From ESPN Talent to Network Owner: Ryan Clark Is Betting on Himself With Pivot25

For eleven years, Ryan Clark built an audience inside ESPN. In July, that chapter ended. What he is doing next is the part worth paying attention to. He is building something he owns.

Clark, the former NFL safety turned broadcaster, is growing Pivot25 Productions, the company he cofounded in 2025 with Emmy winning producer Alicia Zubikowski, into a lasting media enterprise, theGrio reported, citing TODAY.

The foundation was already there. Long before the ESPN exit, Clark was laying groundwork of his own. "The Pivot Sports with Ryan Clark," produced in partnership with NFL Films and cohosted by fellow former players Fred Taylor and Channing Crowder, has passed a million YouTube subscribers. The show recently signed a deal with Netflix to stream video of the podcast.

That audience did not come with a network contract. It came from conversations people chose to show up for, week after week.

From a show to a network. When Clark started mapping out his next move, the plan was one new program. The vision has since grown into something much larger: an entire network built around his brand and the trust his audience places in it.

The backing followed the vision. Pivot25 announced Monday that former Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz has joined as a strategic partner and investor. Schultz reached out after Clark's ESPN exit and encouraged him to think beyond a single show. Clark said he had not heard from someone of that stature who did not look like him. But the real story is not the investor. It is that Clark had already built something worth investing in.

Why ownership matters. For decades, Black talent in sports media has built enormous followings on platforms controlled by someone else. When the contract ends, the platform stays behind and the audience is left wondering where you went. Clark is flipping that model. The audience, the relationship and the brand now travel with him.

This is what a pivot looks like when it is done on your own terms. Clark did not wait for another network to call. He turned the audience he earned into the company he runs.

For every Black creator, athlete and executive watching, the lesson is clear. Build your audience where you can reach it directly. Own the relationship. Then when a door closes, you are not starting over. You are starting your own.