Travis Kelce is among the thousands who have publicly expressed their support for Ryan Clark in the wake of his unceremonious, on-air termination from ESPN.
The Kansas City Chiefs tight end liked a video that Clark, 46, shared via Instagram on Tuesday, July 21, where he addressed his live broadcast firing.
“Proof of Life…” Clark wrote in the caption. “Before the madness of yesterday, I woke up, got in my Tundra, drove to Planet Fitness, and got to work.”
He continued, “The rest of the day was eventful, but the journey continues. My peace is with God, and my humility comes from within. I’ll continue to build myself so the world can never strip me of what’s real. Get moving today y’all! 🙏🏾.”
Kelce, 36, and Clark, a former NFL safety, were never teammates, but their careers overlapped by two seasons. The former debuted with the Chiefs in 2013, while the latter retired after the 2014 NFL season.
Clark has worked for ESPN for most of his NFL retirement. The network hired him in 2015 as an NFL analyst, and he has appeared on a variety of ESPN shows, including SportsCenter, NFL Live and First Take.
He was one of several big names that ESPN let go this week, with longtime baseball voice Karl Ravech reportedly being laid off on Tuesday, along with Cam Newton and Tom Pelissero.
“Over the past several months, we’ve made significant progress integrating the NFL assets that we acquired into ESPN,” ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro wrote in a letter to employees, obtained by Us on Tuesday. “Throughout this process, we have taken the time to carefully evaluate our collective teams, resources and organizational structure to best position us for the future. As a result, we had to make some difficult decisions about job impacts that we will be communicating today.”
He continued, “While most of the job impacts are tied to the acquisition, we will also notify colleagues in other parts of the company today that their positions have been impacted. We are committed to treating employees with compassion and respect and to providing support as they navigate this transition.”
Pitaro’s memo came a day after The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reported that Clark had been laid off while in the middle of a live broadcast.
“He did not finish the program,” Marchand reported. “ESPN was expected to inform him tomorrow morning when it is anticipated the network [will] inform more employees of the layoffs.”
Sources explained the awkward timing was “due to media inquiries into his departure and a fear that the news would leak out before they could inform him.” ESPN had planned to lay him off with the others on Tuesday.
