Seahawks training camp update for Thursday, part two

The Seattle Seahawks completed their fourth day of training camp on Thursday. It was not their finest day.

Frank Clark

Clark punished opposing offensive linemen in 2016. He had 10 sacks, a new career high. Clark has the ability to be a disruptor for many years to come. The issue is, he appears to disrupt his own team during training camp.

Last year Clark scuffled with his own o-linemen in camp. So far in 2017 he has taken issue with Germain Ifedi and Luke Joeckel. Today, Clark seems to have laid-low Ifedi with a punch that Ifedi could not defend.

The other part of this, warranted or not, is that Clark came into the league with a possible anger management issue. The Seahawks drafted him higher than most teams would have after he was accused of domestic violence. Seattle did their due-diligence and judged that Clark was not guilty of attacking his then ex-girlfriend.

Don’t get me wrong. Hitting another person not involved with your team and punching a teammate are two different things. Striking a female, or really…anyone, in normal life is beyond the pale of human decency unless a person is having to defend themselves. But herein lies the issue of today, Clark, from all accounts, struck a defenseless teammate. “Sucker punch” has been used by several sources for what Clark did. In fact, the News Tribune’s Gregg Bell tweeted Michael Bennett as saying

Usually when a teammate says things publicly about how another teammate should apologize, the teammate in question has done messed up.

Clark needs to possibly tone down the fisticuffs, not only for his image (based on his past) but the trust his teammates have in him. Right or wrong, image sales. And the NFL many times is all about image. Clark should better understand this before the NFL forces him to.

Malik McDowell, part two

Bennett also said today that he hopes McDowell will not suffer long-term in life from his ATV injuries. He did stipulate “after (McDowell) retires” from football, though. Still, there has been nothing positive that has been heard about McDowell. Fans and many teammates have not seen him. Bennett said he has not even spoken with McDowell, though he has tried. This is all so weird in the day and age of immediate knowledge through social media. There have been no photos of McDowell and teammates have not been given a lot of information.

Related Story: Part one of Thursday's notes on Seahawks camp...

We all wish McDowell well. But now he is a public figure and the first draft-pick of the Seahawks in 2017. At some point, fans have a right to know what is going on.

Here is the rest of Bennett’s excellent-as-always press conference.