Ryan Clark just wants to be understood

Ryan Clark doesn’t care if you hate him, he just wants you to hate him for the right reasons, not misrepresented narratives or false quotes.

Clark joined the latest episode of Dan Le Batard’s South Beach Sessions. And toward the end of the conversation, Le Batard asked Clark about his willingness to stand up for himself.

“I’m not even always standing up for myself to be right, as much as I’m just standing up for myself to be understood,” Clark explained. “The world we’re in now, it’s like you can’t say anything without it meaning something deeper or more than what you said. It always has to be some ulterior motive or for some other reason other than this is just what I feel based on the actions of these people or whatever it is.

“When people attack you from a point of misunderstanding, it’s difficult for me to stomach. You cannot like me, I don’t care if people don’t like me…it’s when I say something or I do something and you take it totally out of context, or somebody else shaped it for you…and now you’re like, ‘You’re this thing, and I don’t like that thing.’ Well, I think that’s bullsh*t cause I’m not that thing and I didn’t even say that!”

Clark noted the recent influx of graphics circulating social media that attribute a false quote to a prominent person or member of the media for the sole purpose of sparking reaction and outrage. For example, there was recently a quote graphic going around that claimed Clark said, “If he was white, we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” in response to Mike Tomlin stepping down as head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Clark never said that quote about Tomlin or anything close to it.

“Recently, they had one floating around that I said, ‘the NFL is racist if the MVP is not a person of color.’ Who says person of color? Who even says that?!” Clark asked. “The day before, I said I had Drake Maye one, Matthew Stafford No. 2…There are people who are digesting those things or digesting the way that someone is framing what I said, who are making decisions about me.”

Clark is not alone. Unfortunately, many prominent personalities on ESPN have false graphics and headlines running rampant on social media outlets, mainly Facebook. The ESPN analyst reiterated it doesn’t matter whether a person likes him, but it does matter that he’s judged off accurate quotes, which means it also matters where people are consuming his thoughts and comments from.

“I’m so used to feeling a thing and being honest about that thing,” Clark added. “This is the first time in my life that I’m like, I’m going to say the thing I feel, how do I say that thing in the best way to where it’s not misrepresented?”

Even Clark’s real and accurately represented quotes have shown a tendency to provoke reactions, which is why he’s proven to be a great fit for ESPN debate shows. But fighting against completely invented and false narratives must be exhausting.