Fans shocked by ESPNs diabolical on-air firing of Ryan Clark

Many couldn’t wrap their heads around ESPN’s firing of NFL analyst Ryan Clark while he was on-air during “NFL Live” on Monday.Clark — who won a Sports Emmy in May 2023 for Outstanding Personality/Studio Analyst for this work at the Worldwide Leader — found out that he was being laid off by ESPN mid-show and did not return to the program, The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reported.ESPN promoted a clip of Clark discussing tight end Isaiah Likely possibly becoming a key component for the Giants during his remote appearance on Monday’s installment of “NFL Live,” and some called it a “diabolical” move.“This is so wrong,” another X user posted.

Others added that ESPN acted “unprofessional” in the way it parted ways with Clark, who had been with network since 2015.Retired NFL linebacker Emmanuel Acho, who left ESPN in 2020 for FS1, criticized ESPN and said it was “cowardly” to terminate Clark mid-segment.

Clark, who also appeared regularly on ESPN’s shows, such as “First Take” and “Get Up,” was making more than $2 million per year, according to The Athletic.ESPN reportedly planned to fire Clark on Tuesday as part of a larger stint of layoffs at their parent company, Disney.However, media inquiries into his departure and a fear that the news would leak out before they could inform him led to the news being delivered during the show Monday.ESPN executives hit a breaking point with Clark when him and fellow NFL analyst Peter Schrager had a cringey exchange on “Get Up” — ESPN’s morning show — in September.Schrager defended Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb’s performance in Dallas’ opening-night loss and Clark said, “That’s the non-player in you.”Before making the remark, Clark admitted “we shouldn’t be doing this on TV.” Schrager asked Clark not to belittle him, to which Clark responded, “Peter, what I need for you to do is not get mad and let me finish.”Later that day, Clark tweeted out an apology, sa...