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Ryan Clark being laid off by ESPN was going to be a big story, but the company made the news much bigger because of the way they handled it.
Clark was laid off by ESPN after more than a decade at the network this week. During his tenure, the former Pittsburgh Steelers defensive back became one of ESPN’s most prominent NFL analysts, regularly appearing on Scott Van Pelt’s late-night SportsCenter, Monday Night Countdown, NFL Live, Get Up and First Take.
On Monday afternoon, Clark was making a normal appearance on NFL Live when ESPN informed him of the layoff during a commercial break. Some on social media have celebrated Clark’s fate, while many recognize the manner in which he was let go as unjust. Fox Sports’ Nick Wright never worked with Clark, but he holds a lot of respect for the NFL analyst from afar, citing his talent and work ethic. And Wright took issue with the way ESPN handled Clark’s layoff, and the uncomfortable position he was put in.
“There needs to be better informational security when it comes to layoffs,” Wright said on his podcast Tuesday morning. “To where the information does not leak so much so that you feel like your best option is to let someone know they’re being let go while they’re on the air in a commercial break.”
Wright didn’t argue the business decision by ESPN, but he did argue the way it was executed. Clark was reportedly on NFL Live when ESPN learned OutKick was going to report the news of his looming layoff. Not wanting to risk Clark learning about the layoff while he was on-air, ESPN opted to let him go during a commercial break, shortly before the news went public. Clark’s ESPN tenure ended about as abruptly as it could have, with his many social media critics now relishing the opportunity to mock his departure.
“If you as the overall entity know this has leaked, this is getting out, then you have to change how you plan on doing this,” Wright said. “And you certainly, even if it puts you in a tough spot programming-wise, can’t run the risk that someone is going to be live on the air and find out via Twitter or text message that they’re being let go to the point that you have to let them go during a commercial break. And then, what you triply can’t do is have so many communication gaps that you are then publicizing and posting that person’s takes of the day on your channels while the world has now found out he was let go minutes after giving that take.”
Clark signed his current contract with ESPN in Feb. 2024. The new deal came shortly after Clark posted a produced video on social media where he shared frustration over the contract negotiations and expressed a desire to be paid more while working less.
In addition to Clark, the current list of ESPN layoffs includes Bart Scott, Charles Davis, Cam Newton, Karl Ravech, Tom Pelissero, Stephania Bell and David Lloyd. Wright reiterated that he doesn’t feel worse for Clark than any of the other people being laid off by ESPN, but he feels worse about the way his was handled.
“This should have been handled better, and my guess is everyone involved knows it,” Wright continued. “And everyone involved can do a little after-action report of, because there’s going to be another round of layoffs at some point, to make sure it’s handled better and more humanely in the future.”
Once the news leaked, ESPN had to let Clark go. They couldn’t risk Clark’s phone blowing up with the news while he was on-camera. But if ESPN was going to let Clark go Tuesday morning, and people inside the company knew Clark was going to be let go Tuesday morning, then they shouldn’t have had him on-air Monday afternoon.
The post Nick Wright calls on ESPN to handle layoffs more ‘humanely’ than they did with Ryan Clark appeared first on Awful Announcing.
