In life, we never know where our next opportunity might come about if we are looking for employment. That was the case for current ESPN NFL analyst Ryan Clark. While he was in the final years of his playing career, Clark put out a tweet asking if anybody was looking for an intern.
It turned out Clark received a direct message on Twitter from Trey Wingo, who was then at ESPN. Wingo and Clark re-lived that memory on Wingo’s podcast, Half-Forgotten History. While Wingo did not want to take a lot of credit for starting Clark’s media career, he did think it was cool that an NFL player was willing to work as an intern somewhere.
“I don’t like to take a lot of credit, but I do like to take a lot of credit for this because when you were playing, I was following you on Twitter… I just thought that was the coolest thing in the world that a guy who has a lot of success in the NFL was willing to be an intern somewhere.”
When the Super Bowl was in New Orleans in 2013, Clark got introduced to Seth Markman, who is the vice president of product for ESPN. When Clark got to New Orleans, he knew that if Wingo was willing to put in a good word for him, then he needed to give his best effort.
“I just thought that was cool because in a world where people don’t keep their word, you did that for me and that’s why I took it seriously. F that, this guy put his name on the line for me. If Trey does not DM me, I never go to work for that week.”
Clark was in the news recently as he signed a new contract extension at ESPN and according to Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, he was close to leaving ESPN for FOX. Still, the bond Wingo and Clark have formed might have helped Clark stay at ESPN even though Wingo is no longer with the network.
On this episode, Clark goes into his playing career, his battle with the sickle-cell trait, and remembering one of his teammates in Washington, Sean Taylor:
