announced his latest venture<\/a>, a weekly studio show called \u201cThe Pivot Sports with Ryan Clark.\u201d It is produced in partnership with NFL Films, and Clark will work with his podcast partners and former NFL players Channing Crowder and Fred Taylor. Starting today, it will stream on The Pivot\u2019s YouTube channel every Monday at 2 p.m. Eastern time.<\/p>\nFor Clark, who was a versatile and tireless force in ESPN\u2019s sprawling programming around \u201cMonday Night Football,\u201d the day carries special meaning. Seven weeks after ESPN cut ties with him in the most humiliating way \u2014 notifying Clark of the layoff during an \u201cNFL Live\u201d commercial break \u2014 he doesn\u2019t take talking ball for granted.<\/p>\n
This is an ambitious project for a small team that includes touchscreen film breakdowns, interviews with players and coaches, and NFL Films sound and footage woven through the game analysis. Clark will be at the center of it all, as a host and analyst and entrepreneur, stepping outside the traditional TV structure but expecting to produce a polished and visually stunning digital show.<\/p>\n
In an exclusive interview with The Athletic, Clark spoke in depth for the first time outside of his podcast.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the tone, for me, is definitely a triumphant one,\u201d Clark said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s not even in the sense that I\u2019ve won, but more that I\u2019m not lamenting what was lost.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the word \u201ctriumphant\u201d carefully, like a man who had tested out a few other descriptions and rejected them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love a little bit of doubt,\u201d Clark said, \u201cbecause the doubt drives me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Offense takes center stage in Week 1<\/p>\n
Mike Sando<\/p>\n
In his passion, there is healing. As he sorted through the anger and pain and shame, the 46-year-old Clark found the fearless underdog he used to be. He was 22 again, undrafted again, the man who clawed his way to NFL relevance before retiring to a life of green rooms and Emmy awards.<\/p>\n
By dawn Thursday, he had already broken down the All-22 film from Seattle-New England. It wasn\u2019t for an immediate segment, just for himself, because a retired safety still needs to know who missed his run fit. By dawn Friday, he had done the same with the San Francisco-Los Angeles Rams game.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s building something new out of the wreckage of a job he wanted until retirement. He\u2019s not sure if that means he\u2019s healed. But he\u2019s standing.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople always say, \u2018Hey, go start your own thing.\u2019 But without that layoff at ESPN, I don\u2019t believe, to be honest with you, that I ever take this step,\u201d Clark said. \u201cI don\u2019t think people realize the intimidating factor of that. There are a lot of unknowns, and so there was a level of fear. Being laid off unlocked all of that. I think the important thing is it paralleled my playing career.\u201d<\/p>\n
Throughout our conversation, Clark kept saying three words: \u201cI can\u2019t miss.\u201d The refrain landed a little heavier each time. There is no flagship anymore. There is no shield.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it sucks,\u201d Clark said, \u201cthey\u2019re going to understand where it came from.\u201d<\/p>\n
He laughed, but he was serious. Even though he essentially works for himself now, even though he\u2019s not desperate for money, Clark needs to succeed on his own. He felt he was the best in the business at his role, and his combination of substance and personality at ESPN clearly moved the needle. Still, that wasn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n
No one at ESPN ever gave him a professional reason. Clark searched for one anyway. He combed through it so many times, and finally stopped, because the search wasn\u2019t going to produce an answer that made sense.<\/p>\n
Clark remembers heading to the airport after it happened. He was scheduled to do SportsCenter before flying, and his phone buzzed with a text message from a producer checking in about the live hit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just got fired,\u201d Clark texted.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t believe you LOL,\u201d the producer wrote back.<\/p>\n
When it became clear Clark wasn\u2019t joking, they both got emotional.<\/p>\n
Clark can tell that story now with resignation instead of rage. After the initial shock, he underwent a painful self-inventory. What did I do? Who did I let down? Was there a version of me that could have stopped this?<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was an awareness and an accountability that I had to have,\u201d Clark said.<\/p>\n
Clark wouldn\u2019t change much about the work. But he\u2019d change how he managed the relationships around it. There were executives he never quite won over, and politics he\u2019d assumed his talent and productivity would handle. He thought the job was doing the job well. But the job was also managing the room.<\/p>\n
The last two months haven\u2019t been all about processing grief. During a training camp tour for the podcast, Clark learned how much his voice mattered within the NFL. Executives who had never spoken to him found his number and called. A general manager drove a golf cart across his own facility to shake his hand. A coach pulled him aside to talk for 20 minutes about what happened to him. His son, Jordan, who is 25 and raised by a father who didn\u2019t curse much around the house, sent him some words that lifted his spirits: \u201cF\u2014 them pops, you got this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clark reached for a movie reference that seemed strange at first.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like Augustus Waters,\u201d Clark said, referencing a scene movie The Fault In Our Stars where the dying boy insisted on hearing his friends give his eulogy while he was still alive. \u201cBecause people got to, in real time, declare their support for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
His voice changed as he recalled the support. He didn\u2019t realize how much he needed the love.<\/p>\n
During a recent session with his therapist, Clark opened up about the new show. He isn\u2019t worried about creating quality content. He\u2019s worried about what happens after that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have a fear that this doesn\u2019t work,\u201d he said. \u201cMy fear is that I will hold on to pieces of that last experience \u2014 both good and bad \u2014 and that this works in an amazing way, and I\u2019m still not content.\u201d<\/p>\n
He can\u2019t seek payback or restoration. He\u2019s practicing subtraction. There are people from his old ESPN life he will never make peace with, and that\u2019s just how life is sometimes. Messy. He doesn\u2019t need to carry them with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were, in truth, never close to me anyway,\u201d Clark said without naming names. \u201cWhat\u2019s important to me now is where my feet are.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most likely, he\u2019s in a room, staring at a screen and trying to figure out new ways to analyze football. Seven weeks ago, he thought he would be sidelined for the 2026 season. Now he has a new challenge, one that came together remarkably fast. One that asks him to do what he has always done: bet on himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t about what happened to me,\u201d Clark said. \u201cIt\u2019s about what\u2019s happening to me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s nothing casual about a conversation with Ryan Clark. He gives you the full experience: empathy, humor, active…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1000973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,7211,49,48,255,6,320,57,156],"class_list":["post-1000972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-lsu-tigers","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-new-york-jets","tag-nfl","tag-opinion","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-sports-business"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117271988990306916","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1000972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1000973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1000972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1000972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1000972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}