July 24, 2026 • 10 mins
ESPN fired Ryan Clark during a commercial break and he didn't even finish the show. The thing is, when you're in professional spaces, there's always a possibility that maybe this is racism. I know the feeling well.
---
Follow Hood Politics:
Follow Prop:
https://www.instagram.com/prophiphop/
https://www.tiktok.com/@prophiphop
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Calls media.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
The difficult part about doing anything while black, especially in
like professional corporate entertainment, anything.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Is like you never really know.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
You can't really tell, Like there's no way to actually
know for a fact, what if there was a pie
chart of percentage of my performance, my personality or just
internalize systemic racism. Just it's the part that's so maddening.
(00:43):
It's that it's so hard to tell because it's a
part of you that like, you know, like the old
folks will say you get the unction, or like you
just you could kind of feel it, you know. I
have found with my my cis gendered straight women in
(01:06):
my life, they just kind of, you know, some don't
sit right, you know what I'm saying, Like that they
they just kind of know if something in them just
don't feel right like they know now of course obviously
I'm speaking in gross generalities, but like that feeling where
you just like I don't know if I trust this nigga,
Like some just some ain't right about Because if you're
(01:29):
in a relationship like mine, like I said, it's sis
gender heterosexual relationship. I say it like that because that's
the only one I'm an expert in you just kind
of like you should like like if you got a
homie that like or a work friend that your your
lady is like I don't know about because like just
(01:54):
take note of that because they just be kind of
they be kind of knowing. Oh I just noticed this
is the other mic. This is to my rapping mic.
It's just over and the should we leave it in
the shot anyway?
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Let's leave it in?
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Well, you know what I could do is just lower it.
Please leave all this, Matt, this is hilarious. Uh, that's
my other that's my wrap mic. Move that over there, Okay,
And I feel like just in just in the bones,
we just kind of like you just kind of know
(02:27):
what it kind of just kind of feel like somethinging.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
This ain't this isn't just normal normal Like you just
didn't do a good job, y'all.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
They just fired Ryan Clark just like on the screen,
and it just reminds me of doing anything while black
tapping with me. Okay, So here's the thing. According to
the athletic uh, ESPN is doing a pretty decent round
of firing, like they letting go of a bunch of
(02:59):
people and is this is the part that's so maddening
a company can do that. I mean you just like
it's a major corporation, it's entertainment. You can decide what
talent you want, like whether it has to do with
interpersonal performance, whatever the case may be.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Like you allowed to fire people as you deem fit.
It's your company.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
You don't have to be kind, gentle, discreet, you don't
have to be none of that.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
It's show company. It is what it is. But they
fired Braud on the NFL Live show. They fired him
on air. Now.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Ryan Clark also has this thing called The Pivot Podcast
where him and another former pro athlete they interview other
athletes specifically around and different people specifically around like healing
and manhood and trauma. It is in a lot of ways,
(04:00):
as a flawed man as he is, he has been
a great example for whether it's gen X or elder millennial,
like dudes really needing an example of a man that's
willing to cry and process his emotions. It's actually been.
He's been a great addition, a great voice in really
(04:23):
like a lot more healthy masculinity. To see a big,
old ex NFL player actually cry is great. But yeah,
on NFL Live, like on this the camera they let
him go and he walked away. He ain't even finished
the show. I hear Cam Newton's being fired. I hated
(04:43):
some other white people being fired. But according to them,
they're doing some mass layoffs. But what's interesting with this
one is, like there was rumors about him losing his
job ever since Super Bowl. Every it's the last Super
Bowl this past February, right, there was rumors about it.
(05:06):
One thing was he had an on air disagreement, a
pretty bad little tiff with one of his colleagues for
which he apologized, right, but it was like it was
a real deal thing. Right, they're thinking about, like I said,
they're thinking about in addition that, like I said, they're
(05:26):
still thinking about laying off Tom ploresso Carl Ravick and
Cam Newton. That Cam Newton obviously is an interesting character.
But like that's not what we're talking about right now.
But anyway, he had been on many different shows on
the channel, but ultimately your Boy, Your Boy got him
(05:49):
an Emmy. Like, so he's winning awards and it just
seems so bizarre now. Like I said, he got into
a pretty bad tip with another on air personality, of
which he definitely apologized and said what he had to
say and owned his mistakes because, like I said, like
he's using a great example. He's generally a good example
(06:11):
of where you know, in a lot of ways, manhood
needs to go to where you're like, you own your mistakes,
you do what you gotta do. But the issue is,
like I said, it's just hard to know what's really
happening and that I can resonate with. Maybe I have
some disagreements, maybe I got out of line, but I'm
(06:32):
also generating a lot of wealth, a lot of eyes.
I feel like I'm a net positive to the team,
And if it was just about my performances, I would
love for you to wait those two things to decide.
