Ryan Clark may need a new job after the expiry of his ESPN contract

Ryan Clark is entering a new chapter in his sportscasting career.

On Saturday, the former Pittsburgh Steelers star safety revealed on X/Twitter that he had completed his current contract with ESPN, making him a free agent:

Earlier on Wednesday, he had revealed that he had “disagreed” on an extension:

And on Friday’s episode of The Pivot Podcast with Fred Taylor and Channing Crowder, he compared contract negotiations to his playing days:

“Contract negotiations are weird. Contract negotiations with yout own team are normally the hardest, because they see you a certain way. They saw me as an undrafted free again, so I’m just like, ‘Hey, look at the field.’ Now, I’m also like, ‘Hey, look at the field.'”

A brief overview of Ryan Clark’s broadcasting career

Ryan Clark is one of those former athletes who immediately transitioned to broadcasting upon ending his playing time. Right after leaving the NFL, he was picked up by ESPN, mainly as a football analyst for the league on its various programs: NFL Live, SportsCenter, Get Up!, and First Take.

In that period, the former Super Bowl champion and Pro Bowler established himself as a knowledgeable, if occasionally flawed, peruser of the latest NFL news.

And he soon gained a large enough profile that in 2021, he joined former UFC two-division champion Daniel Cormier in launching an MMA-themed podcast named DC & RC.

But he was also smart enough to know that he would not forever be a fixture at ESPN, despite his growing stature.

So in May 2022, he and fellow former NFL stars Fred Taylor and Channing Crowder partnered with Shots Podcast Network to launch The Pivot Podcast, a YouTube show that delves into the sociocultural aspects of sport that the normal fan seldom gets to see.

Interestingly, Clark was not supposed to be the third host, as he relayed to The New York Post:

“I’ll be honest, we weren’t friends. I was down in Florida, doing some training, I met them at a pro day. And then I got a call one day. Dwyane Wade was gonna do their show, but Chad Ochocinco wasn’t gonna be there. I get a call, like, ‘Hey, we want you to come do the show.’ I was busy as hell.”

For his broadcasting efforts, he won “Outstanding Personality/Studio Analyst” at the 44th Sports Emmy Awards in 2023, the same year he joined The CW as host of Inside the NFL.