ESPN analyst Ryan Clark criticized Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry for suggesting that a statue of Charlie Kirk be erected on the campus of Louisiana State University.
These comments follow a statement made by Landry about the future LSU football coach, in which he said that he would rather allow President Donald Trump to select the next head coach than Athletic Director Scott Woodward, who has since departed from his role at the university.
“Hell, I’ll let Donald Trump select him before I let him do it,” said Landry, per NBC News.
Rather than remaining on topic, Clark decided to take a shot at both Landry and Kirk for the suggestion that the Turning Point USA co-founder be commemorated on the LSU campus.
Clark, a former LSU safety, said the proposal was misguided and emblematic of politicians inserting themselves into areas that they “don’t know about.”
“It’s the second most ridiculous thing he said this week. The first was standing on campus and saying he wanted to put a statue up of somebody that doesn’t represent the people of Louisiana, doesn’t represent the players and the students at LSU, doesn’t represent the executives that work there. That was the first dumb thing he said this week,” said Clark.
Clark later doubled down on these comments, saying that Landry only made the statement in an attempt to connect himself to Trump.
“I honestly believe it was so he could get in front of a microphone and say, ‘look at this connection I have with the president and he likes to pick winners so he could placate to someone he idolizes. You don’t know nothing about football. There’s enough going on in the state of Louisiana that needs to be fixed for its constituents. I don’t need you tweeting on Saturday night about what’s going on at Tiger Stadium. There is too many issues happening right there under your nose that ain’t got nothing to do with sports.”
The governor’s office has not publicly addressed Clark’s remarks.
Clark’s remarks come amid a pattern of controversies surrounding his public statements, with the former NFL safety having to release multiple apologies for comments that he has made in the past.
Clark has previously apologized for comments about former NFL player Robert Griffin III’s marriage, for calling a fellow ESPN analyst a “non-player” on air, and for defending an LSU athlete involved in a fatal crash before all facts were known, as reported by Outkick.