The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Ryan Clark Talks 'The Pivot' Podcast, Netflix Partnership, Getting Fired From ESPN, Football Season + More

Episode Date: September 17, 2026

Today on The Breakfast Club, Ryan Clark Talks 'The Pivot' Podcast, Netflix Partnership, Getting Fired From ESPN, Football Season. Listen For More!YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastClubPower10...51FMSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Starting point is 00:00:35 Hold on. Every day I wake up. You're all finished or y'all's done. Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy. Just hilarious. Jolameen to God. We are the Breakfast Club.
Starting point is 00:00:48 We got a special guest in the building. Yes, indeed. We got the brother Ryan Clark. Welcome, brother. What's up, man? How you doing? How you feeling? Good morning, Ryan.
Starting point is 00:00:54 I'm doing well. I know you got places to be, so we got to get to it. Okay. You said something that fascinated me. Jesus Christ. Just jump right. No, because we got to talk. You said that if ESPN hadn't fired you,
Starting point is 00:01:06 you probably would have never taken the step that you took, which is to, you know, just go, I guess, fall in on the pivot, right? Why did somebody else have to stop believing in your value before you were willing to bet on yourself, especially with a pod called the pivot? Yeah, I think the biggest thing is it was the job I wanted. Right?
Starting point is 00:01:24 I interned that ESPN when I was playing, right? And so to me, watching Stewart Scott, seeing Tom Jackson, like, that was the job. And if you could get to Monday night football, like, that's iconic. And to be inside those stadiums and be able to talk to players, talk to coaches, talk to GMs, like, I earned that, right? I worked for that. And that was the goal I said.
Starting point is 00:01:47 And so there was a comfort in that. Like, no matter what, and I say this all the time. I just says, you know, Stuart Scott was like the dude that made me want to do TV because he said we can do it and be us and be successful. Right? and Stuart Scott, man, got cancer and passed. You still walk past every restaurant, though, and ESPN's on. And so that was going to stand.
Starting point is 00:02:07 So it was a comfort in it, right? It was a comfort in. You get to do what you love to do. You get paid a lot of money to do it at a place that is going to be an entity in this business forever. And so I think it was that level of comfort, being content in what I was doing that said, okay, you don't have to go start this other thing because I did have both, Shaldemand. Yeah, yeah, 100%. So for people that don't know what?
Starting point is 00:02:28 What exactly happened if they didn't hear your podcast? And if you don't know, he's 13-year NFL safety played for my team, the Giants. We look good, right? We bust some cowgirls ass. But anyway, another story another time. Reds, commanding, Steelers, Super Bowl champion. So what happened? Because people loved you, loved you on TV.
Starting point is 00:02:44 The ratings were great. And what happened? The right people didn't love me. And you know what that's. You said the white people didn't love me. I said the right. Oh, you said, right. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:02:54 He's hard to hear him sometimes. You already know what's going on. And I ain't eat, true. I know that you're just. But it taught me a lesson, right? It taught me a lesson that, like, you can't get, because you believe it's one thing, and even the perception of you might be one thing,
Starting point is 00:03:08 if you're not the decision maker, you can't get comfortable. To me, I'm coming from football. When you play football, if that film hot, you're going to play, right? If that film hot, you're going to get contracts because that's the way it works. That's not how TV works.
Starting point is 00:03:24 How corporate world works. Right, and I had to learn that. I struggled out of getting out of football. You know, like, a lot of people talk about struggling, like, not having a passion. I struggled not being able to tell people what I felt. You see what I'm saying? Like, because in football, because most of us are alphas and most of us come from a place of direct accountability, I could tell you when I got a problem with you, right?
Starting point is 00:03:49 Like, football is, like, growing up where we grew up in our community. You might throw hands with your best friend, but you're all going to dab off afterwards. And if somebody else comes to the crib, they got to. issue with both of us. That wasn't, that's not how corporate works, right? If you got the right relationships, if the right people like you, if you have the right executive in your corner, then you can get a show or you can have a setback and they'll make sure you're in the right position. I didn't necessarily have those relationships. And on top of that, if you see the way linear TV is going when you cut it on, if you look at, oh, this person's there, this person's
Starting point is 00:04:24 there, or this person has a new show. Some of the things that I taught you. Some of the things that I talked about and some of the things that I champion aren't in line with those. And I believe that not having that connection to with decision makers is a big reason why I was out as well. You know, ESPN called it a layoff, but you were adamant about, no, I was fired. Why is that distinction so important to it? Because everybody that got laid off got told on Tuesday. Only one person got told on Monday on set.
