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The ham-handed round of layoffs that recentlyclaimed the jobs of longtime ESPN NFL analyst Ryan Clark and MLB play-by-play man Karl Ravech has since come under fire.
ESPN was reportedly planning to tell Clark on July 21 he was fired, along with others involved in this round of layoffs. But when news of Clark’s firing leaked to the media during his appearance on ESPN NFL Live, network executives decided to inform him of the decision during a commercial break. Clark did not finish the program.
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Ravech was let go after 33 years with ESPN. “Reached by phone on Tuesday morning, Ravech had yet to be told, as ESPN is planning to inform employees later in the morning,” wrote The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand, who broke the story July 20.
“Somebody is talking to somebody and giving out a list of names before they go out” internally, Jane McManus said on The Sports Media Podcast with Richard Deitsch. “It’s not classy. It’s unprofessional. It treats people like they’re names on a fantasy team. That, to me, is beyond the pale. It kind of undermines your authority in the space as a company.
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“I understand when you are purchasing another network and you are consolidating producers, you are doing a lot of the same things, you are eliminating redundancies. I get it. I get it. There are going to be layoffs. … There are better ways to treat people. We have gotten so used to people just being discardable, next man up, et cetera.”
McManus worked for ESPN from 2009-17. A frequent guest on SportsCenter, she primarily wrote as a columnist on NFL topics while also contributing to espnW, hosting ESPN Radio for Operation Football and The Trifecta.
MORE: Ryan Clark shares raw emotions following ESPN layoff
McManus is hardly the only critic of ESPN’s handling of the layoffs. But it’s her perspective as someone who was informed by the company that her time with the same company endedadds weight to the discussion.
Since leaving ESPN, McManus authored The Fast Track: Inside the Surging Business of Women’s Sports, which published in February 2025. She was also the Editor of The Year’s Best Sports Writing 2024.
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ESPN was reportedly planning to tell Clark on July 21 he was fired, along with others involved in this round of layoffs. But when news of Clark’s firing leaked to the media during his appearance on ESPN NFL Live, network executives decided to inform him of the decision during a commercial break. Clark did not finish the program.
MORE: Mike Tyson might not know who Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani is
Ravech was let go after 33 years with ESPN. “Reached by phone on Tuesday morning, Ravech had yet to be told, as ESPN is planning to inform employees later in the morning,” wrote The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand, who broke the story July 20.
“Somebody is talking to somebody and giving out a list of names before they go out” internally, Jane McManus said on The Sports Media Podcast with Richard Deitsch. “It’s not classy. It’s unprofessional. It treats people like they’re names on a fantasy team. That, to me, is beyond the pale. It kind of undermines your authority in the space as a company.
MORE: Reviews of Netflix’s Home Run Derby telecast are one-sided
“I understand when you are purchasing another network and you are consolidating producers, you are doing a lot of the same things, you are eliminating redundancies. I get it. I get it. There are going to be layoffs. … There are better ways to treat people. We have gotten so used to people just being discardable, next man up, et cetera.”
McManus worked for ESPN from 2009-17. A frequent guest on SportsCenter, she primarily wrote as a columnist on NFL topics while also contributing to espnW, hosting ESPN Radio for Operation Football and The Trifecta.
MORE: Ryan Clark shares raw emotions following ESPN layoff
McManus is hardly the only critic of ESPN’s handling of the layoffs. But it’s her perspective as someone who was informed by the company that her time with the same company endedadds weight to the discussion.
Since leaving ESPN, McManus authored The Fast Track: Inside the Surging Business of Women’s Sports, which published in February 2025. She was also the Editor of The Year’s Best Sports Writing 2024.
Continue reading...
