Nick Wright doesn’t think ESPN handled its layoffs with much care.
On his “What’s Wright” podcast, the Fox Sports star expressed frustration with how ESPN communicated its layoffs – which included notable names like Ryan Clark, Cam Newton and Karl Ravech.
Wright specifically dove into Clark finding out he was fired while on air Monday, exiting “NFL Live” during a commercial break right before the news of his firing went public.
“There needs to be better informational security when it comes to layoffs,” Wright said on his podcast. “To where the information does not leak so much so that you feel like your best option is to let someone know they’re being let go while they’re on the air in a commercial break.”
“If you as the overall entity know this has leaked, this is getting out, then you have to change how you plan on doing this,” he added. “And you certainly, even if it puts you in a tough spot programming-wise, can’t run the risk that someone is going to be live on the air and find out via Twitter or text message that they’re being let go to the point that you have to let them go during a commercial break.
“And then, what you triply can’t do is have so many communication gaps that you are then publicizing and posting that person’s takes of the day on your channels while the world has now found out he was let go minutes after giving that take.”
Wright said he doesn’t feel “sicker” for Clark compared to others at ESPN who lost their job, but feels worse for him due to the way his firing happened.
“This should have been handled better, and my guess is everyone involved knows it,” Wright said. “And everyone involved can do a little after-action report of, because there’s going to be another round of layoffs at some point, to make sure it’s handled better and more humanely in the future.”
ESPN’s mass layoffs stem from its acquisition of NFL Network, according to ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro.
