Former NFL safety and Ryan Clark has made the switch from analyst to anchor with ease.
The former Superbowl winning Pittsburgh Steelers player retired from the game in 2015 and landed his first paid TV gig one month later.
After nearly ten years analysing football for ESPN, he has now the anchor of Inside the NFL on the CW.
Talking to Peter Schwartz of Barret Sports Media the affable analyst described the past eight years on the analyst job.
“It’s been a lot of fun. The comfort continues to grow. It was a learning curve for sure and not just learning how to host the show but learning how to host the show in a unique way where there weren’t many templates for me to follow”.
Poignantly using a sporting metaphor to describe his profession he said, “I ‘m a point guard but I’m not John Stockton. I’m Chris Paul with the Hornets, I’m Russell Westbrook with OKC, (and) I’m Isiah Thomas with Detroit. You want me to facilitate but in the biggest moments, you’re going to need me to score. That was the biggest learning curve and I’d be lying to you if I say I fully have it licked right now but I do think week-by-week, I get better at it.”
After landing the dream job Clark was in contact with former host James Brown, who was part of the furniture from 2008 to 2023.
“I just wanted to say thank you to him and what an honor it was to sit in the same seat that he sat in for so many years doing an amazing job,” Clark said. “His advice was to be me and to host the show in the way that’s unique to me and that’s it’s still a game even though it’s a different job. I think that’s what I’ve been trying to do.”
He played for the New York Giants, Redskins and the Steelers in a storied career, making 929 tackles, 16 interceptions and four sacks.