Starting point is 00:04:51 Me. That's the distinction. If it was, if it was fair. if it was right, if it was because of the reasons everyone else was laid off, right? We merged two companies, or ESPN merged with NFL network. So they were bringing in outside people, whether it was talent behind the scenes, and there had to be budget cuts, right? Whether it was Cam Newton, who's an NFL MVP called Rabbit,
Starting point is 00:05:26 who had been there 33 years, Charles Davis, who was respected in this business or the people behind the scenes, you didn't hear about any of them on Monday. Right? Only one person got let go on Monday. Only one person was let go on air. Only one person's firing or layoff
Starting point is 00:05:48 was leaked to a far-right conservative sports site. Yeah, got to the outkick, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Me. So when all those things line up, it lets you know that everything's not on the up and up, but it was also purposeful. It was also meant, in my opinion, to humiliate. Right?
Starting point is 00:06:10 And in leaking it to outkick, you now know if anybody is going to curry favor for you in this decision, it's going to be them because it's me. Oh, they're going to read the conservatives rejoice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. And in truth, a couple of days later, I think it was Sophie Cunningham. You know, that's when she came out and, you know, she was talking about the trans women playing in the league. Someone from Outkick, their first tweet was, what a great rebrand week for ESPN. Ryan Clark is let go and now Sophie Cunningham is leading news.
Starting point is 00:06:49 So it's letting you know what they think. And in my opinion, if you're going to give them the story, bro, it's so many reputable sports publications, whether it's, you know, Sports Illustrated, the New York Times, the athletic. If this is going to be as big a news as it turned out to be, why not give it to them? Because you knew who you were giving it to.
Starting point is 00:07:14 You knew the small amount of people within that building that knew it, and then, you know, the humiliation that you would, least purposed it to come along with my let you know me being laid off did they take care of you or was it one of those things they let you go and now you're going back and forth now meaning you have a family you have kids you gave a lot of years contractually it's already done right so so contractually there right like there's reasons why I can't be on a network right because as the contract goes if you are laid off you get to be paid throughout the end of your contract which for me is the last day of February right so
Starting point is 00:07:50 until that point you know I still have an opportunity opportunity to make money from them. And I think that's another reason, Charlottomay, when you're saying about betting on yourself, I can't sit up here and like puff my chest out, like, oh, I took. But I'm also doing this while not putting my family in a worst position by having to say, oh, I'm throwing all this money into this thing, or I'm betting on this thing alone while I'm not being paid. So I'm kind of getting to do both with a little bit of an umbrella. And And that's why it was imperative that in six weeks we figured out a way to get this off the ground and have it launch on Monday. I do think a lot of people don't really know that you got fired while you were on air.
Starting point is 00:08:34 Because it was about, this is what I was told. It was about to get leaked to Outkick. Outkick was about to put it out, run the story. And so somebody came to you like, I don't know, like an hour prior to say, hey, Ryan, this is about to come out. Like that's intentional to tell you that while you're on air. Yeah. So I don't, I'm going to be honest, right? Like there are some really good people in that building.
Starting point is 00:08:54 And some people, man, that, that I'm talking about, bro, that went to bat for me in so many different situations when other people in high office or executives weren't trying to understand who I am and why I think or move or believe what I move, the way I move. And so the person who called me is like he was my immediate boss, you know, and we had been through it, man. He was the person that gave me my internship, the dude I talked to to get there. And so we're doing the show, and I get a text message from our showrunner. And like, the way he texted me, I could tell he didn't know. He was like, RC, man. Oh, boy, say hit him up next break. You don't call people on commercial break during the show.
Starting point is 00:09:41 Right? You talk to him afterwards. And I had heard enough rumblings about things that I was like, this can't be good. right and so we get on the phone and he's like man this is this is a hard call um but you know they're going to let you go there you there too right so so it's already it's already in the the tone and the words used that okay this ain't really your call and uh he said um you know out kick the story was leaked to outkick out kit has has the story they're going to run with it and I don't want that to happen to you while you're on air.
