Ryan Clark doesn’t take online insults lightly, and he’s not afraid to speak on it himself. In a recent interview, Clark admits his words are frequently mistaken for beef. But rather than brush it off, he’d often reach out himself to set the record straight.

“I’m not going to be understood all the time,” Ryan Clark said on Not Just Football with Cam Heyward. “But because I wanted to be, if they said something, I shot back. So now we in the thing or just because I am actually good at the job and I can put the words together the right way, I can communicate it. Even if I’m telling a story about mine or if I’m commenting on something somebody says, it could be taken as an insult or taken as beef.

“And I was like, it was just happening too much. And I also realized that I’m too old to get in a fist fight. … But bro, I’ll be real with you, I’ve offered many of them in my older age.

“I’ve been like, ‘Hey man, you seem to be talking about me a lot, and I don’t ever talk about you. We must have a personal problem. Do I need to pull up?’ Like, is this a conversation we need to have one-on-one? And whatever happens after that, man, I’m totally comfortable with it. Or telling people straight up, ‘Hey man, let’s just meet somewhere, catch the fade, and move on…'”

In his 11 years with ESPN, Clark became known for his tendency to create controversy with his opinions. One time, he said that Shedeur Sanders’ poor performance in the 2025 NFL Draft was the result of racial discrimination based on his physical appearance.

He also pushed back against calling Tom Brady, Drew Brees, and Peyton Manning “generational talents,” a take that didn’t sit well with many viewers.

In September 2025, he also questioned Peter Schrager’s credibility for never playing in the NFL, while discussing Brown and Lamb’s performance. However, he later apologized on X.

Clark’s comments follow his shocking dismissal from ESPN. He was informed of the development while he was shooting an NFL Live episode. ESPN had planned to break the news Tuesday, July 21, but the network reportedly moved fast so Clark wouldn’t hear it from someone else first, according to Sports Business Journal’s Richard Deitsch.

Clark has since spoken out a lot about his experience at ESPN, recently claiming that he “struggled” at work. In his tell-all episode on his podcast, Clark also shed a few tears while talking about the things he’d liked to change during this stint. He acknowledged that there were a few things he wanted to change, because he felt he “let [some people] win.”

Other notable faces were also laid off along with Clark. However, many seem to think that Clark’s firing was due to his record.