ESPN's Ryan Clark slaughtered by fans for outrageous Tom Brady opinion

ESPN's Ryan Clark caught his co-hosts in disbelief, and is being slaughtered on social media, for stating that Tom Brady was not a 'generational talent' while on 'First Take' on Thursday morning.  

The discussion, alongside Dan Orlovsky and Stephen A. Smith, started talking about Texas quarterback Arch Manning, who has been pegged as a prodigy but did not live up to his potential against Ohio State last Saturday. 

Clark wanted to make a point about how high his bar his to be a 'generational talent' with Manning falling into the category, but Brady, and Arch's famous uncle, being among those that do not.

'I think John Elway was a generational talent. I think Patrick Mahomes is a generational talent,' Clark told Orlovsky and Stephen A. Smith. 'I don’t think Tom Brady, I don’t think Drew Brees, I don’t think Peyton Manning are generational talents. I think Andrew Luck ended up being a generational talent, I don’t think there’s a ton of them out there.' 

Smith and Orlovsky looked on with shock at the words coming out of Clark's mouth, with those pair of hot-take specialists underscoring how wild the comment was. 

NFL fans on social media doubled down on what Clark said, not believing what they had heard.  

'All of us listening to this...' said one social-media user with the puzzled looks of Smith and Orlovsky attached.  

Another person on X used a GIF of an iconic moment from the Adam Sandler classic Billy Madison, with a quote stating in part, 'Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it.'

'Tom Brady is not a generation talent while Mahomes is. Ok dude,' a third stated.

'I love Patrick and I believe he's a generational but to sit on TV saying a man with 7 Super Bowl Chips is not a Generational talent is a bad look,' a fourth added. 

'Drinking on the job is never a good idea,' a fifth concluded.

Peyton Manning is among the unified takes of 'generational talent' coming out of college football, with him being drafted No 1 overall by the Indianapolis Colts.  

Brady, who was a sixth-round pick out of Michigan, became arguably the greatest winner in NFL history, even if some believe he was not the most athletic quarterback among the elite signal callers of football. 

Brees not being considered a generational talent is at least debatable to NFL fans, with the 6-foot quarterback lasting 20 years in the league.  

Most, excluding Clark, do not have doubts about Brady, leading to the fierce reaction against him.