A twist on John Clayton’s buttoned-down image was the source of humor in a popular ESPN commercial. It shows him giving a standard informative NFL update. But when the camera is off, he strips off a mock suit and tie, and pulls out a hidden ponytail to reveal himself as a thrash-metal rock fan living in his mom’s basement. He plops on the bed and starts digging his chopsticks into a container of leftover chow mein while head-bobbing to Slayer.
Dave Boling staff writer from the newstribune.com posted this on November 25, 2013, he writes; “One of his [John Clayton’s] ESPN colleagues tells what it’s like to go into a restaurant with John Clayton, media rock star. They hadn’t even gotten to their table when a gentleman approached and apologized for the interruption. He asked if Clayton wouldn’t mind being introduced to his friend, who was a great admirer. The bashful fan turned out to be former heavyweight champ Evander Holyfield.”
I asked Clayton how it felt to be such a sports media star.
“It was great,” he says. “It was actually down in Atlanta, at the Marriott at the airport. I was walking into the restaurant and one of the representatives said;” “hey Evander wants to say hello to you.” I was like, “wow how about that, talk about the real deal. You’re walking through an airport and the next thing you know, here’s Evander Holyfield wanting to come over and shake your hand. It was a very humbling moment. It’s something I never expected. You just try to handle it as nicely as you can.
I’ll give you an example. I’m not shy, but I’m quiet. Down at Super Bowl XLIX you walk around and thirty, forty people want to take selfies and do different things because they see me on television but I haven’t really changed since growing up in Braddock and Forest Hills, [PA]. What’s b nice is now for several years that’s been what happens when you walk down the street, or through airports or into a restaurant people are stopping you and taking photographs. It’s very flattering that they want to do it.”
Even though Clayton is a staple in the Seattle market, he was not even remotely hesitant when I asked him if he thought that the final play call by Seahawks coaching staff in Super Bowl 49 was the appropriate call.
“No,” he said with conviction. “It will go down as the worst call in Super Bowl history because the play resulted in an interception. The reason is in 2014 there were 109 passes thrown from the one yard line including the playoffs and not one pass was intercepted except that one. For the Seahawks you have to go all the way back to 2002 to have a Seahawks quarterback throw an interception from the one yard line. It was a bad play call. They made it to two Super Bowls with the legs and the arm of Russell Wilson and the power of Marshawn Lynch and not to use Marshawn Lynch in that situation clearly cost them a chance to be a repeat Super Bowl winner.”
We both had a good laugh when we reminisced about the famous quote that the Steelers Hall of Fame Linebacker Jack Lambert once uttered that, “quarterbacks should wear dresses.” I asked Clayton; what he thought about the NFL rule changes over the past decade.
“The changes certainly make it tougher for defenses to succeed although you look at the Seahawks defense for the past three years they’ve given up the fewest points allowed so defense is making a little bit of a comeback. There is good and bad especially with the passing. It is a quarterback driven league. If you don’t have a quarterback you’re pretty much waiting at the top of the draft to get a quarterback. Unfortunately, there are not 32 good starting quarterbacks in league, you have good and bad ones.
The good part is and I think that you saw in the Super Bowl, if you have one of those elite quarterbacks you have the ability to drive and get quick touchdowns at any point in the game. Tom Brady, one of the best ever was able to put up 14 points in a comeback from a 10 point deficit. Russell Wilson was not only good enough to be in the position to be at the one yard line during his final drive but right before the 1st half ended, he drove his team down the field 80 yards in 29 seconds.
That’s the good part because now with these passing types of offenses you can have Super Bowls where you can have great finishes like that because the quarterbacks are so good because quarterbacks are now used to being in the shotgun moving up and down the field in a no-huddle type of offense. The bad part is that it is tougher on defense to be able to succeed.”
Clayton and I also laughed when I brought up about how his analysis has even reached 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, because President Barack Obama won’t fill out his fantasy NFL lineup unless he hears the analysis of John Clayton. “I was kind of stunned when I first heard that. Rick Riley was the campaign tour with President Obama and sure enough Rick said that he would watch my Friday injury reports to see for fantasy purposes what to do with the [Chicago] Bears that he had. Here’s the President watching my injury report to help determine how he was going to proceed with his fantasy team.”
John Clayton’s mom took him at the tender age of six to see the Pittsburgh Steelers play when most people thought that was just according to him; “a bratty kid that came to the games just to eat.” I can hear his mother still whispering in his ear after the games, just like Art Rooney did after Clayton’s exile covering the Steelers ended. “Ya done good kid, ya done good.”
Aubrey Bruce can be reached at: abruce@newpittsburghcourier.com or 412.583.6741
He is also a contributor to urbanmediatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter@ultrascribe
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