Ryan Clark breaks his silence on his firing from ESPN, the way it really happened, clears the air on certain scenarios, if he saw it coming, support and what he will miss most from the job he loved and poured into for over a decade.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Hey, babes, it's Paris Hilton. So I was checking my points balance in the Hilton Honors app the other day, and yeah, I've got about a billion, which feels excessive, even for me. Just kidding, you can never have too many Hilton Honors points. And I wanna do something iconic this summer, so I'm giving away all my Paris points. Just find somewhere you've always wanted to stay, then go to my socials or Hilton's and tell me about it. Just make sure you're a Hilton Honors member, and I might be sending you Paris points, because when you want points that make your summer even hotter, it matters where you stay.

**Ryan Clark** (0:30)
Normally, this is the time when I introduce the Pivot's next guest. But today, that guest is me. I haven't said a word since being fired while on air Monday evening, but now I will. Thank you for tuning in to my biggest pivot.

**Channing Crowder** (1:06)
Welcome to a special Friday edition of The Pivot. That's Fred T.
I'm Chan, Pivot fan. Thank you for pivoting with us.
But RC ain't lose all his jobs. We have a special guest today, pro bowler, Super Bowl champion, four-time Emmy Award winner, and former ESPN employee. We got Ryan Clark coming out.

**Ryan Clark** (1:32)
Somebody had to do it. Somebody had to do it.

**Fred Taylor** (1:38)
Hey, RC, you know how I always ask the guest, what's their biggest pivot, right?

**Ryan Clark** (1:43)
Yeah.

**Fred Taylor** (1:44)
I think this is the biggest pivot.

**Ryan Clark** (1:46)
For sure.
I think I'll look at it in five years, and if I was sitting down with Ryan Clark, Channing Crowder, and Fred Taylor, that would be the answer. Now, what happens from now is like the rest of the story, but I think the moment would be this moment.

**Channing Crowder** (2:06)
You good?
I don't know, I joke about it, but you know what I'm saying? It is a serious, serious situation.

**Ryan Clark** (2:12)
I think, you know, I'm definitely okay, but I feel for the other people who are going through this with me.
Carl Ravage been there 33 years. Charles Davis, one of the best men in the business, along with best analyst, Bart Scott, Cam Newton, Tom Pelicero, and like countless other behind the scenes people. And you think, you know, what I learned about ESPN is so many people who worked there grew up close to ESPN. So they grew up with a dream of being there and being able to work behind the scenes and create these stories and tell this story, and now their job is gone, right? But what I'm dealing with is in truth a first world problem, but there's some people who are truly counting on what ESPN was going to do for them to feed their family. And you know, so my thoughts and my prayers are with them as well.

**Fred Taylor** (3:08)
I think the big question is, did you see it coming? Could you take us inside that moment?

**Ryan Clark** (3:14)
Yes and no. I'm upset with myself from this perspective.
There were signs, but I truly thought, for the first time in my life, I worked so hard at something. I was so good at something. Everybody acknowledged that I was, that they couldn't fire me, that they wouldn't fire me. That a company who's going to have the Super Bowl this year, who truly wants to put their best foot forward to the entire world, and have the best people talking about football, wouldn't fire, in my opinion, this is my opinion, and it seems to be the opinion of many others, the best football analyst in the world. I didn't think that. And that's my fault.
This off season, our piece on Monday Night Football with Greg Brooks won an award, a diversity award. And our show runner and our director and our producer were so excited, and it was like, PR is going to post it. And it never happened. And eventually, I just posted it myself. And then PR reached out like, oh, I'm so sorry that we missed it, but the Emmys are coming up and we'll post it afterwards. And I just remember sending a text to one of the people I work with, and I said, they're not going to post that. They don't care. A company that posts about, you know, cool things like spelling bees and posts about the family feuds and all these things, didn't care about an actual segment on our show about a young man like Greg, didn't care about that enough because of me to use it.

**Channing Crowder** (4:49)
Was that ever addressed?