But also, you fired me on camera. That feels like
a humiliation, and I don't know. The only way for
(06:53):
me to know that it's not a thing is for
you to do it to somebody else on camera.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
I don't It's just hard to know.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
But at the end of the day, the reason why
this needs to be a tap in is this is
what I need y'all to understand is going through the
mind of your black coworkers. Unless y'all make it real obvious,
there is always a possibility and that possibility sits. I
w't want to say in the back of our mind.
It's kind of in the middle of our mind until
you make it come forward. But when you start saying
(07:24):
stuff like nah, you're being paranoid or I don't think
it's like that. I just want you to think about
if you ever tried to tell your mam and your
sister or your significant other to calm down, or if
you've ever been told to calm down when you know
something not right. That's the feeling. So I don't know
what happened to Ryan. I don't know why all this
(07:46):
is happening. I'm not even accused of espn A racism.
I'm just saying this just kind of y'all ain't have
a fire him onscreen. On the other hand, like I said,
we've talked about this before. Look put Diddy up under
the jail. Hey, I mean it's like we don't get
(08:06):
me wrong. Black people have a sense of moral clarity
when it comes to the stuff. We need to have
moral clarity for when it's like nah, nigga, it's yes,
And maybe then white people was being racist to you
and you understand what I'm saying, and you're a piece
of shit. So I'm just like, there's sometimes it's a
(08:27):
don't get me wrong, we be having moral claire. Ain't
nobody out here defending r Kelly or Bill Cosby. Niggas
is not defending them. We do have a moral clarity
when we need to. But also this is just the
effects of the insistence to not reckon with our racial history.
You just kind of never really know.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Tap in with.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Okay, one more thing, let me just make it clear.
I don't know Ryan Clark well enough to defend this
man's character and integrity.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
I don't know that.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
I just know what he's put out. It's probably things
about this man that might come out later that would
completely explain everything that man did, and or that might
completely explain exactly why ESPN fired him the way they
fired him.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
I don't know. And even with that, you still kind
of can't tell if maybe this is racist, is my point.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
My last thing is like, I remember when we were
looking for an apartment, me and my wife referred to
her by her prefix, and our oldest daughter was an artist.
But I made you know enough, I made pretty good money.
She was a grad student. You know, she had her
stipend from a PhD program. You know, we were doing fine,
(09:58):
and I called and talk to him, and what I
was doing, what I thought was my white voice. But
the lady definitely asked for a photo of my ID.
Now it's her location, I guess she has every right
to do that. But after I hung up, I had
my wife call and she absolutely didn't ask for no
(10:20):
ID from her. And this is this question that did
I just sound black to her because my numbers are fine, Like, it's.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Just it just sucks to have to live like that.
Tap in with me again
Calls media.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
The difficult part about doing anything while black, especially in
like professional corporate entertainment, anything.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Is like you never really know.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
You can't really tell, Like there's no way to actually
know for a fact, what if there was a pie
chart of percentage of my performance, my personality or just
internalize systemic racism. Just it's the part that's so maddening.
(00:43):
It's that it's so hard to tell because it's a
part of you that like, you know, like the old
folks will say you get the unction, or like you
just you could kind of feel it, you know. I
have found with my my cis gendered straight women in
(01:06):
my life, they just kind of, you know, some don't
sit right, you know what I'm saying, Like that they
they just kind of know if something in them just
don't feel right like they know now of course obviously
I'm speaking in gross generalities, but like that feeling where
you just like I don't know if I trust this nigga,
Like some just some ain't right about Because if you're
(01:29):
in a relationship like mine, like I said, it's sis
gender heterosexual relationship. I say it like that because that's
the only one I'm an expert in you just kind
of like you should like like if you got a
homie that like or a work friend that your your
lady is like I don't know about because like just
(01:54):
take note of that because they just be kind of
they be kind of knowing. Oh I just noticed this
is the other mic. This is to my rapping mic.
It's just over and the should we leave it in
the shot anyway?
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Let's leave it in?
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Well, you know what I could do is just lower it.
Please leave all this, Matt, this is hilarious. Uh, that's
my other that's my wrap mic. Move that over there, Okay,
And I feel like just in just in the bones,
we just kind of like you just kind of know
(02:27):
what it kind of just kind of feel like somethinging.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
This ain't this isn't just normal normal Like you just
didn't do a good job, y'all.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
They just fired Ryan Clark just like on the screen,
and it just reminds me of doing anything while black
tapping with me. Okay, So here's the thing. According to
the athletic uh, ESPN is doing a pretty decent round
of firing, like they letting go of a bunch of
(02:59):
people and is this is the part that's so maddening
a company can do that. I mean you just like
it's a major corporation, it's entertainment. You can decide what
talent you want, like whether it has to do with
interpersonal performance, whatever the case may be.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Like you allowed to fire people as you deem fit.
