan Clark Sounds Off on Why ESPN Fired Him: ‘This Was a Dictatorship’
