Dan Patrick urges ESPN to show their employees more dignity

Dan Patrick hated seeing so many ESPN employees lose their jobs this week, but he really hated the way the company went about letting those people go.

This was a bad week for ESPN as they executed their latest round of layoffs which featured several big names. But ESPN made it worse in how they handled some of those layoffs. After 11 years of service, Ryan Clark was pulled off NFL Live and laid off during a commercial break. And after 33 years of service, Karl Ravech learned he was being laid off when reached for comment by a reporter. Dan Patrick believes ESPN should have done better, because their employees deserved better.

“Show dignity to those people in how you let them go. It can’t happen that Karl Ravech is contacted by somebody wanting a comment. 33 years, and that’s how it ends? Show dignity, give them that dignity.”

– Dan Patrick on the recent ESPN layoffs pic.twitter.com/D23gq9IlTl

— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) July 23, 2026

“There’s a lot of people who lost jobs, and I hate seeing that in the industry,” Patrick said on his Thursday morning radio show. “The only thing I would say is, show dignity to those people in how you let them go. That’s all. It can’t happen that Karl Ravech is contacted by somebody wanting to comment. 33 years, and that’s how it ends? Show dignity. Give them that dignity.”

Patrick cited Clark awkwardly being laid off during a commercial break on NFL Live after ESPN learned Outkick was going to report the news of his future. Once the news leaked, ESPN had to let Clark go. They couldn’t risk Clark’s phone blowing up with the news while he was on-camera. But if ESPN was going to let Clark go Tuesday morning, and people inside the company knew Clark was going to be let go Tuesday morning, then they shouldn’t have had him on-air Monday afternoon.

“If you get to the point that you know you’re not going to keep them, then contact them right away,” Patrick said. “Not wait. Not wait until somebody gets on set, not wait so somebody from a website is going to contact Karl Ravech. Give them the dignity they deserve, not somebody calling you and saying, ‘Hey, can you comment on you being let go after 33 years.’ That really bothered me. You can be better than that. It’s a tough conversation to have, bring them in, call them, go see them, Zoom with them. 33 years and you find out from somebody else other than your boss? That’s a shame. I felt really bad for Karl Ravech.”

Patrick also advised people in the business to never think you’ll be at a singular location forever. Because chances are, your current job won’t be your last, regardless of how well-established you are in your career or at the company.

“Have your head on a swivel,” Patrick said. “It’s important to have relationships. Keep the relationships, because it’s a real small world that we work in.”

Patrick noted Mike Golic and Rich Eisen have now returned to ESPN after previous departures, adding Skip Bayless might be on his way back as well. The same might eventually happen for some of the people who were laid off this week. But hopefully ESPN can reassess the way the layoffs played out this week and realize mistakes were made with their execution.

“I’ll always be beholden to ESPN, they gave me an opportunity. Without them, I’m not here,” Patrick admitted. “I just want them to remember the people, and they are people, and be fair to them. Allow them to walk out with their head high, or as high as you can allow them to do that. And I don’t know if Karl Ravech is able to say that today.”