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Former ESPN star Trey Wingo wants to set the record straight.
Former NFL linebacker and former ESPN analyst Emmanuel Acho claimed that Ryan Clark turned ESPN’s “NFL Live” into the “master” it is today, and Wingo wasn’t having any of that.
“Ryan Clark turned NFL Live into the giant it is today (along with Rutledge, Mina and Spears), no devise NFL Live, there is a difference,” Acho posted.
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Trey Wingo watches during the first round of the American Century Championship on July 10, 2026 at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course in Stateline, Nevada. (Matthew Huang/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Wingo, who hosted “NFL Live” for 15 years from 2003 to 2018, responded to Acho’s claim that Clark built the program by posting a graph showing his ratings over the years, which he said refuted Acho’s claim.
The chart, which was based on numbers reported by ESPN, showed that “NFL Live” averaged 688,000 viewers during a comparable early-season period in 2013 and 624,000 in 2012. It averaged about 486,000 in 2015, 492,000 in 2016, 449,000 in 2021 and 440,000 in 2025.
Wingo captioned his post on X: “‘May your apology be as strong as your disrespect.’ I think someone said that once.”
The former ESPN host’s line about allowing his apology to be as loud as his disrespect referenced a dispute in which Acho insulted former San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel and then apologized to him.
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Emmanuel Acho speaks on stage during the ADL Never Is Now Summit at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City on March 17, 2026. (Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for ADL)
Acho’s initial tweet was in response to OutKick’s Dan Zaksheske. Zaksheske began the interaction thread by responding to a clip from “The Breakfast Club,” where the morning show’s hosts said Clark built “NFL Live.”
“NFL Live premiered in 1998 when Clark was 18, four years before entering the NFL and 17 years before joining ESPN,” Zaksheske wrote in X.
Acho responded to Zaksheske and agreed with “The Breakfast Club”, saying “And no one was watching NFL Live then”, referencing the show’s existence before Clark joined.
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ESPN is parting ways with longtime NFL analyst Ryan Clark after an 11-year run at the network. (Michael Allio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Wingo spent nearly 23 years at ESPN and was not hired in November 2020.
Much of his tenure was spent hosting and building “NFL Live,” and he was the host during its peak year in 2013.
Clark joined ESPN in 2015 and spent more than 11 seasons at the network, spending about five years with Wingo. As his time at ESPN progressed, he became an increasingly polarizing figure.
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Pak Gazette Digital reached out to Acho for comment but did not immediately get a response.
