A week after his feud with Robert Griffin III, Ryan Clark is still posting about it on social media.
Except this time, the host of The Pivot podcast posted a clip apologizing to his own family.
Clark set off a firestorm when he criticized Robert Griffin III over a take on Angel Reese hating Caitlin Clark. Specifically, Clark called out RGIII for his interracial marriage and that it didn’t give him the right to comment on Reese’s experiences. The two then traded social media posts in a feud which quickly devolved and did not leave anyone looking good. It cemented the idea that talking about Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese somehow seems to always bring out the worst in sports media.
But now it appears that Ryan Clark recognizes that he was misguided in his comments about RGIII because he has spent the last few days posting apologies from his podcast to his social media page. First came an apology to Grete Griffin, RGIII’s wife, saying that families should be off-limits in these discussions. Then came an explanation of his comments. Finally, Clark has posted an apology to his own family for bringing them into the controversy.
“When I look back at this, I think a larger thing that has now happened is people who love and people who know me have now had to come to my defense because they know my heart, they know my actions, they know the intent of my words. By bringing in, maybe, I can’t speak for these people, by speaking about RG’s wife it’s now brought my family into the equation, or Yonka into the equation, or my children, Jaden, Jordan, Loghan into the equation” Clark said.
“I certainly didn’t want them to be the casualties of my Twitter or my media wars. Yonka in particular has taken a lot of heat, has taken a lot of hate. All she’s ever done is give her life to her family. All she’s ever done is make sure all of our kids, yes that includes Jaden, and Jordan, and Loghan, had the best home life, the most present mother, the best provider, the best support system that they possibly could,” he added.
“To her, to my children, I am sorry. I have to start to think about how my words impact, who they impact, and the effect and the fallout on you guys.”
In the midst of the controversy, it was made public that the oldest daughter of Ryan Clark was biracial, which the ESPN analyst addressed in yet another social media message last week. By criticizing RGIII and bringing his marriage into the spotlight, Clark brought his own family into the mix as well, which shows just how a take about a foul in a WNBA game spun so wildly out of control.
Thankfully, it seems that Ryan Clark realizes his role in all of that and learned something from it while trying to make amends with multiple apology messages. And hopefully everyone involved can now move on.
About Matt Yoder