John Clayton, the veteran N.F.L. reporter nicknamed the Professor who was famous for his soccer evaluation and his concise recreation recaps for ESPN, died on Friday at a hospital in Bellevue, Wash. He was 67.
His dying was introduced in a press release from the Seattle Seahawks, who didn’t specify the trigger. He labored within the closing a part of his profession as a sideline reporter for the crew’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 lined the Steelers within the Seventies as a teen, to the studios of ESPN, the place he grew to become a fixture.
Mr. Clayton, who wore rimless glasses and had a crisp supply, was identified for his substantive reporting relatively than a flashy, attention-getting on-air fashion.
“He introduced an even-handedness and a equity and a voice of motive to experiences at a time when the type of bombastic debate exhibits and fewer substantive, extra entertaining types of programming had been rising in popularity,” mentioned Mike Sando, a senior author for The Athletic who was buddies with Mr. Clayton for many years.
Mr. Clayton typically joked that he “didn’t appear like a TV man,” Mr. Sando mentioned, and informed his buddies 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 Occasions in 2013, “I imply, you’re what you’re.”
When he was 17, he acquired a job with The Pittsburgh Press masking the Steelers once they had been on the precipice of changing into a championship dynasty.
He would go into the locker room, interview gamers and coaches after which return house, 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 apply — a revelation that he known as Shouldergate and that resulted within the crew’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 lined 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 apply; and contacting each stadium on recreation days to study who the inactive gamers could be.
“John pioneered the granular method during which the league is roofed right now,” Mr. Sando mentioned.
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 baby and his mom took him to Steelers video games.
“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 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 turn into a memorable “That is ‘SportsCenter’” business.
Within the advert, an anchor says: “It’s laborious to search out an professional 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 title of the thrash metallic band Slayer.
Then he stands up in a room plastered with posters, and lets free a hidden ponytail.
He jumps on a mattress, yelling: “Hey, mother! I’m completed with my section!” He then eats noodles from a takeout container.
Though the advert was successful, Mr. Clayton, had been hesitant to do it, mentioned Dave Pearson, the chief communications officer for the Seattle Seahawks.
Mr. Clayton informed Mr. Pearson and Mr. Sando that he had constructed his fame on severe reporting and didn’t wish to tarnish that by showing in a foolish advert.
“Are they going to snigger at me?” Mr. Sando recalled Mr. Clayton asking.
However after it aired, Mr. Sando mentioned, 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 led to 2017 when he was one among a number of folks 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 the quarterback Russell Wilson’s anticipated commerce to Denver. (The commerce was accomplished final week.)
When requested by The Pittsburgh Submit-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 Submit-Gazette who’s now a senior author with The Athletic, mentioned 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 lined, Mr. Bouchette mentioned.
“She was in a wheelchair, and John would take her round in all places,” he mentioned. “It was type of touching, I believed.”
In 2007, he acquired the Invoice Nunn Memorial Award, one of many highest honors for soccer reporters.
