Rock: Jets' Jordan Clark and dad, ESPN analyst Ryan, have close encounter on MNF
New York Jets cornerback Jordan Clark in a preseason game against the Philadelphia Eagles last month. Credit: AP
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – Jordan Clark didn’t make the trip to Miami for Monday night’s game against the Dolphins. He’s a rookie defensive back on the Jets’ practice squad and has yet to be promoted to a gameday active roster. So he stayed back home in New Jersey because, for now, that’s his job.
His dad, meanwhile, had his own job to do in relation to the game at Hard Rock Stadium. In fact he played a fairly large role in the way the world saw it unfold.
Clark is the son of Ryan Clark, the former Pro Bowl safety and Super Bowl winner with the Steelers who is currently an analyst for ESPN and a prominent member of the Monday Night Football pre- and postgame broadcasts.
Their two professional paths didn’t exactly cross on Monday night, but they certainly brushed up against each other.
“It’s a first,” Jordan told Newsday late last week in anticipation of the game in which Ryan would be talking about Jordan’s team. “Hopefully we’ll go out there and execute and I feel like he’ll have some good stuff to say.”
Ryan Clark doesn’t say much about his son. Not publicly at least. He politely declined to comment to Newsday on their relationship through ESPN. The one time he made a rare remark regarding Jordan was back in the summer when Jordan was cut by the Jets at the end of training camp and was about to return on the practice squad.
“What a blessing,” Ryan posted on social media. “Not the first Clark from our household to be in practice squad in NY. The start of the journey not the end.”
Ryan Clark did, indeed, begin his career in New York – with the Giants – as an undrafted rookie in 2002 a year after Jordan was born. He made the team initially out of camp under head coach Jim Fassel but after just a few weeks the team added veteran Johnnie Harris. Clark was waived but, like Jordan, came back to the team on the practice squad. He spent the rest of the year with that designation, then played the 2003 season on the Giants’ active roster. He was released after that season – it was part of the housecleaning when Tom Coughlin took over – but Clark would spend the next 11 seasons playing in Washington and Pittsburgh. He retired shortly after the 2014 season ended, by which time Jordan was a teenager and able to understand exactly what his dad did for a living.
At some point around that time Jordan decided he wanted to do the same thing, too. He was able to get plenty of insight into what that would take.
“It started with the blueprint, how you should watch film, how you should practice, how you should approach the game,” Jordan said of what his father taught him about football. “The non-negotiables. Now it’s more just mental checks. I feel like he trusts how he brought me up, he trusts the things he instilled in me when I was young. So now it’s just ‘Hey bro, how you doing? How’s your head?’ He pretty much leaves me alone.”
Jordan played for five seasons at Arizona State and a sixth at Notre Dame. He wasn’t drafted in April but he signed a three-year deal with the Jets for $2.98 million with $170,000 in total guarantees, per Spotrac.
Asked why he signed with the Jets he said: “Shoot, the coaches. The coaches and the opportunity. Playing for Coach [Dre] Bly, playing for Coach [Aaron] Glenn, getting to learn from Coach [Alonso] Escalante, it’s invaluable. The insight they have given me, how much they have helped me progress and grow in the short time I’ve been here, has been amazing. They definitely drew me in.”
After playing safety throughout college the Jets have been transitioning Clark to a nickelback, although as a member of the practice squad he plays just about wherever he is needed in the secondary or on other scout team units like special teams.
“NFL football and college football are two entirely different games,” Clark said. “There was definitely an adjustment to learning different formations, different sets, different things the offense does at this level. Just from a mental standpoint it’s been crazy. And then the strength and conditioning staff has done a great job helping me get my body right to a place where I can be sustainable and healthy in this league.”
The only thing left to do is actually make it. Clark hasn’t gotten called up for any games yet, but he itching for that day to come.
“I think I’m ready,” he said. “They do a great job preparing me. We have some really really good players, though, so I’m just going to play my role until it’s my turn to go and when it’s my turn to go I’ll do my job. I try to just live in the now.”
On Monday night his “now” consisted of watching both his team – and his dad – on television.
“What my dad does is awesome, but at the end of the day I have to lace my cleats up and go out there and play football,” Clark said. “It’s been an amazing experience. I get invaluable insight from him and it’s been an awesome journey. But it’s just playing ball. I’m sure it’s the same as with everybody else.”
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
