John Clayton (sportscaster)

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For other people named John Clayton see John Clayton (disambiguation).

John Clayton (born Johan Clayton) is a National Football League writer and reporter for ESPN. He is a senior writer for ESPN.com and often is recognized by fellow ESPN sportscasters as "The Professor."

Clayton began hosting a cable TV sports show in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania, while still a student at Churchill Area High School in suburban Pittsburgh. His print journalism career started at a now-defunct Pittsburgh weekly, Steel City Sports, in 1973. He graduated from Duquesne University the same year, and moved to a part-time job at the Pittsburgh Press in 1976 and was eventually promoted to full-time status. Clayton also served as a stringer for the AP radio network and several other audio sports services in the 1970s.

In 1978, Clayton began covering the Pittsburgh Steelers for the Pittsburgh Press. He left that job in the 1980s and began covering the Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma News Tribune in Tacoma, Washington. In 1995, he joined ESPN as a reporter and recently added to his duties a weekly radio show during the NFL offseason. He hosts the show with former NFL quarterback Sean Salisbury; the show includes "Four Downs," a debate with Salisbury over current NFL issues. He is a regular contributor to KJR-AM Radio in Seattle, a sports talk radio station and is a regular call-in contributor to sports-talk radio stations all around the country.