There may be no more fascinating, surreal situation in college football than what is happening with the LSU Tigers where even Louisiana governor Jeff Landry is getting personally involved in the decision to fire Brian Kelly and hire his replacement. But one former LSU alum has seen enough from Landry, ESPN personality and former Tigers star Ryan Clark.
Clark is no stranger to strong opinions and even dipping into the intersections of sports, politics, and culture. And his outspokenness has seen him step over the line on occasion, whether it was his bizarre feud with Robert Griffin III or his dismissive comments of ESPN colleague Peter Schrager. He also had to apologize for comments about late LSU star Kyren Lacy, where he responded prematurely after reacting to a video released by his lawyer before more facts were made public by the Louisiana State Police.
Now Clark is ready to take on the governor of his home state. Not just for his activity in the LSU coaching search, where he publicly proclaimed that he would not let LSU Athletic Director Scott Woodward hire Brian Kelly’s replacement as head coach. Landry has filled a leadership vacuum at LSU with an interim president, saying he will put the school’s Board of Supervisors in charge of the search.
On Thursday’s edition of First Take, Clark went off on Jeff Landry for not just his role at LSU and his comments on Woodward, but also his proclamation that he wanted a statue of slain conservative political activist Charlie Kirk on campus.
“It’s the second most ridiculous thing he said this week. The first was standing on campus and saying he wanted to put a statue of somebody that doesn’t represent the people of Louisiana, doesn’t represent the players and the students at LSU, doesn’t represent the executives that work there. That was the first dumb thing he said this week, Clark said.
Here’s the video of Jeff Landry promoting the idea of honoring Charlie Kirk on the LSU campus.
Clark then turned his attention back to Scott Woodward and Landry’s meddling in Tigers Athletics. He credited Woodward for many of his moves at LSU including the hiring of Kim Mulkey, leading to a national championship. Woodward arrived from Texas A&M in 2019 and the school soon thereafter won a national championship in football.
“To me, this is another situation of politicians poking their nose into things that they don’t know about,” Clark added. “I honestly believe it was so he could get in front of a microphone and say, ‘look at this connection I have with the president and he likes to pick winners so he could placate to someone he idolizes. You don’t know nothing about football. There’s enough going on in the state of Louisiana that needs to be fixed for its constituents. I don’t need you tweeting on Saturday night about what’s going on at Tiger Stadium. There is too many issues happening right there under your nose that ain’t got nothing to do with sports.”
“Scott Woodward is a good man. Scott Woodward is a man that cares about LSU. In the greatest times, back in the day, he understood what it was like to be a part of a winner and he’s brought more winners back to the school. He didn’t miss because Brian Kelly wasn’t capable. He missed because Brian Kelly was no longer willing. Brian Kelly was no longer tapped in. Brian Kelly didn’t care about the people of Louisiana, cared about him. And he didn’t care if the players knew that he cared about them. That’s where it went wrong. Not in picking the man that was the winningest all-time coach in Notre Dame history. So for me, it’s emotional, clearly. And it pisses me off. But Scott Woodward deserves to pick the next head coach and the governor should stay out of it.”
Ryan Clark is a proud Louisiana native and LSU alum, so clearly this is very personal for him. As much as ESPN has tried to avoid getting into politics in recent years, it’s becoming more and more prevalent as the political world seeks to exert its influence over sports, specifically through the administration of Donald Trump and now politicians on a more local level like Jeff Landry.
“Stick to sports” can’t really be possible when a sitting governor attempts to take control of a college football coaching search. And whether it’s Ryan Clark taking on Jeff Landry or Stephen A. Smith in a dispute with FBI director Kash Patel, it seems like we’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg when it comes to major sports personalities engaged in public disputes with politicians.
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