Former ESPN analyst Ryan Clark, fired from the network more than three months ago, is again publicly disputing the circumstances of his dismissal — this time claiming the company published a profile of WNBA player Sophie Cunningham discussing transgender athletes in order to curry favor with the sports outlet OutKick.
Clark made the claim during an appearance on the “All The Smoke” podcast Thursday, as first reported by the New York Post. He suggested ESPN timed or used the Cunningham piece as a kind of image repair after his firing drew attention to the network’s handling of personnel decisions.
“Sophie Cunningham says something and they [OutKick] say, ‘A great brand switch for ESPN. Ryan Clark was fired this week and now Sophie Cunningham leads the news,'” Clark said, before alleging ESPN had leaked news of his firing to OutKick. “That’s what they [ESPN] wanted. That’s why you leaked it to [OutKick]. And so I think everything points to it, but I should have, my antenna should have been up more and even with that, there was nothing I could change.”
The Cunningham profile that Clark referenced drew national attention and sparked protests outside WNBA games after the Indiana Fever guard voiced support for keeping transgender athletes out of girls’ sports.
“I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I’m like, ‘I never once said that.’ I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest. And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men,” Cunningham told ESPN.
OutKick, the outlet Clark accuses ESPN of coordinating with, has pushed back on his version of events. According to OutKick’s own account, its staff learned independently — through four sources — that Clark was among several employees ESPN planned to lay off as part of budget cuts, and reported the news because of his prominence. OutKick says ESPN actually tried to stop the story from running, and that an ESPN executive informed Clark of his firing during a commercial break on “NFL Live” specifically because the network feared the news would break online before Clark learned of it directly.
OutKick also disputes the timing Clark cited regarding the Cunningham interview, saying it was conducted in February but held for publication until July to coincide with the WNBA season — undercutting the claim that it was produced in response to Clark’s firing.
Clark has separately said in past remarks that he believed he “couldn’t be too black” during his time at the network, tying his firing to broader claims about ESPN’s internal culture. ESPN has not issued its own public statement responding to Clark’s latest claims.
The dispute comes amid ongoing national debate over the participation of transgender athletes in women’s sports, an issue Cunningham’s comments thrust back into headlines. Neither ESPN nor Cunningham has commented further on Clark’s allegations.
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