Ryan Clark Gets Blunt About ESPN Firing: 'Dictatorship'

Former Pittsburgh Steelers starter and Super Bowl champion Ryan Clark made headlines this week with unfortunate circumstances.

The long-time NFL player was let go by ESPN as part of a larger number of employees being laid off. While Clark's name was the biggest in the Steelers community, others like Tom Peliserro, Cam Newton and Charles Davis were also fired by the "Worldwide Leader in Sports."

Clark shared an inspirational video after the news, posting a video of him working out at the gym and talking about moving forward. He has since opened up more about the situation, getting candid about the firing on his podcast The Pivot.

"Let me put this to bed, I wasn’t laid off. I was fired. [ESPN} is using ‘laid off’ as a cover and a camouflage for what they already intended on doing," Clark said.

"For three years we never shied away from any topic. We did this year… I couldn’t be too Black. What makes me sad is, in even trying adjust to be more of what certain people wanted, they still fired me.

"There’s a group of individuals who wanted to devalue my voice…I feel like I let them win."

Then, Clark shared how he feels ESPN is run.

"This was a dictatorship. A person, or group of persons, very small group, they did the poll majority… I know how important you think he is. And you work with him every day. I don’t care how important you think he is. I don’t like him. People like me don’t like him," Clark said.