Starting point is 00:10:22 Yeah. You know, and he was really, at least in my opinion, he did me a solid. Yeah, absolutely. Right? Because I do feel like it was about that humiliation. And he wanted to save me from that. Right. It was already going to be enough written.
Starting point is 00:10:38 There was already going to be enough laughs, enough jokes that I worked that day anyway. So I appreciated him. And I told him this, if anybody was going to be. going to call me, I wanted it to be the person that for the last 10 or 12 years has stood up for me. Right? I didn't want it to be one of those people that was laughing behind my back anyway. And so for like that, that piece of it wasn't like it just kind of was what it was. It just added to the rest of it. But that part of it wasn't that bad. Did Ryan Clark contribute to Ryan Clark getting fired? And what I thought about a lot. Okay. What I mean about that is where there
Starting point is 00:11:15 moments when you confuse being authentic with believing you could say or do anything because because you thought you was that value? No. Okay. Never. I think you weigh it every time, right? I think every conversation you have, you legitimately have to think to yourself what could be the consequences of this. In, you know, Colin Kaepernick all over, you know, this week he released his book.
Starting point is 00:11:43 In 2016, I was doing Mike and Mike. And the week before Mike Greenberg, wore, I forget the quarterback's name. I think his name was maybe Trevor Simeon or something. He went to Northwestern and he played for Denver and he was having like a good year. So Mike, so Greenie wore his jersey on air. Well, the next week I wore Colin Kaepernick jersey on it. Right?
Starting point is 00:12:06 And that was during the time he was protesting. I also believe there needed to be a change in this country in police brutality directed toward people of color. And so I agreed with him. And, you know, I get off of the set that day and I get a call and they're like, um, you can't do that. And I was like, I get it. I understand. He's like, you know, I said, but Greenie wore a jersey the week before.
Starting point is 00:12:31 And they said, yeah, but you know what wearing that jersey signified. I said, exactly, which is why I wore it. Before I did that, I talked to the people in my house though, right? I said, no, there could be a consequence from this, right? You know, I told my, my wife, like, there could be. fallout from this if I do this are you comfortable with those consequences and I and I've probably gotten further away from asking that question and now you kind of just ask yourself um but as more conversation started to be had you know I said this on our show Stephen A man took me to lunch
Starting point is 00:13:06 before last season sat me down and he was like RC you need to go have some meetings with with certain people you know and he told me you know you said this thing in support of Andrew Reese and that Angel Reese and that ruffled a lot of feathers or you said this and that you know you don't have you know not everybody's your fan there and so I tried to then go and build those relationships and share how I thought about things but it was kind of already too late but definitely right you you sit around and you go what could I have done differently to not be in this position and I can't make myself any different. Right?
Starting point is 00:13:51 I can't muffle myself. I'm also not going to dance. Right? I'm not going to start saying that things in our community aren't important or we haven't been wrong. And let me be very clear about this. I don't believe that everything black is right. Like I don't. Like sometimes we are wrong.
Starting point is 00:14:14 Sometimes we have to hold ourselves. accountable and I think we all try to do that as much as we possibly can but we also aren't always wrong but would would you ever want to be in a place again where you can't be yourself no you can't wear a jersey where you can't give your true honest opinion on how you feel about what's going on in the wmBA or the NBA or the NBA or the NFL or whatever it may be no uh I wouldn't but it's almost almost feels like you had to bite your tongue in some ways and you doing this the way that you're doing it now is almost like a release it's almost like a freedom yeah there's a there's a freedom in it for sure but there's also for me now the the understanding
Starting point is 00:14:58 of the separation right um like i started to pivot sport show because i knew i'd miss talking about football right like if that was the obvious pivot though no pun intended yeah like if you but if you wanted to hurt me just be like bro we're gonna take this touchscreen away from me right because like it's all i've i've loved football you know and jess will get this you know and i say this all the time you all of us we have kids right football until i had kids was the only thing i ever loved without reciprocation you know what I said like the first time I touched it I was like I know exactly what to do with that and I want to do this the rest of my life obviously you can't right but and so transition into into what I did gave me a piece of that to have and as much as we can talk football on our show or on
Starting point is 00:15:54 our podcast you can't do it to the level we're able to do it now on the pivot sports show right you don't have now we got the NFL footage because of our relationship with NFL films now I can do touch screens we can do all those things and i want that to be that thing and then i have the pivot as well and so now these things i'm passionate about and these things that i believe are part of my purpose i get to do that too but i can now separate those things and you know the person that's on this touchscreen this is what he believes that's not changing right but you don't have to as long as the two don't collide as it pertains to sports I can keep them separate.
