Ryan Clark, StudBudz, Dave Portnoy Edit by Liam McGuire
By Sean Keeley on

Whoever is in charge of the “Days Since Ryan Clark Was Involved In A Sports Media Feud” counter, please reset it to zero.

At any given moment, the ESPN NFL analyst seems to be feuding with someone in sports media, though the opponent changes regularly.

In just the last two months, Clark has feuded with Barstool’s Dave Portnoy, Robert Griffin III, and Cam Newton. Just as that last one was starting to die down, he’s now circled back to Portnoy.

This latest spat begins where all things do, with StudBudz, a Twitch channel started by Minnesota Lynx teammates Courtney Williams and Natisha Hiedeman. The WBNA duo made waves thanks to a 72-hour All-Star stream that received tons of praise, including from Portnoy. When it was teased that there might be a collaboration between them, critics came for StudBudz, given Portnoy’s previous comments about Angel Reese.

Chief among those critics is Clark, who discussed the situation on a recent episode of The Pivot.

“When I think of the StudBudz sitting with Dave Portnoy, I think of priorities,” Clark said. “If your priority is to build the StudBudz as big as you possibly can, then why wouldn’t you invite on someone who has built one of the biggest platforms of new media in Barstool?

“But there’s also: who do you serve? We had Andrew Schultz on, and he wanted to have a conversation about what he said, why it wasn’t intended as it was taken. Dave Portnoy is not going to do that. Not only did he call Angel Reese a classless piece of sh*t after the NCAAs, he’s continued to double down on his dislike and disdain for her. And he’s exactly, if you’re servicing the WNBA viewers, he’s exactly what you don’t want. You don’t want people to feel like because you like Angel, you have to dislike Caitlin Clark.

“I’m a fan of both ladies. I think they’re both great for women’s basketball. And he is part of the Caitlin Clark following that makes people hate her fans or dislike her fans because they do feel like they have caused this division between two players who are actually elevating the game, and you can’t compare in playing styles.”

Portnoy caught wind of Clark’s latest comments and offered a rebuttal.

“Ryan Clark can’t go two days without talking about me,” he wrote on X. “I shouldn’t dignify his existence because I know he’s a race baiter BUT apparently he’s mad I have opinions on a pro athlete while he’s out here attacking guys wives.” 

We’ll see if Clark reacts or if this latest spat simmers down, at least for now. But if we know anything, it’s that this probably isn’t the last time these two men will tangle over women’s basketball.

About Sean Keeley

Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.

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