Pittsburgh Steelers safety Ryan Clark was all over ESPN during the off-season. Clark, admittedly, is hoping to become an NFL analyst and broadcaster for ESPN after he leaves football. According to Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated Clark approached ESPN senior coordinating producer Seth Markman during Super Bowl week to ask him about a future with the sport’s broadcasting giant:
Clark has always enjoyed being in front of the cameras and giving his opinion. He went on ESPN after an anonymous teammate or coach called out LaMarr Woodley after the season. Clark has also worked with 93.7 the fan sport’s radio in Pittsburgh, but now he will take his talents to the big stage on ESPN.
“I want to show I’m capable of handling this workload, but also that I’m comparable to the guys who on the payroll at ESPN,” Clark told SI.com on Friday. “I want to be able to be in the room with the Brian Dawkinses, Tedy Bruschis and Mark Schlereths and hold my own on the air and in production meetings with them. When you come in as an athlete at ESPN, people treat you a little differently. They know they are getting a commodity along with giving you an opportunity to work at something that may be your craft once you retire. But I want to get the nuts and bolts of this as if I were doing this on a day to day basis.”
Clark has the poise and charisma to do very well in the broadcasting business and getting a head start this off-season should help him move into a role with ESPN when he is ready. The more important part of this, at least for Steelers fans, may be the fact that Clark’s contract is up after the 2013 season. Clark will turn 34 in October and it seems unlikely the Steeler would bring him back on another contract.
With Clark’s contract up following the 2013 season it was easy to speculate that this could mean this off-season internship with ESPN could be Clark’s attempt to find a new job for 2014. However, according to Jim Wexell of SteelCityInsider Clark is far from done when it comes to playing football.
“I want to be here. I would love to be a Steeler until I retire,” Clark said. “But I don’t want this to be my last year.”
Typically the Steelers don’t give players Clark’s age new contract, but he is hoping to work out an extension with the Steelers according to Wexell. An extension for Clark would go against how the Steelers normally do business when it comes to veteran players, but Clark was arguably the best player on the Steelers defense in 2012 and is still at the top of his game.
“This has always been a smart organization about letting guys go when they feel like they don’t have what’s left to be here,” Clark said. “So we’ll see. But I want to finish my career here. I’ve found a home here.”
If a deal is struck to keep Clark in Pittsburgh for a few more years it could mean the end of Troy Polamalu’s run in Pittsburgh after the 2013 season. In Clark’s comments to Wexell he said “I don’t know how I could live with Troy still playing and me not playing,” Clark said. “And I don’t know if I want to leave him here playing (while playing elsewhere).”
However, it could possibly be Polamalu who leaves while Clark continues to play here, here being Pittsburgh. The Steelers drafted Shamarko Thomas in the fourth round of the 2013 NFL Draft and according to all reports he is going to be a very good player moving forward. Thomas, since being drafted, is expected to be a starter in 2014, but as a strong safety he would be replacing Polamalu not Clark in the starting line-up.
After drafting Thomas I speculated the Steelers could move Polamalu to free safety to limit the big hits and play on the line of scrimmage and potentially extend his career. Even so, Polamalu has been dealing with injuries in recent years and the Steelers could choose to go with Clark and Thomas in 2014, which would allow them to cut Polamalu and save the team around $8 million against the cap next year.
As far as the ESPN internship, Clark said: “I did the ESPN thing because it’s smart to do it. I didn’t do it because I’m ready to stop playing football.”
It’s highly unlikely that Clark and Polamalu will be starting for the Steelers in 2014 and I don’t see any way either of them takes a pay cut to be a back-up. That means one or the other will likely be off the roster by the first week of the 2014 season. The only question left to answer is which one will still be playing for the Steelers or will they possibly both be gone a year from now?
