Why Did ESPN Fire Ryan Clark During ‘NFL Live’ Filming? Reporter Reveals the Real Reason for the Bizarre Timing
· Yahoo Sports
The sports world was caught off guard on Monday when news broke that ESPN was letting NFL analyst Ryan Clark go. Clark had been appearing on various ESPN TV shows since he was hired back in 2015, even winning an Emmy for his work.
Yet, now ESPN has ripped the Clark Band-Aid off, and some fascinating details are coming out about his abrupt dismissal.
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ESPN Reportedly Fired Ryan Clark While on ‘NFL Live’
Now that the community has gotten over the shock value of Clark no longer appearing on ESPN, there’s more information that could fire up this storyline all over again.
According to The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand, ESPN actually told Clark he was being let go while he was filming the “NFL Live” show for the network.
Unsurprisingly, Clark did not stick around for the end of the program. Marchand adds that ESPN was expected to let Clark know about its decision on Tuesday morning, when other network employees are supposed to be informed of more layoffs.
OK, but why did it happen during the show? ESPN sources indicate that they feared someone else leaking the information to Clark before they had a chance to tell him themselves. Previous reports, dating back to the Super Bowl in February, suggested that Clark’s time at ESPN could be numbered.
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“Sources at ESPN say the reason it told Clark during the show was due to media inquiries into his departure and a fear that the news would leak out before they could inform him,” Marchand wrote.
“Since after the Super Bowl in February, sources had told The Athletic that Clark’s job could be in jeopardy. Last week, The Athletic learned that Clark was likely to be let go.”
Marchand adds that ESPN wanted to avoid a situation where Clark may see reports of his firing online before he found out from the team itself.
“ESPN’s plan was to do that on Tuesday morning, but after receiving calls on the matter chose to inform him during his show as it did not want him to read online before being told in person,” Marchand said.
While the timing may have been awkward, ESPN believes it did the right thing in letting Clark know when it did. Though perhaps it wishes it could have found a better way, rather than him learning amongst his peers. Still, that may have been better than Clark finding out another way, like online.