The former Pro Bowler and Super Bowl champion sits down for the newest episode of Network with Rich Kleiman, exploring his new career in the media space and what really makes a head coach the GOAT.
Has football has entered a new golden age? Many would say yes. Despite the endless fragmentation of the entertainment industry and the supposed end of the monoculture, professional and college football are booming. The 2025 NFL season has kicked off with record-breaking starts, with Week 1 games averaging 22.3 million viewers per game, making it the most watched Week 1 in the history of the league. Meanwhile, college football isn’t slacking, with games like the Georgia vs. Tennessee matchup breaking records for ABC.
It’s a good time to be in the gridiron business.
It makes sense then that we here at Network with Rich Kleiman keep the football talk rolling. For this week’s episode, we’re joined by former NFL Pro Bowler and Super Bowl champion Ryan Clark. While many may know Clark from his time playing safety with the Pittsburgh Steelers, he’s likely just as known now for the Pivot Podcast, which he co-founded and hosts alongside former NFL players Channing Crowder and Fred Taylor. The show sees the trio interviewing athletes and entertainers about what drives them to the heights they’ve reached.
But football’s never too far away. “I love football. Football has given me my entire life,” said Clark. “It really has. And so I never want to leave doing this in some shape or form.” That’s why when he’s not talk to everyone from Kevin Hart to Shaquille O’Neal, he works as an analyst on ESPN, lending his thoughts and football expertise to shows like NFL Live, SportsCenter, and First Take.
In this episode, Clark connects with Kleiman to talk pivoting from being an athlete to an Emmy Award-winning media maven, what makes a player great, the rise of the running back, and much more. Clark touches on his time in the NFL and what it was like to play against future Hall-of-Famers like Tom Brady. He also weighs in on whether or not Patrick Mahomes is the best QB in the league right now and gives his POV on the GOAT coach debate.
“It isn’t just about winning Super Bowl. It is about longevity. It’s about getting teams to overachieve,” says Clark. “And, I believe when you speak of Bill Parcells, you speak of Mike Tomlin— those are the sort of coaches that you watch squeeze things out of situations where those teams and those rosters may have not been as good as they ended up seeming when you looked at the final record of what they were able to accomplish.”
Be sure to catch the full conversation at Boardroom’s YouTube channel here as well as on Yahoo Sports’ podcast pages on Apple and Spotify.
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