In early July, Kansas City Chiefs defensive end Frank Clark was charged with felony possession of an assault weapon stemming from his March arrest, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. Clark’s arraignment was scheduled for Wednesday, July 14.
Friday marked the first media availability for Andy Reid since the charge — and the Chiefs head coach said he had remained in touch with Clark since offseason activities had ended.
“I obviously stay in communication with all our players during the break the best I possibly can,” said Reid. “I have had a chance to talk to Frank — I’m not going to get into that. There’s nothing that has taken place up to this point. Frank will be here, and we’ll go forward with that. Obviously, we keep tabs on it and his people will keep tabs on their side of it and we move forward.”
What Reid meant was that the Chiefs expect Clark to be among the veterans who report on Monday afternoon to Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, Missouri.
Clark was arrested in March on a gun charge during a traffic stop. He was then arrested again in mid-June for illegal firearm possession. The second of the two arrests has yet to be charged.
“We have been monitoring all developments in the matter which is under review of the personal conduct policy,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told NBC Sports’ Pro Football Talk via email in July.
Reid said that if the league were to discipline Clark for the incident or incidents, the Chiefs would manage with the defensive ends they have on the roster.
“We brought old 97 (Alex Okafor) back and put him back in the mix here last week, so I think that’s a good addition. I think we going to be OK there. We’ve got a couple young guys that we think are good football players... just a reminder that Chris (Jones) was working both spots, so we have the flexibility to move Chris out there, and that’s where the Jarran Reed part of this was a big addition that (Brett) Veach added to us.”