Anyone interested in another former Chiefs edge rusher who wears No. 55? The 49ers may be.
According to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, Frank Clark, the Chiefs edge rusher, could be a target for San Francisco after Kansas City cuts, releases or restructures his contract. Fowler reports his cap hit of $26.3 million is “untenable” for the Chiefs.
That would be a fairly surprising move given the litany of ignominious charges Clark has faced over the years and some of the interactions and comments he’s had about current 49ers players.
He was the Chiefs’ replacement for Dee Ford, who they traded after that infamous offsides play in the NFC Championship that cost them the game. Clark said he was “not really too fond of Dee Ford” in a criticism of that play.
He had this interaction with George Kittle in the Super Bowl:
Clark came from Seattle, who franchise-tagged and then traded him to Kansas City.
Seattle drafted him after two serious legal charges while he was at the University of Michigan.
In 2012, he was arrested on felony home-invasion charges and later entered a plea bargain, admitting guilt.
He would have faced a maximum of 15 years in prison and a $3,000 fine, but was sentenced under the Holmes Youthful Trainee Act in Michigan which, “allows the charge to be expunged if he successfully fulfills his probation requirements.”
Two years later, Clark was arrested for domestic violence for an incident with his girlfriend, in Sandusky, Ohio at the Maui Sands Hotel.
Per the Detroit Free Press’ initial reporting on the incident, the arresting officer, Martin Curran said Clark declined to elaborate on what happened, saying he didn’t touch her.
Police arrested Clark, recommending charges of domestic violence and assault, both first-class misdemeanors. Curran described the scene, per the Detroit Free Press:
“We went up the room, there was a damaged lamp on the table, a damaged lamp on the wall and she’s got a large welt on the side of her cheek, she’s got marks on her neck,” Curran said. “She had what looked like rug burn on her one thigh. We have pictures of everything.”
His girlfriend, Diamond Hurt — who had a daughter with Clark in 2016 — declined to press charges. The state of Ohio charged and convicted Clark of a lesser disorderly conduct charge after he entered another plea deal.
A year later, Seattle drafted him… after general manager John Schneider said in 2012 that they would “never, ever take a player that struck a female, or had a domestic dispute like that” when discussing the type of off-field transgressions they may or may not tolerate.
When Seattle-based sports reporter Natalie Weiner criticized the organization for drafting Clark and acting hypocritically, Clark made disparaging remarks towards her on Twitter.
“People like you don’t have long careers in your field,” Clark wrote. “I have a job for you cleaning my fish tanks when that lil job is ova.”
He later deleted the tweet, not even halfheartedly apologizing to “anyone who felt offended by my tweet.”
After being traded to Kansas City, Clark remained mostly in the news for his play. He is an objectively outstanding edge rusher with 53.5 regular sacks over his seven years, an average of 9 sacks per a 17-game season. He has 11 sacks in the postseason over 14 games, but had 4.5 regular season sacks last season, the lowest since his rookie year.
Clark though, ran into trouble before the 2021 season and was arrested in Los Angeles for felony firearm possesion.
Police, who pulled him over under suspicion of a vehicle code violation, saw a bag with an Uzi automatic submachine gun in his backseat. He was released on bond and was later charged with two felony counts of possession of an assault weapon in Los Angeles.
The second charge, it turned out, was from an arrest three months earliers. Clark had been arrested in March on a separate gun charge in Los Angeles County, when officers found two loaded guns in his car during a traffic stop.
Clark could face up to three years in prison for the charges, but plead not guilty to both charges.
Given what the 49ers endured with Reuben Foster — and have discernibly changed in the type of risk they take on with players — it would be a serious departure for them to sign a player with a rap sheet like Clark.