Starting point is 00:16:38 No, if something happens on the field or if something happens to a football player or basketball player or whatever those things is, yeah, I'm gonna speak on it because I don't have to muffle myself in that way. But you also, I do think you have to be smart and understand what the platforms are for. And now in doing that, I control what news,
Starting point is 00:16:58 what part of the sport we talk about on the Pivot Sport Show. And y'all know this too, though. when you do shows like get up first take especially we're going to talk about things that involve social justice or what's going on in society right i'm only going to tell the truth and there were times when i was there especially you think 2017 um where we'd have production meetings and they would ask me about something, right? Because that's when the protest were going on. That's when you were hearing things from the highest office in the country.
Starting point is 00:17:40 And they'd asked me in the production meeting, I'd give my answer, and they'd tell me, well, we ain't fin to ask you. Right? Like, you won't be involved in that segment, which probably helped me, especially at that time, because they knew that what I was going to say wasn't going to be the popular thing. Now you fast forward to 2020, when some of that had switched, And they calling me to be on TV every day because they know what I thought.
Starting point is 00:18:06 They know what I felt. And if you remember at that time, it was starting to be acceptable to feel the way we did. You know, and so there were all these things that went on, and I kind of understood them. I probably didn't weigh them as heavily, Charlemagne, as I should have. And then now you kind of understand where we are, who we are, but having your own thing, there's so much power in that. The only one thing that you said I didn't like, you said that you felt like you couldn't be too black. I don't even know what that means. I didn't, I didn't understand that.
Starting point is 00:18:39 I can explain to you, right? Once, once this thing happened, right, people. Rock Legends, Rush, live in Vancouver for the final 50-something tour stop. And you could be there with an I-Hart Radio Epic Rock Adventure. Premium tickets. $1,000 spending cash. Plus, flights and hotel from tripcentral.ca. The smarter way to book travel.
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Starting point is 00:19:32 Those are the very people who I always say vote against their own economic interest, and they complain about the very thing they're receiving. It's raw. I knew that the issue of transgender athletes was not going well with a lot of black men. Roland Martin unfiltered. I went off, I said, this is exactly what I'm talking about. Y'all going to scream at Chanel, but you don't want to see a black luxury comfort. in the same vein.
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Starting point is 00:20:19 In my circle, people close to me, they hear things, right? and you hear him and because they love you, they tell you. Honestly, I sometimes believe part of love is probably being like, I know him so well I won't share this thing because I know how he is. Right? I'm going to protect him from himself. That's real.
Starting point is 00:20:43 You know, I only say that or I said that thing because it was a direct quote from someone. That you were being too black. Yes. Got you. You know what I'm saying? It wasn't, it wasn't me making this thing up or pulling this thing out of thin air and saying, man, I just felt like I was too black. It was said that I was. Right. And so when it said, it's like, oh, yeah, this is the thing. And you know, it's so crazy because I said that on our episode. And what happens is in 50 minutes, people like pull these little pieces from it. Right. Like the big thing was that I cried about losing a job, but I didn't, right? I was talking for 50 minutes and the only moment that made me emotional was talking about like people like y'all or like people when I'm walking down the street who tell me they're proud of me. You know what I'm saying?
Starting point is 00:21:45 Who tell me like because you do your job the way you do it and the way you represent us, that matters to us. I talked for 49 other minutes or 48 other minutes about the job, and I never got emotional. Right. I understood what that was. But I don't, when you come, if you don't come from, like, where we come from, you don't understand what it means to, like, have the respect of people you care about, right? Of, you know what I mean? Like, when I go to church, like, I'm walking out of church and people are stopping me and telling me,
Starting point is 00:22:22 like, they love what I do, and they appreciate the rep. way I represent. They tell me don't change. Like, that matters to me. And so when we got to to that part of the show, when Fred asked the question, because like the show wasn't scripted, I wasn't really necessarily ready for it. And it made me think about like all those moments that leave me with pride and all those moments that made me feel like who I was was acceptable. You know, I grew up on the West Bank and I don't know if it's like this in places. you from like if you're not from like the city city city people act funny with you you know what mean like they'll make the distinction like one of my homeboys called me the other day he coaches
Starting point is 00:23:07 in pittsburgh and he said he met this woman and she was from new orleans and he told her he's like oh man my best friend from new orleans and like he told her like the exact city i'm from and she's like that ain't new orleans like that's a real thing right you're from new york you're from queens you from New York, but if you're from Albany or Binghamton, they don't consider that New York. Right, and so I live, Jess, I live 10 minutes from the Superdome. Like, that's why I grew up.
