SUPER Bowl champion Ryan Clark was unable to play at altitude in the NFL due to a serious medical condition - but now he has a promising new role.
Ryan has reached the height of success in his new position as a star ESPN broadcaster.
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The 44-year-old has been tipped to be the next Stephen A. Smith of the sports network following his appearances on First Take, Get Up! and NFL Live.
The former Pittsburgh Steelers safety carries the sickle cell trait, a genetic abnormality that can affect red blood cells.
Clark became gravely ill while playing in Denver in October 2007, which led to him having to have his spleen and gallbladder removed and miss the rest of the NFL season.
The condition meant he never played in Denver again until he retired from the NFL in 2014.
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"I almost died there," Clark recounted on First Take earlier this year.
"I played there, and I lost my spleen, my gallbladder, a decent part of my liver..."
But Clark's altitude sickness did not prevent him from having an illustrious 13-year NFL career, in which he won Super Bowl XLIII with the Steelers and appeared in one Pro Bowl.
Having previously worked in the sports media, Clark joined ESPN as an NFL analyst in February 2015 on the same day he retired from professional football.
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And he has gone from strength to strength ever since, winning a Sports Emmy in the Outstanding Personality/Studio Analyst category earlier this year.
In addition to being an integral part of ESPN’s NFL coverage, he appears regularly on a series of programs including SportsCenter, as well as his own MMA program.
Clark has revealed that Skip Bayless put him on the road to success at ESPN.
"I got an opportunity to go on what was then called Cold Pizza," Clark told The Athletic.
"Then when it became First Take, I asked ESPN if I could come on to debate Skip.
"One time I got an opportunity to do that and Skip said some really nice things about me at an after-meeting, how prepared I was, how engaged I was.
"So I got invited back a few more times."
Clark has ambitions to host his own show on ESPN one day and he says that if he does not fulfill his broadcasting ambitions then he would be willing to walk away.
"The craziest thing is at some point, unless they give me one of these jobs, I’m probably just going to walk away and coach football," he added.
"I would love to be a head coach somewhere. Then I’d love to be an athletic director somewhere.
"So it’s a lot of things I think about and want to do. But as far as the business, I just want to keep putting out good work.
"I want to keep progressing. I want an opportunity to carry a show.
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"I want an opportunity for a show to reflect my thoughts, my personality, my upbringing, my experiences.
"That would be a goal of mine."
