Last summer, former NFL safety Ryan Clark had an opportunity to fill in hosting ESPN’s NFL Live. Clark was already an NFL analyst on ESPN since 2015, but hosting a show was something that had been on his mind. He was getting a taste of it as the host of his podcast The Pivot, but getting an opportunity to host NFL Live was an opportunity that he was waiting for.
“I was terrible,” said Clark. “It probably took me like 30 minutes to even be average or below average but it was an experience and it gave me so much respect for the people who do the job. I’ve been hosting The Pivot for two years. The more I got a taste of those opportunities the more I wanted to do it.”
And doing it he is as the new host of the iconic show Inside the NFL which moved to over-the-air television this season on The CW Network. Clark is making the adjustment of going from just being an analyst and a panelist on the show to now hosting a show. Each week, he has been getting more and more comfortable with his new job and he’s having a good time with it.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” said Clark. “The comfort continues to grow. It was a learning curve for sure and not just learning how to host the show but learning how to host the show in a unique way where there weren’t many templates for me to follow.”
Going from being an analyst on a show is kind of like going from shooting guard to point guard on a basketball team. One minute, you’re asked to pump in 30 points a night and the next minute you’re asked to distribute the basketball to get all of your teammates involved.
Clark has adapted well to being a point guard on television because he’s already been a point guard before. He won a state championship in 1997 playing point guard for Archbishop Shaw High School in Marrero, Louisiana where he also earned All-District, All-Parish, and All-City Honors.
And those point guard abilities helped him when he played football for LSU and then in the NFL.
“I was the point guard of the defense,” said Clark. “As great as the players were that I played with, it was my job to make sure everybody was tied in.”
But what really makes Clark unique as a host is that you can’t take the analyst out of him. He may be in host chair and bringing in the likes of Channing Crowder, Jay Cutler, Chad Johnson, and Chris Long for their analysis, but Clark continues to find a balance of both hosting and always sharing his thoughts on what’s happening in the NFL.
Ryan Clark is growing as a host while also contributing as an analyst.
“I’m a point guard but I’m not John Stockton,” said Clark. “I’m Chris Paul with the Hornets, I’m Russell Westbrook with OKC, (and) I’m Isaiah Thomas with Detroit. You want me to facilitate but in the biggest moments, you’re going to need me to score. That was the biggest learning curve and I’d be lying to you if I say I fully have it licked right now but I do think week-by-week, I get better at it.”
With regards to his aspirations for being a host, Clark has observed the work of ESPN’s Mike Greenberg, Laura Rutledge, and Scott Van Pelt and has worked with all of them as an analyst. But those observations were strictly about hosting and not necessarily about the dual role as host/analyst because that’s a job that hasn’t been done much if at all when it comes to shows about the NFL.
But Rutledge did offer one piece of important advice.
“I talked a little bit to Laura just about hosting in general,” said Clark. “She’s always been encouraging telling me I could be great at it but you gotta be you.”
And that was the same advice that Clark received from the only host that he reached out to after he was hired to do Inside the NFL.
Out of respect, Ryan Clark reached out to veteran NFL host James Brown, the previous host of Inside the NFL when it was on Showtime. Brown had always been complimentary of Clark throughout his career so Clark wanted to call him to pick his brain about hosting Inside the NFL.
“I just wanted to say thank you to him and what an honor it was to sit in the same seat that he sat in for so many years doing an amazing job,” said Clark. “His advice was to be me and to host the show in the way that’s unique to me and that’s it’s still a game even though it’s a different job. I think that’s what I’ve been trying to do.”
Another source of inspiration for Clark was legendary broadcaster Bryant Gumbel who is best known for being a sportscaster and host of The Today Show on NBC as well as the host of Real Sports on HBO. Gumbel received a lifetime achievement award at the Sports Emmys last May, the same night that Clark received a Sports Emmy for “Outstanding Personality/Studio Analyst”.
Before the show, Ryan Clark was able to meet Gumbel along with his family and friends.
“Getting the opportunity to talk with him, his best friends, his wife, and his brother for 20 minutes before the show at the reception,” said Clark. “Some of the things that they said to me about the way I do my job, about how much they admire some of the positions I’ve been put in the way I executed…you can’t put a price on that sort of love and that sort of kindness. It’s inspiring. Listen…I’m not going to be that because I didn’t start as that and I understand. It was great to get an opportunity to speak to him and see him win that award.”
Clark was an undrafted free agent out of LSU signing with the Giants in 2002. He went on to play for the Steelers earning a Pro Bowl selection in 2011 and helped the Steelers win Super Bowl XLIII. He finished his career playing for Washington but signed a one-day contract with the Steelers in 2015 so that he could retire as a Steeler.
He would then make one of the smoothest transitions from player to broadcaster in sports history. In fact, Clark was the first active football player to have a television contract when he signed with ESPN in 2015.
“I just asked to go to ESPN one day and be on First Take and I did well,” said Clark. “People reached out to me so I interned there and that’s how it happened.”
Ryan Clark initially became comfortable in front of a television camera and a microphone when he played college football at LSU. Their longtime Sports Information Director Mike Barnett, who is approaching his 30th anniversary at the school, would have tutored Clark with speaking to the media and also trusted him with reporters during difficult circumstances.
“I wouldn’t speak after every game to the media but I did speak after every loss,” said Clark. “After every loss, he would come get me, we’d walk over to the media area and he would just give me the rundown of what they might ask me and ways I could answer questions. He’d always tell me why he came to get me and he said it was because I know, in this situation, you’ll be great in front of the camera.”
As Ryan Clark continued to grow as a player and eventually enjoyed a terrific NFL career, he continued to excel speaking into a microphone setting the scene for his life after football. He always liked to talk, even in school…maybe a little too much…or maybe not.
“Unlike most people who do this job, I had straight A’s in school but always had C’s in conduct,” said Clark. “My parents always told me I talked too dang much. Now, when I’m able to buy them things and take care of them, I said ‘See it worked out pretty well.’”
Ryan Clark continues to prove the doubters wrong.
As an undrafted free agent, he enjoyed a 13-year NFL career. Now, as a broadcaster, he continues to say “take that” to the naysayers as he’s built a tremendous career as an analyst and now as a host. In fact, he still carries with them that feeling of being an undrafted free agent when he feels that he’s been overlooked for a gig.
“Every day, somebody gets a job that I think I deserve,” said Clark. “I feel it every time that there’s an opportunity that I feel I should at least be considered for and I’m not and that’s never going to change.”
How Ryan Clark persevered and became a Pro Bowl player and a Super Bowl champion as a player should be an inspiration for every young football player who has a dream of playing at the highest level.
How he’s been able to not only make the transition to broadcasting but become a star at it as well should not only be an inspiration to other football players who want to do it as well, but any young broadcaster breaking into the business.
“I didn’t always have a ton of people who believed I could do it,” said Clark. “But I always did and always made sure that because I believed I could do it, I worked really hard to do it and get it and then that way if I do fail then I know it’s not for me and it’s not my fault. It just wasn’t my time. And I’m comfortable with that.”
In other words, don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t do something.
