Ryan Clark got fired on live television in July and came away with a Netflix deal, an NFL Films show and a billionaire investor inside of eight weeks. Kylian Mbappé walked away from Nike after nearly 20 years to take equity in a brand that doesn't make a soccer cleat yet. J. Cole's Puma deal ended five years ago and he spent the time since building his own shoe. Welcome back to The Closeout. Let's get into it.

ESPN fired Ryan Clark on July 20 in the middle of NFL Live, with about ten minutes left in the show. The Athletic reported the network moved the conversation into the broadcast window because media inquiries had already started. He was the first of roughly 10 on-air cuts that ran through the roster, Karl Ravech included.

Eleven years at the network. NFL Live, SportsCenter, Get Up!, First Take, a 2023 Sports Emmy, a run hosting Inside the NFL. Before that, 13 NFL seasons, 177 games, 938 tackles, 16 interceptions, a Super Bowl ring with Pittsburgh and a Pro Bowl in 2011. He went undrafted out of LSU in 2002 and started 36 straight games anyway. In 2007 a sickle cell trait crisis at altitude in Denver cost him his spleen, his gallbladder, 30 pounds and a season. He came back and won the Ed Block Courage Award.

The ESPN firing cost him almost nothing, because he had spent the previous three and a half years building his backup plan.

The Pivot launched in January 2022. Clark started it with Channing Crowder and Fred Taylor while he was on ESPN's payroll. In 2025 he co-founded Pivot25 Productions with Alicia Zubikowski. By the time the network pulled his contract, the show had more than 1.4 million YouTube subscribers and more than 480 million views, and he owned all of it.

Since July 20: a multiyear Netflix deal, two episodes a week that started September 8, with a first-look arrangement on Pivot25 content. A weekly show with NFL Films that debuted September 14. And as recently as yesterday, September 22, Howard Schultz is joined as a strategic partner and investor, with Andrew Ross Sorkin reporting the partnership extends into live events, corporate partnerships and brand licensing. No terms disclosed.

I talked about the Netflix deal two issues ago. The rest stacked up fast.

He built a company on someone else's clock for three and a half years. When the clock stopped, the company he built was worth more than the job he lost.

Lewis Hamilton signed a multiyear first-look deal between Skydance Sports and his Dawn Apollo Studios, which he launched in 2022 and which produced last year's F1 with Brad Pitt, covering scripted, unscripted and animated projects with room to extend into Paramount's games and consumer products divisions. 

NY Knicks superstar Jalen Brunson launched Thirty Third Management Group on September 16, a New York brand advisory and management firm run by his family. His mother Sandra is president after eight years handling his off-court business, his sister Erica is director of client services, and Connor Cashaw runs business development. The firm advises on brand strategy and philanthropy, represents NIL talent, and names women's professional sports as a priority vertical with Erica leading it. Brunson is the foundational client and currently the only one.

NBA veteran Andre Iguodala joined the ownership group of the NorCal Rumble, Major League Volleyball's Bay Area expansion team, announced September 22 alongside former Warriors teammate Zaza Pachulia. Kings owner Vivek Ranadivé heads the group and the team debuts in January 2027. No terms and no operating role disclosed. 

Flau'jae Johnson bought 15 more acres of commercial property in Georgia, brokered by Tamika Houston of Houston Premier Realty, on top of the 20 she bought in 2025. That is 35 acres before her second WNBA season ends. Issue #8 ran her as the athlete, the artist and the owner. Add landowner at 22.

Kylian Mbappé left Nike after nearly 20 years and signed with On, taking an equity stake and a role leading and co-curating the Swiss brand's first soccer cleat and apparel division. The stake size wasn't disclosed. Neither was the money.

On has never made a soccer cleat, which is why they hired him. A prototype was on his feet inside 48 hours of the announcement. Retail is planned for 2027, which gives the brand a runway into next summer's Women's World Cup in Australia. Thierry Henry was revealed as director of football at the same announcement.

The precedent is already on the cap table. Roger Federer took equity in On in 2019 and the brand built its tennis and lifestyle business around him. Mbappé signed his version at 27, in the middle of a Real Madrid contract, off the back of roughly $70 million in on-field earnings this year alone.

The shoe he wears in 2027 doesn't exist yet, and he owns a piece of the company that has to build it.

J. Cole releases his first fully independent sneaker, DREAMER Indie 5000, on Thursday, September 23, in Fayetteville, exclusively in his hometown. Five years of development with Italian designers, manufactured in Italy, carrying DREAMER branding where a swoosh or a cat would normally sit. A chunky late-90s basketball silhouette with a heavy cupsole, layered panels, zigzag overlays and an exaggerated outsole. Reported colorways include blue, white and black, plus a black, white, orange and pink run. Pricing was not announced.

His Puma partnership produced the RS-Dreamer and the Dreamer 2 before ending in 2021. His line: "Designed, developed and manufactured independently."

Five years and no brand partner is the expensive way to do this. It's also the only way he owns the tooling.

Smith sold Qualtrics, bought the Jazz at a reported $1.66 billion, then added a hockey team and started developing downtown Salt Lake around both. His word for a franchise is "anchor tenant." He also covers NIL, European expansion, and Halo, his $1 billion fund that buys no teams. He's the buyer on the other side of most deals we cover.

Thinking about a podcast version of this newsletter. Same types of operators, longer conversations, diving into how they built the business and what it costs to run one mid-career. Before I build anything I want to know if you'd listen. Hit reply and let me know. See you next Wednesday.