It's your company.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
You don't have to be kind, gentle, discreet, you don't
have to be none of that.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
It's show company. It is what it is. But they
fired Braud on the NFL Live show. They fired him
on air. Now.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Ryan Clark also has this thing called The Pivot Podcast
where him and another former pro athlete they interview other
athletes specifically around and different people specifically around like healing
and manhood and trauma. It is in a lot of ways,
(04:00):
as a flawed man as he is, he has been
a great example for whether it's gen X or elder millennial,
like dudes really needing an example of a man that's
willing to cry and process his emotions. It's actually been.
He's been a great addition, a great voice in really
(04:23):
like a lot more healthy masculinity. To see a big,
old ex NFL player actually cry is great. But yeah,
on NFL Live, like on this the camera they let
him go and he walked away. He ain't even finished
the show. I hear Cam Newton's being fired. I hated
(04:43):
some other white people being fired. But according to them,
they're doing some mass layoffs. But what's interesting with this
one is, like there was rumors about him losing his
job ever since Super Bowl. Every it's the last Super
Bowl this past February, right, there was rumors about it.
(05:06):
One thing was he had an on air disagreement, a
pretty bad little tiff with one of his colleagues for
which he apologized, right, but it was like it was
a real deal thing. Right, they're thinking about, like I said,
they're thinking about in addition that, like I said, they're
(05:26):
still thinking about laying off Tom ploresso Carl Ravick and
Cam Newton. That Cam Newton obviously is an interesting character.
But like that's not what we're talking about right now.
But anyway, he had been on many different shows on
the channel, but ultimately your Boy, Your Boy got him
(05:49):
an Emmy. Like, so he's winning awards and it just
seems so bizarre now. Like I said, he got into
a pretty bad tip with another on air personality, of
which he definitely apologized and said what he had to
say and owned his mistakes because, like I said, like
he's using a great example. He's generally a good example
(06:11):
of where you know, in a lot of ways, manhood
needs to go to where you're like, you own your mistakes,
you do what you gotta do. But the issue is,
like I said, it's just hard to know what's really
happening and that I can resonate with. Maybe I have
some disagreements, maybe I got out of line, but I'm
(06:32):
also generating a lot of wealth, a lot of eyes.
I feel like I'm a net positive to the team,
And if it was just about my performances, I would
love for you to wait those two things to decide.
But also, you fired me on camera. That feels like
a humiliation, and I don't know. The only way for
(06:53):
me to know that it's not a thing is for
you to do it to somebody else on camera.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
I don't It's just hard to know.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
But at the end of the day, the reason why
this needs to be a tap in is this is
what I need y'all to understand is going through the
mind of your black coworkers. Unless y'all make it real obvious,
there is always a possibility and that possibility sits. I
w't want to say in the back of our mind.
It's kind of in the middle of our mind until
you make it come forward. But when you start saying
(07:24):
stuff like nah, you're being paranoid or I don't think
it's like that. I just want you to think about
if you ever tried to tell your mam and your
sister or your significant other to calm down, or if
you've ever been told to calm down when you know
something not right. That's the feeling. So I don't know
what happened to Ryan. I don't know why all this
(07:46):
is happening. I'm not even accused of espn A racism.
I'm just saying this just kind of y'all ain't have
a fire him onscreen. On the other hand, like I said,
we've talked about this before. Look put Diddy up under
the jail. Hey, I mean it's like we don't get
(08:06):
me wrong. Black people have a sense of moral clarity
when it comes to the stuff. We need to have
moral clarity for when it's like nah, nigga, it's yes,
And maybe then white people was being racist to you
and you understand what I'm saying, and you're a piece
of shit. So I'm just like, there's sometimes it's a
(08:27):
don't get me wrong, we be having moral claire. Ain't
nobody out here defending r Kelly or Bill Cosby. Niggas
is not defending them. We do have a moral clarity
when we need to. But also this is just the
effects of the insistence to not reckon with our racial history.
You just kind of never really know.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Tap in with.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Okay, one more thing, let me just make it clear.
I don't know Ryan Clark well enough to defend this
man's character and integrity.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
I don't know that.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
I just know what he's put out. It's probably things
about this man that might come out later that would
completely explain everything that man did, and or that might
completely explain exactly why ESPN fired him the way they
fired him.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
I don't know. And even with that, you still kind
of can't tell if maybe this is racist, is my point.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
My last thing is like, I remember when we were
looking for an apartment, me and my wife referred to
her by her prefix, and our oldest daughter was an artist.
But I made you know enough, I made pretty good money.
She was a grad student. You know, she had her
stipend from a PhD program. You know, we were doing fine,
(09:58):
and I called and talk to him, and what I
was doing, what I thought was my white voice. But
the lady definitely asked for a photo of my ID.
Now it's her location, I guess she has every right
to do that. But after I hung up, I had
my wife call and she absolutely didn't ask for no
(10:20):
ID from her. And this is this question that did
I just sound black to her because my numbers are fine, Like, it's.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Just it just sucks to have to live like that.
Tap in with me again
Host
Prop
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.