Former ESPN analyst Ryan Clark addressed his abrupt dismissal from the network in a Friday appearance on the Pivot Podcast. The Athletic's Andrew Marchand reported Wednesday that Clark was informed of his dismissal from ESPN while filming NFL Live. At that point, Clark said he was told a story was about to leak about his dismissal from the network. Clark said around the 8:00 mark of the podcast he had gotten a "heads up" about a potential split between himself and the network last summer from fellow ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith. After joining ESPN as an analyst immediately after retiring from his NFL playing career in 2015, Clark has regularly appeared on NFL Live in addition to First Take, Get Up and SportsCenter.