Following ESPN’s somewhat shocking dismissal of Ryan Clark this week, reports suggested he was let go because of an incident last fall with fellow NFL analyst Peter Schrager.
The moment came early last NFL season on Get Up, when a conversation about NFL wide receivers resulted in Clark pushing back on Schrager’s perspective and saying, “That’s the non-player in you.” In response, Schrager said Clark was belittling him, and most of the sports media world came to Schrager’s defense, accusing Clark of being a bad on-air teammate.
By the following week, the two had seemingly come to an understanding, and continued to appear together on ESPN programming, even fist-bumping in a show of unity on NFL Live. Still, The Athletic reported this week that the dispute with Schrager was a major part of why ESPN laid Clark off.
But in an episode of his own podcast, The Pivot, released Friday, Clark claimed that situation was “not why I got fired.”
“Me and Peter don’t have an issue,” he said. “I would think if you asked him right now, obviously after what went on with us, there’s been nobody that’s been nicer to him.”
Clark then revealed the back story leading up to the clash. In his telling, he was given a schedule by ESPN for that week stating he would appear on both Get Up and First Take on Thursday and Friday. After flying into New York City on Wednesday night, Clark said he was never looped into production meetings for Thursday’s Get Up. And when he turned the show on on Thursday morning, he saw the hosts of Bussin’ With the Boys in his place.
The sequence of events did not sit well with Clark, who said he wanted better communication.
“Along with some other people, we built Get Up. That show was dying. Your original idea didn’t work,” Clark said. “So it was Dan (Orlovsky), and it was Marcus (Spears), and it was ‘Culture Wednesday’ with me and Domonique (Foxworth). That’s why that show lasted to be what it is that you’re turning it into now. And the people who I built that with, y’all just couldn’t call me and just tell me?”
Meanwhile, Clark said, ESPN producers began to tell him that it is not typical to appear on both Get Up and First Take regularly. Yet, in Clark’s mind, both Orlovsky and Schrager often did exactly that.
So when he finally got a chance to join Get Up on the Friday of the disagreement with Schrager, he had a lot on his mind. And, according to Clark, the fact that Schrager and host Mike Greenberg were not former players had been a running joke throughout the show.
Contrary to how most viewers received the disagreement with Schrager, Clark said the inciting moment came when Schrager responded, “don’t belittle me.”
“I wasn’t trying to say, ‘You don’t have an opinion because you didn’t play,’ I was trying to say, ‘You have a different opinion because you didn’t play,’” he said. “And maybe I didn’t get that across in the right way. I can accept that. But then he raised his voice at me, ‘Don’t belittle me,’ this and this.”
Apparently, Schrager moved on to “celebrating the segment,” seemingly excited that the dispute would make for compelling content.
“But I’m already knowing, the person who loves you don’t love me and they make decisions here, and we just had that happen,” Clark explained. “And while he’s celebrating, I’m telling him, ‘Don’t effing disrespect me like that.’”
With cameras rolling, Clark alleges that Get Up producers referenced footage of him arguing with Schrager during the break, claiming they were worried he would “get aggressive.” Clark believes someone at ESPN later shared that footage with OutKick, the Fox News-owned outlet that later reported: “the tense back-and-forth spilled over after the segment.”
“I’m talking to people who I’ve known for 12 years and they’re like, ‘We thought you were going to get aggressive,’” Clark said.
“The person you’ve been knowing all this time, who never did anything, who’s never had an altercation here, is going to get aggressive from over there? So now you’re trying to paint this angry Black man trope of me that you know is not true, but I’m starting to feel the narrative. I feel what you’re doing. You get me on the phone and people are telling me, ‘You’ve gotta work better with people.’ Work better with who? Everybody I work with loves me.”
Clark added that he and Schrager closed the loop on their argument and continued to have a strong working relationship.
“Me and Peter talked. Me and Peter fixed that. Me and Peter had the conversation. Me and Peter moved on from it,” he said. “And what I wanted to do (for) him from that point on, because I heard what he said, I never wanted to make him feel that way, whether intentionally or unintentionally.”
Indeed, Clark’s claim that he is beloved among most of his on-air colleagues is hard to argue. Even publicly, ESPN power players from Scott Van Pelt to Mina Kimes to Stephen A. Smith have long expressed an appreciation for the former NFL safety.
Clark believes that the Schrager incident is being lifted up as cover for other issues that led ESPN to fire him.
“That was unfortunate, but that’s not why I got fired.”
Still, while Clark may personally feel he and Schrager put the disagreement behind them, Schrager could feel differently. And even if there were no lingering problems with other on-air colleagues, that’s not to say ESPN executives could not still blame Clark for the blow-up and want to avoid future problems.
The truth, though, feels more complicated. Clark was both highly paid and offered controversial opinions beyond the world of sports — two things ESPN has increasingly less patience for.
