Ever since NFL analyst Ryan Clark was included in ESPN’s latest batch of employee layoffs, there’s been a lot of discussion surrounding his time with the network.
It hasn’t all been positive. Now, one of Clark’s former colleagues at ESPN is sounding off too, and she didn’t mince words.
Sage Steele, Dan Dakich Put Ryan Clark on Blast
As noted, there have been a lot of differing opinions related to Clark being laid off or fired. Now, another critic has emerged.
It all went down on a recent airing of “The Sage Steele Show.”
“There were a long list of things that Ryan Clark got away with,” Steele said. “A lot of race-baiting, it always went back to race. Remember he wouldn’t go on the air with me? To talk football because of my opinion on something completely separately…”
Before Steele even had a chance to finish her thought, former Indiana Hoosiers head coach turned broadcaster Dan Dakich interrupted her.
“If I could cut you off there, and I apologize,” Dakich said. “I would have fired him immediately. Who the hell do you think you are? Is what I would have said. Get your [expletive] and get out of here. You are the self-described, and this is from Ryan Clark, ‘the best analyst in the world.’ Okay, great, and you’re not going to go on, and talk football, because why now?”
Steele replied, “It actually doesn’t matter why. What is your job? It’s to talk football.”
Did Ryan Clark Deserve To Be Fired?@dandakich pic.twitter.com/dWtjrGzOJa
— Sage Steele (@sagesteele) August 1, 2026
Should declining to go on TV to talk football with Steele have been a firable offense? Dakich certainly thinks so.
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Last year, Clark confirmed that he refused to work with Steele, and he revealed it was due to controversial comments she made about former President Barack Obama on Jay Cutler’s podcast.
“The one thing, and the only thing, I took offense to in her Jay Cutler interview was her saying that with President Obama’s father not being a part of his life, why would he want to consider himself Black?” Clark explained on “The Michele Tafoya Show” (via Awful Announcing). “As a Black man who understands that no matter what President Obama decides to check off as his race, he’s going to be seen [by] an entire country as a Black man…
“If policemen say, ‘The suspect is a Black, tall, slender, light-skinned man,’ President Obama would fit that description. He’s also a man that was married to a Black woman. He was also a man that was raising two young Black daughters. And I felt that was disrespectful to say, ‘Why would someone running with that blood running through their veins want to represent that culture?’”
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Then, Clark recalled the day that he refused to work with Steele.
“And what I told the producer that day, Michelle, was, ‘Hey, would it be possible if Matt Barrie was to ask me my questions?’ If he was able to conduct my segment,” Clark said. “Because what I know is this… chemistry is a large part of TV. It’s a large part of our ability to be able to entertain. And I didn’t want my discomfort with what she said to show on screen.
“And so, that day, I asked, ‘Could Matt Barrie do my segment?’ They said, ‘No.’ And they said, ‘We’re going to have to tell Sage that,’ because they didn’t want her to be uncomfortable. And I was like, ‘I don’t either, which is why I’m asking for Matt to do that segment.’ A few weeks later, everything had blown over. My feelings weren’t the same. I felt like I could work with her in a very cordial way and be entertaining and respectful when she asked me questions. And so, I was able to work with her then, but for that day, I was uncomfortable doing.”
Clark confirmed that they eventually worked together again, so this was short-lived. However, it seems there is still some tension between Clark and Steele given their history.
Clark had been at ESPN for more than a decade when he was laid off, and he was told the news during a commercial break while filming “NFL Live.” Clark has a lot of fans, but he obviously has a lot of detractors as well.
