Andy Reid on Frank Clark: ‘When he’s here, he’s about football’

Kansas City Chiefs defensive end Frank Clark has had a whole range of problems in 2021. In March, he was arrested following a traffic stop in Los Angeles in which weapons were found in his vehicle. Then it happened again in June. On Monday, Clark made his first court appearance for the two charges, pleading not guilty in the March incident.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid denied that the California charges are a distraction to his team.

“Listen, when he’s in the building, he’s good,” said Reid of Clark. “That’s on his mind, I’m sure. But when he’s here, he’s about football — and trying to make sure he’s doing his job to the best of his ability.”

Besides, noted Reid, “[Getting] healthy right now [is] kind of the primary thing. I think he’s in a pretty good place with that.”

As far as the Chiefs are concerned, this has been the more pressing issue. Clark has now missed three of the four games that his teammates have played so far this season. In Week 1, it was on account of a nagging hamstring injury that he’d been fighting since training camp — and then in Weeks 3 and 4, it was a hamstring issue in his other leg.

Clark was limited in all of last week’s practices before the game against the Philadelphia Eagles — for which he was declared out on Saturday — but wasn’t among the players Reid said were being held out of Wednesday’s practice. We’ll learn more about his injury status when the team issues its first injury report of the week on Wednesday afternoon.