John Clayton, the veteran N.F.L. reporter nicknamed the Professor who was famous for his detailed insights about groups, his soccer evaluation and his concise sport recaps for ESPN, died on Friday at a hospital in Bellevue, Wash. He was 67.
His dying was introduced in an announcement from the Seattle Seahawks, who didn’t specify the trigger. He labored within the ultimate a part of his profession as a sideline reporter for the group’s radio community.
Mr. Clayton’s journalism profession spanned 5 a long time, taking him from the pages of The Pittsburgh Press, the place he coated the Steelers within the Seventies as a youngster, to the studios of ESPN, the place he turned a fixture.
Mr. Clayton, who wore rimless glasses and had a crisp supply, was recognized for his substantive reporting relatively than a flashy, attention-getting on-air type.
“He introduced an even-handedness and a equity and a voice of motive to stories at a time when the sort of bombastic debate exhibits and fewer substantive, extra entertaining types of programming have been gaining popularity,” stated Mike Sando, a senior author for The Athletic who was associates with Mr. Clayton for many years.
Mr. Clayton typically joked that he “didn’t appear to be a TV man,” Mr. Sando stated, and instructed his associates that, in distinction to his extra dashing tv colleagues, he had saved the identical haircut for greater than 40 years.
Of his look, Mr. Clayton instructed The New York Occasions in 2013, “I imply, you might be what you might be.”
When he was 17, he received a job with The Pittsburgh Press masking the Steelers once they have been on the precipice of turning into a championship dynasty.
He would go into the locker room, interview gamers and coaches after which return dwelling, forgoing the beer that his colleagues would get pleasure from afterward within the press field.
In 1978, he wrote an article revealing that the Steelers had violated N.F.L. guidelines when their gamers used shoulder pads throughout a minicamp observe — a revelation that he referred to as Shouldergate and that resulted within the group’s dropping a third-round draft decide.
Mr. Clayton left The Press in 1986 for The Information Tribune in Tacoma, Wash., the place he met his future spouse, Pat, a sports activities reporter who coated bowling.
At The Information Tribune, he pioneered methods of masking the N.F.L., corresponding to sustaining spreadsheets that tracked each participant’s wage after the league launched wage caps in 1994; calling all 32 groups each Friday to seek out out who had not attended observe; and contacting each stadium on sport days to study who the inactive gamers could be.
“John pioneered the granular means during which the league is roofed at present,” Mr. Sando stated.
Along with his spouse, Mr. Clayton is survived by a sister, Amy.
John Clayton was born on Might 11, 1954, in Braddock, Pa., about 10 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. His obsession with soccer started when he was a toddler and his mom took him to Steelers video games.
“In fact you possibly can see my physique — you possibly can see I didn’t have the power to compete on the soccer area,” he instructed USA Soccer in 2013. “It simply wasn’t there. However I liked the sport a lot.”
He launched into his journalism profession after graduating from Duquesne College in Pittsburgh in 1976.
In 1995 he joined ESPN, the place he appeared on weekly radio exhibits and hosted the “4 Downs” section with Sean Salisbury, a former N.F.L. quarterback.
However his tv stardom was not solidified till his look in what would change into a memorable “That is ‘SportsCenter’” business.
Within the advert, an anchor says: “It’s onerous to seek out an knowledgeable extra devoted than John Clayton. He’s the consummate professional.”
The scene exhibits Mr. Clayton delivering his evaluation on the air in a go well with jacket and a tie and cuts away to disclose that he’s carrying simply the higher parts of each. He pulls the clothes off to disclose that he’s carrying a sleeveless T-shirt with the title of the thrash steel band Slayer.
Then he stands up in a room plastered with posters, and lets unfastened a hidden ponytail.
He jumps on a mattress, yelling: “Hey, mother! I’m accomplished with my section!” He then eats noodles from a takeout container.
Though the advert was a hit, Mr. Clayton, had been hesitant to do it, stated Dave Pearson, the chief communications officer for the Seattle Seahawks.
Mr. Clayton instructed Mr. Pearson and Mr. Sando that he had constructed his popularity on critical reporting and didn’t need to tarnish that by showing in a foolish advert.
“Are they going to giggle at me?” Mr. Sando recalled Mr. Clayton asking.
However after it aired, Mr. Sando stated, it gave Mr. Clayton “a brand new stage of movie star that was completely sudden,” and he cherished that,
Mr. Clayton’s profession at ESPN resulted in 2017 when he was one in all a number of individuals laid off by the community, based on The Sporting Information.
He joined the radio station Seattle Sports activities 710 and labored for 5 seasons as a sideline reporter for the Seattle Seahawks Radio Community. This month, Mr. Clayton was reporting on the quarterback Russell Wilson’s anticipated commerce to Denver. (He was traded final week.)
When requested by The Pittsburgh Put up-Gazette in 2018 how lengthy he deliberate to work, Mr. Clayton replied: “Till they plant me, I assume. I like these things.”
Ed Bouchette, a former sports activities reporter for The Put up-Gazette who’s now a senior author with The Athletic, stated Mr. Clayton had been much more dedicated to his spouse, who has a number of sclerosis. He had an elevator constructed for her of their home and took her to Tremendous Bowl video games that he coated, Mr. Bouchette stated.
“She was in a wheelchair, and John would take her round all over the place,” he stated. “It was sort of touching, I assumed.”
In 2007, he obtained the Invoice Nunn Memorial Award, one of many highest honors for soccer reporters.
