{"id":949959,"date":"2026-07-21T16:32:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T16:32:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/949959\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T16:32:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T16:32:19","slug":"exclusive-espn-to-part-ways-with-cam-newton-as-part-of-talent-layoffs-that-also-included-ryan-clark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/949959\/","title":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: ESPN to part ways with Cam Newton as part of talent layoffs that also included Ryan Clark"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ESPN is parting ways with Cam Newton<\/a>, multiple sources told OutKick.<\/p>\n

The network will include Newton in a round of layoffs that could be announced as soon as Tuesday. OutKick reported Monday<\/a> that NFL analyst Ryan Clark would be among the on-air employees let go.<\/p>\n

ESPN featured Newton over the past two seasons as a debate partner for Stephen A. Smith on “First Take.”<\/p>\n

\"Cam <\/p>\n

ESPN analyst Cam Newton appears on the set of “First Take” in San Francisco, Calif. (Aaron M. Sprecher\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Last season, the network elevated Newton to replace Shannon Sharpe as Smith’s primary Monday co-host during football season, the show’s highest-rated day of the week.<\/p>\n

Sources say ESPN will look for a permanent replacement for Newton on the Monday editions of the show.<\/p>\n

Newton and Smith engaged in a public back-and-forth last spring after Newton invited Jason Whitlock, whom Smith has said he “hates with a passion,” onto his podcast.<\/p>\n

Smith criticized Newton for not defending him when Whitlock cited what he described as fabrications in Smith’s 2023 memoir.<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

SIGN UP TO GET THE LATEST SPORTS NEWS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Newton responded that he didn’t challenge Whitlock because, in his view, there was “nothing to correct.”<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

In any event, Smith will be without his two main analysts during the football season in Newton and Clark.<\/p>\n

\"Cam <\/p>\n

Cam Newton, Shannon Sharpe, Molly Qerim and Stephen A. Smith attend ESPN First Take at Clark Atlanta University and Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga., on Nov. 8, 2024. (Paras Griffin\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

This is a breaking news story. Check back to OutKick for more news and analysis.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bobby Burack is a writer for OutKick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ESPN is parting ways with Cam Newton, multiple sources told OutKick. The network will include Newton in a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":949960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[39],"tags":[203203,1232,306237,62,2233,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-949959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-cam-newton","tag-nfl","tag-outkick-sports","tag-sports","tag-stephen-a-smith","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=949959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/949960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=949959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=949959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=949959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}