ESPN cuts big names in merger with NFL Network

Ryan Clark, Karl Ravech, and Cam Newton were among the on-air personalities let go by ESPN this week, as the Worldwide Leader and NFL Network consolidate their media talent before football season begins.Yesterday’s layoffs are the result of the $3 billion deal the NFL and ESPN completed last February that gave the league a 10% equity stake in ESPN, while ESPN acquired NFL Network and NFL Red Zone. Most of the cuts affected behind-the-scenes employees, but the firing of Clark, an ESPN mainstay since 2015, was as public as they come:Clark was informed of his impending departure Monday while on NFL Live, the day before ESPN had planned to let everyone affected know, and he left mid-show, per The Athletic.The layoff follows a tense on-air incident on Get Up in September that rankled ESPN executives, according to The Athletic, in which Clark disagreed with NFL reporter Peter Schrager by saying, “That’s the non-player in you.”Beyond the ESPN layoffs…parent company Disney cut hundreds of jobs in other divisions yesterday, with most of the firings happening at Pixar Studios and National Geographic. In April, Disney cut ~1,000 marketing positions across various platforms, citing lower streaming profits.—DL