Ryan Clark is pushing back on claims that he wasn’t forced off the air after learning ESPN had fired him during a live broadcast.
According to The Athletic, Clark, 46, was told he was being let go during a commercial break on Monday’s NFL Live and did not return for the rest of the show.
After TMZ reported that Clark “wasn’t forced” to leave Monday’s NFL Live and that he and ESPN mutually agreed it was “better not to return,” the former NFL star issued a blunt response on X.
“I wasn’t forced? I ask, ‘should I be done now?’” he wrote. “The answer was ‘yes.’”
The Athletic reported that ESPN chose to inform Clark while he was still on air because executives feared news of the decision would leak before they could tell him in person.
Sources said that “they did not want him to read it online before being told in person.”
Clark, who joined ESPN in 2015 after an NFL career and won a Sports Emmy in 2023, had reportedly been under increased scrutiny since February’s Super Bowl.
The Athletic reported tensions with colleague Peter Schrager—including a viral on-air spat last year—had drawn attention from network executives, who were considering letting him go.
His departure prompted an emotional response from fellow ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith, who said he strongly opposed the decision.
“It’s a rough day—rough day to say the least—working at ESPN,” Smith said in a YouTube video, adding that he had made it “very, very clear” to his “bosses” that he was unhappy with Clark’s firing.
Calling Clark “arguably the best NFL analyst in America” and “a friend and a brother,” Smith said he had struggled to stay silent as criticism mounted online.
“Over the last few hours, I had to really, really refrain—damn, they got blisters on my tongue and my fingers from biting my tongue and biting my fingers from refraining from going after folks when I saw how people were talking about him,” he said. “When I saw how people were talking about him, I was like, they don’t know him at all.”
He later added, “I just wish that I could have been in enough of an influential or powerful position to prevent his exit from happening,” before acknowledging, “Business is business.”
Clark’s dismissal comes as Disney, ESPN’s parent company, carries out broader layoffs tied to its integration with NFL Network.
The layoffs extended across both ESPN and NFL Network, affecting employees in front of and behind the camera.
Among the high-profile departures were veteran Baseball Tonight host Karl Ravech, NFL insider Tom Pelissero, and former Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton.
In a memo to employees obtained by the Daily Beast, ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said the company had made “difficult decisions made about job impacts” as it reshaped its operations, while pledging to treat affected employees “with compassion and respect.”
The Daily Beast has contacted ESPN for comment.
