Mr. Clayton told Mr. Pearson and Mr. Sando that he had built his reputation on serious reporting and did not want to tarnish that by appearing in a silly ad.
“Are they going to laugh at me?” Mr. Sando recalled Mr. Clayton asking.
But after it aired, Mr. Sando said, it gave Mr. Clayton “a new level of celebrity that was totally unexpected,” and he cherished that,
Mr. Clayton’s career at ESPN ended in 2017 when he was one of several people laid off by the network, according to The Sporting News.
He joined the radio station Seattle Sports 710 and worked for five seasons as a sideline reporter for the Seattle Seahawks Radio Network. This month, Mr. Clayton was reporting on the quarterback Russell Wilson’s expected trade to Denver. (The trade was completed last week.)
When asked by The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2018 how long he planned to work, Mr. Clayton replied: “Until they plant me, I guess. I love this stuff.”
Ed Bouchette, a former sports reporter for The Post-Gazette who is now a senior writer with The Athletic, said Mr. Clayton had been even more devoted to his wife, who has multiple sclerosis. He had an elevator built for her in their house and took her to Super Bowl games that he covered, Mr. Bouchette said.
“She was in a wheelchair, and John would take her around everywhere,” he said. “It was kind of touching, I thought.”
In 2007, he received the Bill Nunn Memorial Award, one of the highest honors for football reporters.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/19/sports/football/john-clayton-dead.html
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