John Clayton out at ESPN
 

ESPN has let go of yet another longtime NFL reporter.

John Clayton, who has covered the NFL for ESPN for 23 years, has been laid off, according to Sporting News.

Clayton’s ESPN Radio show in Seattle will remain in place, as the local ESPN Radio affiliates are not actually owned by ESPN. But he is done covering the league for ESPN on television and on ESPN.com.

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Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

"Moooom I'm done with my segment." *blasts thrash metal*

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

Is ESPN going tits up or something?

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

They're in a death spiral and they only have themselves to blame. As it's so accurately put here https://www.outkickthecoverage.com/e...-today-042617/...

Middle America wants to pop a beer and listen to sports talk, they don’t want to be lectured about why Caitlyn Jenner is a hero, Michael Sam is the new Jackie Robinson of sports, and Colin Kaepernick is the Rosa Parks of football. ESPN made the mistake of trying to make liberal social media losers happy and as a result lost millions of viewers.

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

No...they're more successful than ever with their progressive, liberal staffing - ask 'em, they'll tell ya...

Because everyone wants to hear a former women's Div III collegiate basketball player, who has made it her mission for everyone to know her sexual orientation, raised on a Native American reservation by Persian refugees and how it's impacted her life, talk for four hours about the NFL and how it's society's fault former players with three recreational narcotic suspensions are broke, on dope, and CTE has 'em without a rope...

Cue Rodney :rolleyes:

Just give me the freaking scores and some amazing highlights, maybe some credible analysis from someone who's actually played or coached the game for more than ten years and move the hell on...

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

Sports is not diverse. NFL, NBA both close to 80% black. There is no room for color and sexual orientation conversations on the field today because BEST athlete gets the job.

Anything outside of sports has to work with requirements to include a percentage of whites, blacks, disadvantaged women businesses, immigrants inclusion, Veterans...no room for any of that on the field / court. It's the one escape we have where skill is the only thing that matters. If you can't run fast you get beat, weaker you get beat, dumb get beat.

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

Just as MTV lost their way and forgot about music, ESPN is losing their way forgetting about sports.

I usually go to their site for a few quick headlines, but no more after the way they handled this Tiger Woods thing. Possibly the worst reporting I've ever seen.

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

ESPN Entertainment Sports PoliticallyCorrect Network?!?

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

Doesn't make one difference to me, I've been done with ESPN for a very long time. Basically a few Monday Night Football games and that's pretty much it.

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

I think there's truth to that statement. A perhaps more tangible reason is the sheer amount of money ESPN shelled out for programming rights. This was poor strategy considering how many people (me included) have "cut the cable" or eliminated subscriptions in favor of free news.

When ESPN was new, it was a revelation. Today sports highlights are everywhere and reporting is ubiquitous. ESPNs gamble to dominate viewership when paid viewership is declining was a bad one.

The lean left may be due to the fact that their advertisers are the only ones left paying them. So we have the tail wagging the dog.

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

Market changed fairly swift. Streaming services, people care less about sports, focused on movies /shows. And nobody thought antenna TV would make a comeback but it did. 5% uptick since 2014.

Then they are improving the antenna signal to 4K in a couple of years and it appears all free stations will be available online and capable of watching anywhere on any device. Big hit to NFL / ESPN and everyone else if that is the case.

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

The Crypt Keeper is gone

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

I have found some really good sports channels, way better than ESPN and no charge. And they only talk about sports, no other conversations other than suspensions and stuff like that. And almost no former players so I don't have to listen to their take on things since there have been about 100 rule changes since they played. Not the same game.

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

Kodi - sports devil Add on?

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

Also take into account all the staff they employed getting fat checks for 15 minutes of air time. Make a phone call to a team and then jump on camera and talk what the conversations was about and go home and collect a couple mil.

They were clearly over spending and not getting the bang for their buck.

They certainly could have cut back. Plus now days they did use the MTV model thought went from just annoucing and showing sports to programming. All of the BS commentary and game shows WTF is all that about.

