San Francisco 49ers defensive star Nick Bosa returned to X after a years-long absence this week, using his first post since 2022 to take a jab at Ryan Clark following the analyst’s ESPN exit.
Clark, 46, was dismissed amid another round of ESPN layoffs while NFL Live was being recorded. The former Pittsburgh Steelers safety ended his satellite appearance early, and he was absent from the final 10 minutes of the program.
Bosa’s return to the platform was brief but pointed. In his first X post since November 2022, he reposted a story about Clark being fired and added only an “ok” emoji.
The reaction revived attention on the pair’s past tension, which dates back two years to Clark’s criticism of Bosa for wearing a MAGA hat after a 49ers game in October 2024.
Bosa made the political statement during an NBC interview featuring teammates Brock Purdy, George Kittle and Isaac Guerendo, stepping into the shot to signal his support for Donald Trump ahead of the presidential election weeks later.
Clark later argued that Bosa was treated differently from athletes who had expressed political views in other ways, including former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
Clark, 46, was let go during another wave of layoffs at ESPN while NFL Live was being recorded
“The MAGA movement has been very clear that all lives don’t matter the same,” Clark said at the time. “That all people aren’t sort of deserving of the same treatment, the same compassion, of the same level of life and liberty.”
Bosa was ultimately fined $11,255 for the stunt, as the NFL has a rule which prevents players from displaying messages ‘which relate to political activities or causes.’
TMZ has reported that Clark was going to be notified about his ESPN exit on Tuesday, but the network became aware of an impending story on the news and decided to tell him during Monday’s NFL Live recording.
Clark and ESPN agreed it was better for him not to complete the episode, according to TMZ, which stressed that he was not forced off the air.
However, Clark has since disputed that version of events. ‘I wasn’t forced?’ he asked rhetorically in a Wednesday post on X. ‘I ask, “should I be done now?”
‘The answer was “yes”,’ he added.
While some ESPN viewers have celebrated the firing of Clark, who was outspoken on racial issues in sports, his long-time co-host Stephen A. Smith rushed to his defense on Tuesday.
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‘It hurts. It really does,’ the $21m-a-year ESPN star said about Clark, who regularly appeared on Smith’s morning show, First Take.
‘I understand the business. I understand layoffs come. I understand that there have been other names that have been a part of it in the past and there’s going to be names in the future. Hell, one of them might be mine.’
‘I am not happy about this decision one bit. The bosses know I’m not happy about this decision. I’ve made that very very clear.
‘But it’s also important that myself and anybody else in the world of business be grown-ups and understand that these are the kind of things that happen when layoffs happen.’
Clark called out Bosa, the San Francisco 49ers star, over his support of Donald Trump in 2024
Bosa crashed his teammates’ interview on TV to show off a MAGA cap after a win over Dallas
Smith claimed that ESPN consulted him about parting company with Clark – a move he said he urged the network not to make.
He also said he has ‘blisters on my tongue and my fingers from biting my tongue’ after seeing people commending ESPN’s decision to let Clark go.
But the First Take host concluded his rant by tipping Clark to bounce back from this disappointment.
‘I’m not sorry for you because I know you going to be just fine,’ Smith said. ‘I’m sorry for us that we ain’t gonna have the opportunity to continue to have you on the airwaves for ESPN and specifically First Take. It ain’t going to be the same without you.’
As well as Clark, former NFL MVP Cam Newton was another casualty of ESPN’s cuts after losing his job on First Take less than a year after being handed a contract extension.
Tom Pelissero of NFL Network, which was recently acquired by ESPN, was also let go, as were longtime sports host and play-by-play baseball commentator Karl Ravech, ex-linebacker Bart Scott, NFL analyst Charles Davis, SportsCenter icon David Lloyd and injury expert Stephania Bell.
