The latest round of layoffs at ESPN isn’t the news it’s made out to be.

Unless you got fired.

Ex-Steeler Ryan Clark’s dismissal was surprising. But his penchant for saying dumb stuff that required apology negated his considerable quality. Clark will get another high-profile job, and soon. And almost certainly screw that up, too.

It’s sad to see Karl Ravech get sacked. Ravech is excellent and he’s OG ESPN. From back when ESPN truly earned its moniker as the Worldwide Leader.

Maybe that last part is the real story.

MTV stands for music television. But MTV abandoned music for “Ridiculousness.”

ESPN hasn’t abandoned sports.

But the original intent has been compromised via the network’s own brand of ridiculousness: Social agendas, fake wrestling, too many hours to fill, meathead bro frat-boy gym-teacher drivel and, above all, embrace debate.

Don’t agree?

Watch last week’s ESPYs, ESPN’s annual self-congratulatory awards show. Sports were peripheral. Mere backdrop.

ESPN still airs a lot that’s good.

“Pardon the Interruption” remains brilliant 25 years later, but sadly a template that got corrupted for a lot of programming that reeks.

ESPN gives hockey short shrift but paradoxically has great hockey people in John Buccigross, Steve Levy, the ascending P.K. Subban and Linda Cohn, who just retired.

Mike Greenberg is the diamond in ESPN’s steaming pile of a debate show lineup, the efficient quarterback of a bad team.

So, these layoffs aren’t the death scene from “Camille.”

Nobody ever turned on a TV specifically to see any of those who got fired. Their value above replacement is insignificant.

There was a fuss about Clark finding out he got terminated while he was on the air. But does it really matter how you get fired?

Sports media is, more than ever, a business.

ESPN has seen a cataclysmic drop in subscribers since its peak in 2011, plummeting from 100 million households to 55 million.

Media rights deals have skyrocketed.

For example, ESPN’s previous NBA contract was $1.5 billion per year. The current deal is $2.6 billion.

You do the math.

ESPN absorbed the NFL Network.

Duties overlapped.

You don’t need Tom Pelissero to break NFL news when you’ve got Jeremy Fowler, Dan Graziano and Adam Schefter.

ESPN fired a bunch of ex-athletes. Good. Hire more journalists and broadcasters. They have accountability and training. Howard Cosell was right about the jockocracy. It ruined sports media.

And will continue to. Coming soon to ESPN, a televised version of the “Bussin’ with the Boys,” podcast, more ex-jock meathead crap.

So, how much did what’s paid Pat McAfee and Stephen A. Smith influence ESPN’s layoffs?

McAfee’s show costs ESPN $60 million per year. Smith gets paid $21 million.

It’s impossible to not connect those dots, especially when it’s felt that ESPN moved payroll more than cut it.

McAfee says he’s not to blame.

That didn’t stop him from self-promoting in the same breath.

McAfee has an album of original music coming out and will appear in a war movie, “The Mosquito Bowl.”

Won’t listen. Won’t watch.

Actually, I might see the movie. Peter Berg is directing. He’s foolproof.

McAfee and Smith are in no way responsible for the layoffs. ESPN made the decisions, not them.

It feels, however, like ESPN is grotesquely overpaying McAfee, likely bidding against itself.

FOX wouldn’t want McAfee.

FOX tried duplicating McAfee with “Wake Up Barstool,” a miserable failure by any metric.

McAfee could get a big payday from a more peripheral entity, like FanDuel’s network, or by doing it himself.

But it wouldn’t be $60 million, and McAfee wouldn’t be on “College GameDay.”

I don’t fret over ESPN’s decline. I just watch a lot less.

I acknowledge the possibility that if it’s too loud, I’m too old. I’m 65 and not necessarily meant to get what’s new.

But I think I’m right about ESPN.

ESPN doesn’t have a big buzz anymore. The vibe is minimal.

But I’ve got one programming idea that could pop a big rating.

ESPN could do a “30 for 30” on its own decline.

I’d watch that.