[ad_1]
John Clayton, the veteran N.F.L. reporter who was nicknamed the Professor and who was famous for his detailed insights about groups, his soccer evaluation and his concise recreation recaps for ESPN, died on Friday at a hospital in Bellevue, Wash. He was 67.
He died “after a battle with a quick sickness,” in response to an announcement from the Seattle Seahawks, who confirmed his demise. He labored within the ultimate a part of his profession as a sideline reporter for the group’s radio community.
Mr. Clayton’s journalism profession spanned 5 a long time, taking him from the print pages of The Pittsburgh Press, the place he coated the Steelers within the Nineteen Seventies as a youngster, to the studios of ESPN, the place he grew to become a fixture on the community’s reveals and an icon of N.F.L. reporting.
Mr. Clayton, who sported rimless glasses and who had a crisp supply, was identified for his substantive reporting reasonably than any flashy, attention-getting type throughout his on-air appearances.
“He introduced an even-handedness and a equity and a voice of cause to studies at a time when the type of bombastic debate reveals and fewer substantive, extra entertaining types of programming had been rising in popularity,” mentioned Mike Sando, a senior author for The Athletic who was pals with Mr. Clayton for many years.
Mr. Clayton typically joked that he “didn’t seem like a TV man,” Mr. Sando mentioned, and instructed his pals that, in distinction to his extra dashing tv colleagues, he had saved the identical haircut for greater than 40 years.
Of his look, Mr. Clayton told The New York Times in 2013, “I imply, you’re what you’re.”
All through the a long time, his love for the game and for reporting was apparent, his colleagues mentioned. When he was 17, he received a job with The Pittsburgh Press overlaying the Steelers after they had been on the precipice of turning into a championship dynasty within the Nineteen Seventies.
He would go into the locker room, interview gamers and coaches after which return residence, forgoing the beer that his colleagues would take pleasure in afterward within the press field.
In 1978, he wrote an article in regards to the Steelers’ violating N.F.L. guidelines when their gamers used shoulder pads throughout a minicamp apply — a revelation that he known as Shouldergate and which resulted within the group’s dropping a third-round draft decide.
Mr. Clayton left The Press in 1986 for The Information Tribune in Tacoma, Wash., the place he met his spouse, Pat, a sports activities reporter who coated bowling.
At The Information Tribune, he pioneered methods of overlaying the N.F.L., similar to sustaining spreadsheets that tracked each participant’s wage after the league launched wage caps in 1994; calling all 32 groups each Friday to seek out out who had not attended apply; and contacting each stadium on recreation days to study who the inactive gamers could be.
“John pioneered the granular means through which the league is roofed at present,” Mr. Sando mentioned.
Along with his spouse, Mr. Clayton is survived by his sister, Amy.
His obsession with soccer started as a toddler. John Clayton was born on Could 11, 1954, in Braddock, Pa., about 10 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. His mom took him to Steelers video games, a pastime that solely intensified his adoration for the sport.
“After all you possibly can see my physique — you possibly can see I didn’t have the flexibility to compete on the soccer area,” he told USA Football in 2013. “It simply wasn’t there. However I beloved the sport a lot.”
He graduated from Duquesne College in Pittsburgh in 1976 and launched into his journalism profession.
In 1995, he joined ESPN. There, Mr. Clayton’s reporting prominence grew as he starred in weekly radio reveals and hosted the “4 Downs” section with Sean Salisbury, a former N.F.L. quarterback.
However his tv stardom was not solidified till his look in what would change into a memorable “That is ‘SportsCenter’” commercial.
Within the advert for ESPN, an anchor says: “It’s exhausting to seek out an professional extra devoted than John Clayton. He’s the consummate professional.”
The scene reveals Mr. Clayton delivering his evaluation on the air in a go well with jacket and a tie and cuts away to disclose that he’s sporting simply the higher parts of each. He pulls the clothes off to disclose that he’s sporting a sleeveless T-shirt with the identify of the thrash steel band Slayer.
Then, he stands up in his room, which is plastered with posters, and lets free a hidden ponytail.
He jumps on a mattress, yelling: “Hey, mother! I’m executed with my section!” He then eats noodles from a takeout container.
The advert was a hit. Mr. Clayton, nevertheless, had been hesitant to do the business, mentioned Dave Pearson, the chief communications officer for the Seattle Seahawks.
Mr. Clayton instructed Mr. Pearson and Mr. Sando that he had constructed his repute on critical reporting and didn’t need to tarnish that by showing in a foolish advert.
“Are they going to snigger at me?” Mr. Sando recalled Mr. Clayton asking.
After the advert aired, nevertheless, it gave Mr. Clayton “a brand new degree of celeb that was completely sudden,” and he cherished that, Mr. Sando mentioned.
Mr. Clayton’s profession at ESPN resulted in 2017 when he was one in every of a number of staff who had been laid off by the community, in response to The Sporting News.
He joined the radio station Seattle Sports activities 710 and labored for 5 seasons as a sideline reporter for the Seattle Seahawks Radio Community. This month, Mr. Clayton was reporting on Russell Wilson’s anticipated trade to Denver.
When requested by The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2018 how lengthy he deliberate to work, Mr. Clayton replied: “Till they plant me, I suppose. I really like these items.”
Ed Bouchette, a former sports activities reporter for The Publish-Gazette who’s now a senior author with The Athletic, mentioned Mr. Clayton had been much more dedicated to his spouse, who has a number of sclerosis. He had an elevator constructed for her of their home and took her to Tremendous Bowl video games that he coated, Mr. Bouchette mentioned.
“She was in a wheelchair, and John would take her round all over the place,” he mentioned. “It was type of touching, I assumed.”
In 2007, he acquired the Bill Nunn Memorial Award, one of many highest honors for soccer reporters.
[ad_2]
Source link
