Former ESPNer Ryan Clark said he can relate to NFL analyst Troy Aikman’s contract situation with the Worldwide Leader.
During this week’s installment of “The Pivot” podcast on Netflix, Clark — who was fired from his NFL analyst job while on-air in July — claimed there is “business being done dirty” regarding the future of ESPN’s top broadcast booth of Aikman and NFL play-by-play voice Joe Buck.
The longtime friends and broadcast partners of 25 years reportedly are at odds after Buck signed a six-year contract extension with ESPN in September, worth more than $100 million, to continue “Monday Night Football.” Aikman has yet to reach a new deal and his current contract expires after they call Super Bowl 2027 in February.
“It felt like brothers, it felt like family,” Clark said while discussing the dynamic between Buck and Aikman. “Somebody is trying to make Troy Aikman look like the bastard son. You mention the leaks, I’ve been around there. I know how it starts to happen when they’re trying to build a narrative about you. I’ve been around there. I know what it is when they’ll have your back and support you through anything.. even when you’re wrong, when they’ll come out and make a statement, ‘we’re fully behind this guy.’ They haven’t done that for Troy.
“So I do feel like there’s a push to make him be the bad guy, whether he is or not. I know that they have ways of maneuvering to protect humans. And I know they have ways of putting people in positions where a narrative is built around them, so when they make their exit, they can seem like the good guys. Because I was a part of that.
“Contract negotiations happen… This is not about Joe Buck and Troy Aikman. This is about business. And it’s about business being done dirty.”
Clark learned he was laid off by ESPN during a Monday appearance on “NFL Live” and the day before the company announced another round of layoffs.
The former Super Bowl champion safety alleged that his firing was “purposeful” and that the network leaked the news of his firing to OutKick to humiliate him. He also claimed he was treated differently than his colleagues.
ESPN broke the news to Clark during mid-show due to concerns that it would leak, per The Athletic.
During a Sept. 20 interview on the “Sports Media with Richard Deitsch” podcast, Aikman explained that he thought he would’ve had a new contract done — and he hadn’t heard from ESPN at that point.
Clark, while on “The Pivot” podcast, explained that he hopes the two can figure things out to continue their legacy in the booth.
“I want to see them continue. It seems like that’s an impossibility. But we can’t forget what these two men have meant to football for 25 years together,” Clark said. “And my hopes is, because I love them both, I enjoyed being with Joe, I enjoyed being around Troy, as mean and surly as he could be sometimes. I hope they get to walk away with the respect of what they contributed to football together because I believe that’s important.”
Both Buck and Aikman — who called more than 300 games together for Fox — left the network for ESPN to step into the “Monday Night Football” booth in March 2022.
Clark cohosts “The Pivot” podcast and a weekly “Pivot” sports show with NFL Films.
He previously said he has a non-compete with ESPN for the remainder of his contract, which expires at the end of February, and he can’t work as an NFL analyst on a network until his contract with ESPN expires.
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