Ryan Clark is one class act

[northernbillfan]

Ryan Clark remained composed and spoke very eloquently last night during the broadcast. I never heard of him before except as a player. I didn't know about his own life threatening situation. I was impressed beyond words on his statements and composure.

He said it best: "Tonight Damar Hamlin's dream became a nightmare..."

Many of his clips are contained in this article.

https://www.sportingnews.com/ca/nfl/news/ryan-clark-damar-hamlin-collapse-reaction-bills-bengals-espn/y4ayp97rtv6ajoklynrgihha

[Woodman]

Re: Ryan Clark is one class act



Clark know's of what he speaks.

[kgun12]

Re: Ryan Clark is one class act

You are right, they couldn’t have had a better person in studio.

[Woodman]

Re: Ryan Clark is one class act

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/chilling-video-damar-hamlin-talking-bills-teammate-dane-jackson-surfaces

[Saratoga Slim]

Re: Ryan Clark is one class act

He and Scott Van Pelt were amazing. Booger McFarland was great too in the studio. Suzy too. Schefter was clearly a little out of his element but made the right noises.

Loved the story Ryan Clark told about Mike Tomlin refusing to let him play at a game in Denver after he had his spleen and gall bladder removed for complications from sickle cell anemia. "If you were my son I wouldn't let you play. You're not playing."

[ParanoidAndroid]

Re: Ryan Clark is one class act

I kind of felt bad for Suzy, Booger and Adam. If I was them I would want a black screen with a message about Damar and that the game was suspended. I would not want to have to talk let alone, in Suzie's case, formulate questions in front of cameras.

[Saratoga Slim]

Re: Ryan Clark is one class act

I kind of felt bad for Suzy, Booger and Adam. If I was them I would want a black screen with a message about Damar and that the game was suspended. I would not want to have to talk let alone, in Suzie's case, formulate questions in front of cameras.

They were definitely in a tough spot. And the network was too--a close friend of mine is the head of ad sales for History Channel, and he has worked at a number of other networks. He says that ESPN was in a very tough spot regarding what to put on screen. Normally for an extended suspension they could simply run commercials to kill time, but in this case the severity of the situation meant that no advertiser really wanted their ad running for risk of seeming tone deaf and taking advantage of people's attention to the situation. Notice that after a bit they stopped running ads at all. And they couldn't leave the field cameras on for too long either, for similar risk of seeming like they were capitalizing on the national audience as well as unfairly publicly airing the emotions players were expressing. That left them with the only real option of switching focus to a studio crew that had to fly by the seat of their pants. Luckily, they did a pretty good job of it.