John Clayton, the veteran N.F.L. reporter who was nicknamed the Professor and 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.
He died “after a battle with a quick sickness,” in keeping with an announcement from the Seattle Seahawks, who confirmed his demise. He labored within the last 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 print pages of The Pittsburgh Press, the place he coated the Steelers within the Nineteen Seventies as a young person, to the studios of ESPN, the place he turned a fixture on the community’s exhibits and an icon of N.F.L. reporting.
Mr. Clayton, who sported rimless glasses and who had a crisp supply, was identified for his substantive reporting reasonably than any flashy, attention-getting model throughout his on-air appearances.
“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 had been rising in popularity,” stated Mike Sando, a senior author for The Athletic who was mates with Mr. Clayton for many years.
Mr. Clayton usually joked that he “didn’t seem like a TV man,” Mr. Sando stated, and informed his mates 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 informed The New York Instances in 2013, “I imply, you’re what you’re.”
All through the a long time, his love for the game and for reporting was apparent, his colleagues stated. When he was 17, he obtained a job with The Pittsburgh Press masking the Steelers once they had been on the precipice of changing into a championship dynasty within the Nineteen Seventies.
He would go into the locker room, interview gamers and coaches after which return residence, forgoing the beer that his colleagues would get pleasure from afterward within the press field.
In 1978, he wrote an article in regards to the Steelers’ violating N.F.L. guidelines when their gamers used shoulder pads throughout a minicamp observe — a revelation that he referred to as Shouldergate and which resulted within the group’s dropping a third-round draft choose.
Mr. Clayton left The Press in 1986 for The Information Tribune in Tacoma, Wash., the place he met his spouse, Pat, a sports activities reporter who coated bowling.
At The Information Tribune, he pioneered methods of masking the N.F.L., akin to sustaining spreadsheets that tracked each participant’s wage after the league launched wage caps in 1994; calling all 32 groups each Friday to search out out who had not attended observe; and contacting each stadium on sport days to be taught who the inactive gamers could be.
“John pioneered the granular manner during which the league is roofed immediately,” Mr. Sando stated.
Along with his spouse, Mr. Clayton is survived his sister, Amy.
His obsession with soccer started as a baby. John Clayton was born on Could 11, 1954, in Braddock, Pa., about 10 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. His mom took him to Steelers video games, a pastime that solely intensified his adoration for the sport.
“After all you may see my physique — you may see I didn’t have the flexibility to compete on the soccer area,” he informed USA Soccer in 2013. “It simply wasn’t there. However I cherished the sport a lot.”
He graduated from Duquesne College in Pittsburgh in 1976 and launched into his journalism profession.
In 1995, he joined ESPN. There, Mr. Clayton’s reporting prominence grew as he starred in weekly radio exhibits and hosted the “4 Downs” phase with Sean Salisbury, a former N.F.L. quarterback.
However his tv stardom was not solidified till his look in what would turn into a memorable “That is ‘SportsCenter’” industrial.
Within the advert for ESPN, an anchor says: “It’s arduous to search out an skilled 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 sporting simply the higher parts of each. He pulls the clothes off to disclose that he’s sporting a sleeveless T-shirt with the identify of the thrash steel band Slayer.
Then, he stands up in his room, which is plastered with posters, and lets free a hidden ponytail.
He jumps on a mattress, yelling: “Hey, mother! I’m executed with my phase!” He then eats noodles from a takeout container.
The advert was successful. Mr. Clayton, nevertheless, had been hesitant to do the industrial, stated Dave Pearson, the chief communications officer for the Seattle Seahawks.
Mr. Clayton informed Mr. Pearson and Mr. Sando that he had constructed his popularity on severe reporting and didn’t wish to tarnish that by showing in a foolish advert.
“Are they going to chortle at me?” Mr. Sando recalled Mr. Clayton asking.
After the advert aired, nevertheless, it gave Mr. Clayton “a brand new degree of movie star that was completely sudden,” and he cherished that, Mr. Sando stated.
Mr. Clayton’s profession at ESPN led to 2017 when he was one in every of a number of staff who had been laid off by the community, in keeping with 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 Russell Wilson’s anticipated commerce to Denver.
When requested by The Pittsburgh Publish-Gazette in 2018 how lengthy he deliberate to work, Mr. Clayton replied: “Till they plant me, I suppose. I really like these things.”
Ed Bouchette, a former sports activities reporter for The Publish-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 believed.”
In 2007, he obtained the Invoice Nunn Memorial Award, one of many highest honors for soccer reporters.
