NFL Analyst Taking Heat For 'Problematic' Halloween Costume
10/30/2024 10:24 PM
Happy Halloween, everyone! One prominent NFL analyst went bold with his costume this year...perhaps too bold.
ESPN analyst Ryan Clark, who also contributes to "Inside the NFL" on The CW, is trending on social media for his Halloween costume on Wednesday evening. Clark, who played college football at LSU before going on to play for the Steelers and then-Redskins in the NFL, dressed up as Bill Belichick for Halloween. But Clark, 45, didn't just rock a Bill Belichick type outfit. He made his face look like Bill Belichick's, too, with serious makeup and perhaps some prosthetics, too.
Not everyone is OK with the look.
NFL.
Belichick, who is working for ESPN and "Inside the NFL" this year, appeared on set alongside Clark. So, he was obviously OK with the costume. But not everyone else was.
"How did this get approved??" one fan wrote.
"Greeny wears a mike Tomlinson mask and gets canceled in a heartbeat," one fan added, referencing Mike Greenberg.
"He can do whiteface??? Im confused," one fan added.
"White face is ok apparently," another fan wrote.
Some are choosing to defend the look, though, saying it's completely different than blackface.
"He literally has on a mask and stage makeup. Completely different than someone doing black face. Eddie Murphy played an Asian man with a MASK played an Italian man in Coming to America, with a mask and makeup. This is what Ryan did, he didn't paint his face white. Please be for real," one fan wrote.
"I see no issue with this," one fan added.
"I don't see what the problem is," one fan added.
Wild: Ryan Clark dressed up as Bill Belichick for Halloween.
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) October 31, 2024
How did this get approved??pic.twitter.com/DAsUIza2sy
Former NBC host Megyn Kelly was famously ousted from her role at the network for trying to defend the use of blackface at Halloween.
"But what is racist?" Kelly asked in 2018. "Because you do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface on Halloween, or a black person who puts on whiteface for Halloween. Back when I was a kid that was OK, as long as you were dressing up as, like, a character."
Kelly ended up apologizing.
"One of the wonderful things about my job is that I get the chance to express and hear a lot of opinions," Kelly said. "Today is one of those days where listening carefully to other points of view, including from friends and colleagues, is leading me to rethink my own views."
Kelly was ultimately ousted by NBC. She now hosts her own show, "The Megyn Kelly Show."
Clark joined ESPN as an NFL analyst in February of 2015.