Starting point is 00:23:34 You know what I'm saying? But because there's a bridge in between, they're like, nah, you ain't from there. And so, man, I went home, and I remember I went to see DeJante Murray play for the Pelicans. So I'm sitting at court side, and this dude from the other side yells out, he was like, you ain't from the West Bank, you're from New Orleans. I damn near cried. And I know life's like a simple thing,
Starting point is 00:23:53 to other people, but to me, when you grow up, everybody telling you that you ain't from a place, and whether it's your work, the way you represent or whatever it is, like, all that's forgotten. And they're like, nah, man, you represent us. It's like all those things were important to me. And so it was cool to get a chance to do that. But the other piece of it was, like, if you've seen, man, like, I've been super quiet. Right? Like, we did that show and I just went to work, right?
Starting point is 00:24:19 All these shows had think pieces about what happened on our show or what happened. and you know we in the world what people feel like you got to shoot back at everything and trust me like that is my personality right like i'm very comfortable with combat you know but you start looking at the landscape and my thing is like i sat back from it and i was like i don't want to be like that person right i don't want to feel like i'm always into something you know and then you know you learn that like people are just doing that to drive views People are just doing that to get clicks. Why am I going to give you a second layer of a conversation? So I just pulled back from all that.
Starting point is 00:25:00 You know, I was very grateful for what y'all did the day after and subsequent days and helping me and supporting me. And I wanted to come on the show, but I knew I had emotion I couldn't talk about. Yeah. Right? And I didn't want to come on here and it had to be all about what happened to me because truly what it's about now is what's happening. You knew Netflix was coming.
Starting point is 00:25:23 Yep. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I text you about that a while ago. April, yeah, yeah, you know what I mean? And so just trying to figure out what our next move was. Oh, go ahead, Jeff. Do you regret anything? Now, no.
Starting point is 00:25:37 The day of maybe. Why? The day of maybe. Okay. You know what I'm saying? Because you have a responsibility to people. Right? And I think you have the responsibility
Starting point is 00:25:54 to the people in your household first, but also if you grow up like us where not everybody has the means that you have, you start to take care of a lot of people. You know what I mean? Like, my mother is retired, my father's retired.
Starting point is 00:26:15 They're doing fine and they're well, but I want them to always be all right. Right? I don't want my mom to ever have to go back to a place of like when we were little like oh i can't buy this thing this week or i could but i can buy that one right and because of our blessings i had gotten my immediate circle out of that place right so that was the the first part of it i thought like damn you know maybe i let some some people down i also felt like the way i utilize my platform that the people who didn't necessarily agree with me,
Starting point is 00:26:54 wanted to devalue that and diminish those opportunities or the space I held and that maybe I had let them win a little bit. So that was part of it. And it wasn't like, I regret it being myself. I think you look at more the result than the process, right?
Starting point is 00:27:12 I was fine with who I was in the process, but then the result, you're like, damn, you know, what did I contribute to that? But I also think, like, you have to have that level of awareness and accountability. Right? Not that I now have a new boss because, you know, we're the bosses, but there has to be an understanding of how did you get there,
Starting point is 00:27:31 what part did you play in it? Because we can't always just be pointing the finger and blaming other folks for our circumstances. I can't do that. I commend you for not going back on the air. Because I think I would have went back on the air and let everybody know, hey, they just fired me. I know you thought about it for a time.
Starting point is 00:27:47 No, I didn't. I asked. I asked the question. I said, well, should I be done then? Right? And I can be honest with you, if he would have been like, finish the show, I'd have to finish the show. Oh, so they pulled you off? Yes.