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

They might be successful if they didn't shove their liberal views down my throat. I'd rather watch stupid jocks on the NFL channel.

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

And to add, I have noticed that anything that may be worth reading, you have to pay for a subscription. That turned me off big time. Cause all we are left with on the website is garbage reporting.

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

All they'd have to do to figure out their problems is fire up 30 minutes of Sportscenter from the 90's and compare it to today's version. It's kind of sad, really.

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

I was thinking about this earlier. I remember being a kid in the 90's and watching Sportscenter every morning before school. It was just one game's highlights after another and it was a thing of beauty.

Sadly, ESPN's solution to their problem is firing all of the reporters and X's and O's guys and going all in with what has led to their downfall.

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

Only watch ESPN when they have a Saints game. 68% of NFL players are Black and 74.4% in the NBA. It is unfair that we have quota's for anything in life! You earn what you get and you don't get a damn participation trophy. ESPN forgot where they came from and that my friend is why they've lost it. They've overpaid to televise everything and aren't getting the revenues from Advertisers that some dumbass projected to get his yearly bonus. You make ****, you breathe ****, you are ****!

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

The really sad part is the rocket scientists who made these decisions get promoted...

...till their top of the pack and then are retired on a multi-million dollar package...

Where's the accountability for thinking sports is rocket science and making these gaffes?!?

Ironic, we've got this spirited discussion all over John Clayton, Saints Hater...

This commercial was one of their better ones though...

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

I don't watch ESPN for all the reasons already mentioned.

I never liked Clayton - I had a specific reason for it at one time but I've forgotten.

Meh.

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

ESPN has went to trash over the past 10 years...

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

This made my day... ;)

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

Agreed! :bng:

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

So ESPN/Disney axed an old white straight rich guy?

Is anyone really shocked?

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

Espn sucks and I couldn't stand their politics for a long time. They're going down.

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

I only watch ESPN for live sports. I tried to give FS1 (219 on DirectTV) a chance but their highlight show was just as bad or worse than SportsCenter. I haven't even watched that channel in months, it's on my boycott list too since they hired Skip Bayless

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

walt disney greatest mistake was buying. they are losing millions each and every year. the axe has just started to drop.

Can ESPN Stop the Bleeding of Subscribers?

Can ESPN Stop the Bleeding of Subscribers? - Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) - 24/7 Wall St.

Disney’s ESPN Has Fallen and Can’t Get Up

Disney

ESPN Layoffs Should Be a Wake-Up Call about Politicizing Sports

Read more at: ESPN Layoffs - Stick To Sports | National Review

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

No kidding, I watch sports to escape from politics stop mixing the two

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

You know, I find it absolutely PERFECT timing that the most popular player in the NBA has offensive graffiti sprayed on his home and it just so happens to be on the most dead news day, the day before the Finals start. So now we get to hear LeBron's racial manifesto and everyone's hot take and voila bing bang boom ala peanut butter sandwiches buckle up buckaroo because we got our big ol' headline of the day!!!

Meanwhile, they haven't found the perpetrator and police are still investigating the incident. Well golly jeepers what a shocker that is!

Today's fake news, setup and staged to promote the narrative and strike up the conversation. And I'm not usually the conspiracy type.

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

Care to share some details, friend?

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

This discussion reminds me of a quote in an essay I wrote years ago...


I always turn to the sports pages first, which records people's accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man's failures.

- Earl Warren, Chief Justice, U.S. Supreme Court


Quote is nearly rendered useless with #fakenews #polarizednews today...

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

Yeah, and it got progressively worse after they implemented that. I agree with you.

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

Clayton always reminded me of Yoda without the logic!

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

I never knew that he had a ponytail until his commercial.

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

ESPN wants to get douchier, cooler, and younger as evidenced by bringing back Max Kellerman.

Re: John Clayton out at ESPN
 

:help: