Controversial top pick makes on-field debut
Frank Clark was kicked off University of Michigan team after domestic violence scandal
RENTON, Wash. — Frank Clark, the Seahawks’ controversial top draft pick, made his onfield debut with the team Friday as Seattle kicked off its annual three-day rookie mini-camp.
Clark, wearing No. 55, joined the team’s seven other picks from the 2015 NFL draft, a dozen undrafted free agents, a few other roster members and 38 players attending on a tryout basis for what was scheduled to be a roughly two-hour workout at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center.
The team made the surprise move to take Clark with its first pick in the draft last Friday in the second round (No. 63 overall selection).
Clark was considered one of the draft’s wild cards. He was kicked off the team at the University of Michigan in November after being arrested on a domesticviolence charge. Clark ended up pleading to a disorderly conduct charge in April. Still, many draft analysts thought Clark would be a late-round pick at best.
On the perception of him this week he said: “I mean, it matters, because at the end of the day you don’t want to be labelled as what some call a woman beater or things of that nature. But at the same time it doesn’t bother me because I know what I did and what I didn’t do. I don’t want to get into the specifics of the case, but at the end of the day the coaches and the staff here had faith in drafting me. They did their job, and they showed that faith with me.”
Though there were obvious questions about Clark’s background, some draft analysts also wondered if he was worth taking that high strictly from a football standpoint.
But the Seahawks have defended the pick from the minute it was made.
“Holy smokes, I can’t even get into it — several, several months of talking to people, and making sure in talking to other clubs and making sure everybody’s stories hold up, and talking to the school and all of those stories hold up,’’ general manager John Schneider said last Friday when asked about the team’s research on Clark before drafting him.
The Times reported this week that the Seahawks did not speak to two women who were witnesses to the incident.
Coach Pete Carroll said in a radio interview Friday morning on the Seahawks’ flagship station, 710 ESPN Seattle, that “we really knew what we were getting into with the player. So the risk of is he not going to be a good player or a good person in the program, we feel like we have totally taken care of that and we will prove that and we have given him the opportunity to prove that by picking him.’’
Clark, listed at 6-foot-3 and 272 pounds on the team’s roster, is expected to begin his career as a defensive end, though Carroll said he could be tried as a rush end or a strong-side linebacker down the road.
Seattle listed 66 players on its roster for the mini-camp, including 38 who are trying out.