Starting point is 00:27:59 They say, yeah, I think I think you should be done. And so, yeah, and so, you know, there wasn't really my decision, you know, at the time. Did you see who, you know, a lot of times when things like that happen, you see who's really by your side? Yes. Did you see a lot of change in your so-called friends or even the people? that you rode for in the past kind of just move away no everybody's still with you no i don't know i mean i don't know if you say everybody right because i guess i can't quantify who i've rode for and this and this but there's no one i can think of right now who i had a relationship with who didn't
Starting point is 00:28:38 show me even more how much they were down for like to be honest and and that's just not that's just not in my immediate family like that's on a on a on a long larger scale of humans. You know, I didn't, you kind of just kind of trotted along your life and like you never really know. Right. Like how people feel about you. And I just did something with the athletic
Starting point is 00:29:03 and I watch a lot of movies, probably too many. And in the Fulton now stars, Augustus Waters, the dude who ends up passing, he had his funeral while he was alive. And his best friend talked and his girlfriend talked. I felt like I was sitting there. in the pews of that. That's my movie.
Starting point is 00:29:22 Right, but you know what I'm saying, though? Because there was Charlemagne saying this or just saying this or envy saying that. There was like people stepping up for me and having my back and supporting me publicly. Right? It wasn't just like, I got a ton of text messages and phone calls, but it was like people publicly saying like, what happened to you was not right. We won't just be quiet about it. And here is what you mean to us.
Starting point is 00:29:48 here is what you mean to meet. And that was important, right? And so, yeah, man, I felt like more to anything, people are showing out, right? You think on the day we announced, the day we announced Netflix, we announced it by ourselves, right? Our producer, Alicia, was just like, no, I wanna make sure.
Starting point is 00:30:09 Yeah, she was like, I wanna make sure that people know we're doing this. And like a big part of it was, like, she wanted to make sure that folks, do yeah just because like this one organization or entity a network network doesn't see it doesn't mean nobody does right and if you look at it the next day like Netflix announced like four other podcasts it was nothing compared to the love and support that we got I know that's a fact they didn't
Starting point is 00:30:37 just announce four of the podcast they announced like the whole new slate including Cat Williams you know they announced that they was resigning their original shows like Pete Davidson none of them had to pop like the pivot. Right. And that was, but that was the people. Right.
Starting point is 00:30:52 That was people supporting on Monday when we, so the whole big thing, right, y'all, and I had been working on the show, like probably, I gave it like a day. And the first thing I said, like I got it.
Starting point is 00:31:05 On the first Monday of football, I will be on TV somewhere. Right? We will have a show. I didn't know how I was going to do it, but that was my idea, right? September 14th,
Starting point is 00:31:14 I will not let Monday night football come on. I will not let a Sunday, or a weekend of football happened and I'm not somewhere breaking down football on Monday. Period. It wasn't going to happen. So I started working on that right away. And so like you're you're doing that man and you're you're you're in that that mode and it's like how do I get it done? Right. How do I get it done? And the big thing was the people who were involved in helping me were like, bro, you got to put this out. Right. We got to make this big. And I was like, no, I'm not going to announce it at all.
Starting point is 00:31:48 you know because my thing was if I don't announce it all people can talk about is what I do right they don't have to watch the show and be honest with themselves about what the show is now you put out a week before and you start promoting it people who don't want you to succeed oh we know what this is going to be yeah right they start knocking it before they can even see it right this is not going to be this it's not going to be that whereas if I give you two hours and they had to move me enough that they said they were like we want people to be able to tune in right as it comes on that's why we went with the announcement with jalen hurts and odell beckham junior right so people could at least know it was coming and so i was like we dropped that at 12 and then we give them the show
Starting point is 00:32:36 and now we don't if i don't produce if me and chan and fred don't produce and the show sucks that i got to accept that. But if it's good, then they have to say it. And it looks good. The set was the first thing called my, like, oh, my God. Before I even heard anything you said, I was like, oh, this set fire. I mean, I've listened to you Channing and Fred for so long. I'm like, that's the easy part. But the set looked incredible. But that was important. You know, so I hosted inside the NFL with NFL films. And so the president, Ross Kettle, the vice president, Keith Cosrow, like, they're like family to me. And you talk about people stepping up. You know, you walk into their office with this crazy idea,
Starting point is 00:33:15 hey, me, Chan and Fred going to do a studio show. You know, you're expecting, ah, you got like six weeks, brother. That's not going to happen. And the answer was, whatever you need, you got it. And I think that's what this entire thing has taught me, right? In one situation, I didn't have the relationships. And y'all know this.
