John Clayton Among The ESPN Layoffs

One more big name has emerged from the recent round of 100 or so layoffs at ESPN: Longtime NFL Insider John Clayton is out. The news was first reported by Sporting News.

Clayton did not reply to a pair of Deadspin’s requests for comment. An ESPN spokesperson declined to comment.

The layoff only affects Clayton’s roles on television and at ESPN.com, per Sporting News. He will continue to broadcast his ESPN radio program, which airs in Seattle, because ESPN radio affiliates are independently owned.

Clayton spent 23 years at ESPN, where he was a senior NFL writer. He had worked as a beat reporter covering the Steelers and then the Seahawks before jumping to ESPN. He was inducted into the writer’s wing of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2007.

Clayton’s alleged ponytail once made for a pretty great mystery before he and ESPN turned it into a pretty great commercial.

Update (1:04 p.m. EDT): Clayton speaks.

[ Sporting News]