Frank Clark discusses domestic violence charge at NFL combine
Former Michigan defensive end Frank Clark discussed his November domestic violence arrest with the media at the 2015 NFL combine on Friday.
Clark was charged with domestic violence and assault related to a fight in a hotel room in Sandusky, Ohio. The day after his arrest, he was dismissed by the Wolverines.
"Basically, I put myself in the position I shouldn’t have been in," he said. "It could have all been avoided if I'd said, no, I don’t want to go to Sandusky, no, I don’t want to go the waterpark. I accept full responsibility for everything that happened. I'm going to continue to learn from it and grow from it. In the future, hopefully, one of these teams will give me a shot."
Clark was arrested after he allegedly punched his girlfriend in the face, slammed her to the ground and pinned her down on a bed, according to the police report. According to reports from the responding officer, Clark denied hitting his girlfriend, but the hotel room showed signs of an altercation and Clark was bleeding. He was also intoxicated, according to police. His girlfriend told the officer that she threw a TV remote at him during an argument and bit his nose.
Asked what happened during the altercation, Clark said the following:
"When we were in the room, the person involved let something get out of hand and took something further than what it was planned. You look at a phone and nowadays these phones get a lot of people in trouble. I'm not saying I'm a womanizer or anything of that nature. I'm just saying it was a confrontation between me and one of my friends and the woman involved took it to another level that it shouldn’t have been taken to. That's fine. I'm not throwing her under the bus. I'm not saying she did anything wrong. I'm just saying that a lot of things that happened in that room that night could have been avoided."
Clark told the media he's been in counseling and has been doing things "to strengthen my mindset." He said he "broke down and cried" when he received an invite to the combine and called it a "shock."
Clark had 42 tackles, 12.5 of which were for a loss, and 5.0 sacks last season for Michigan.
- Molly Geary