Starting point is 00:33:37 I didn't have the relationships I needed. But in moving forward, I had everything. I needed. And you know, Jeff, like, y'all know, bro, like, that don't come together like that. Yeah. Right? If I'm on the other side, if I'm on the betting against RC side, I'm like, he might be sitting down talking about football. He ain't going to be talking about it in studio like that. And so that was like the huge blessing in what we were able to do. I just got two more questions because I know you way past your hard out, but when you were playing
Starting point is 00:34:06 football, you understood that eventually, like, the team could replace you. Why is that lessen harder to remember in television? I don't think I think it was easier to remember in television, you know, that they could replace you because there's no metric
Starting point is 00:34:25 really. Like they don't care that you what is it, the Q rating as well, four of them, right? They don't get four. Yeah. You know, like they don't care about that. And like there's no scoreboard.
Starting point is 00:34:41 Right? Football had the scoreboard, so you knew. And I think there were enough people there who kind of supported me, had my back, and it was like, damn, you know, every year you're in this position, you know, nominated for sports in me. The two shows that your mainstays on, you know, both are nominated, one's one, two in a row. You know, it's like, man, there's a chemistry going there. And I did believe that it was a possibility I wouldn't get a new contract
Starting point is 00:35:14 but coming into the year, ESPN having a Super Bowl, our shows that we were all on doing so well, I did think I'd have the possibility of getting through the year. And I don't necessarily know if it's about feeling like I couldn't be replaced because like I said, man,
Starting point is 00:35:31 they replaced Stuart Scott, right? Not in the negative way like I did, but when people still watch ESPN, I did. think that they'd want to keep the chemistry of what we built on so many different platforms and the comfort of the viewers knowing I'm a CRC on this for the year. And so it wasn't, it's the nastiness in which it happened was worse to me than like it actually happening. Like I can accept the first world problem I have right now of not being on ESPN but being paid
Starting point is 00:36:04 the rest of my contract and understand that there are people in much worse situations. Even that got laid off the day after me, right? But it was more kind of just like the nastiness I felt behind it. Did ESPN teach you the difference between being celebrated by an institution and being valued by an institution? Yes. Behind the scenes, to be honest with you, I was neither. You don't feel like you were celebrated all value.
Starting point is 00:36:34 By who? Wow. Right? Now, if you talk to the people. that dealt with me like this absolutely whether you're talking about Stephen A Dano Marcus Mina Laura showrunner from NFL Live Lidel producer and showrunner of Monday Night Countdown you know Aisha Marco Mark Isman them people absolutely all the time right this can't go without you hey we can do this because you have this skill set like all of those things but
Starting point is 00:37:06 while you're doing that you're constantly hearing that such and such doesn't like you. Right? And if you look at my career there, outside of like earning certain jobs, I was never pushed to the forefront to be the guy. Right? I was never given like the leeway of,
Starting point is 00:37:28 now we got you. Like you even look at some of the scandals or like some of the things and issues they've had and you think about like, Some of the stuff that became mostly for me, it was like social media fodder. They never said Ryan Clark's out a guy. They never put out a statement that we're standing behind him. They've done that for other people.
Starting point is 00:37:53 They never did that for me. And so from a celebration standpoint, no, I think what was celebrated about me was more the people who viewed the shows and understood my value there. Well, people love you. Thank you. And they trust your voice. And congratulations. Thank you so much. I appreciate you.
Starting point is 00:38:12 I know you got a wrong. We appreciate you for joining us this morning. I can tell you really working out. I thought you was just doing it for a gram because you'd be in there dancing. I see the bicep tired. I see what going on. Right. Thank you, brother.
Starting point is 00:38:24 We appreciate you again. It's the breakfast club. Good morning. Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up. The breakfast club. You don't finish or y'all done? Didn't catch the latest Roland Martin unfiltered podcast?
Starting point is 00:38:40 Here's what you missed. People wake up and go. Damn, wait, hold up. They changed all of that. Yes. It's real. This is a wholesale attack. It is targeting black people in every federal agency.
Starting point is 00:38:52 It's raw. White folks have never allowed that reckoning to last more than a decade. Catch Roland Martin's daily commentary on the Black Information Network. And download Roland Martin unfiltered on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts. Or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.

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