Seahawks’ Frank Clark talks about growing up around gangs, drugs

Frank Clark went from the maize and blue of the Michigan Wolverines to a shocking Seahawks draft selection covered with a glaring scarlet letter. In the process, a checkered childhood filled with gangs and drugs went mostly overlooked.

“As a person growing up there (in southern California), you automatically get involved with it,” Clark told 710 ESPN Seattle’s “Danny, Dave and Moore” on Wednesday. “It’s almost like a way of life. Just like how some kids, wherever they grow up, the way of life might be we’re all gonna go play football, we’re all gonna play soccer. My way of life was in gangs. Growing up, that’s how I seen my way out, that’s where I seen where I could make a difference.”

Despite entering the NFL amid domestic violence allegations, and one minor controversy in the preseason, the 22-year-old rookie has been a model citizen for the Seahawks. After a strong preseason, Clark has made just three tackles in a reserve role, but his playing time is expected to increase with injuries to starters Cliff Avril and Bruce Irvin.

He’s found it’s expensive to play on the defensive line, with guys like Michael Bennett and Brandon Mebane asking a lot of the rookie – from buying a sound system for the locker room to paying for his share of the position group’s meals. He had to ask his accountant if there was any way to get reimbursed for the $350 to $400 he’s spending on his teammate’s food each week.

“I spend a large amount of money providing food for the guys,” he said.

It’s all part of the transition from being dismissed from the University of Michigan last year to a Seahawks second-round pick. He acknowledged that it takes a while to get acclimated and that it’s an ongoing process that can take years, but he feels comfortable.

Maybe because Clark’s been down this major transition before, he says “it’s not hard” to fit in.

“When I first got here, they said, ‘Just follow the rules, do what the coaches ask, do what the vets ask, and you’re going to have a good time here,'” he said. “… Chop the wood with the grain. It’s the guys who go against the grain who have problems here, they say.”

Born and raised in a rough part of southern California, Clark said he witnessed a lot of impressionable things – the gang violence, drugs, etc. – that were tough to split from.

“It got to a point where my mom, she sat me down and was like, ‘You know this isn’t for you. This life, where you’re going, this isn’t for you,'” he said.

Clark moved to Ohio at the age of 12 to live with a father he’d never known. The switch from the big city lights and ocean to the slow-motion world of Cleveland was a shock to the system.

“I had never seen cows in my life, I had never seen farmland, I had never seen none of this,” he said. “I’m looking at it as … like, what did I get myself into? I’m like, ‘I probably should have focused on football more when I was at L.A.'”

The switch to the midwest also meant a change of the elements. He’d never seen snow before, other than in the movie “Snow Day,” which made him envious of those who could get a free day out of school. That’s until he spent his first winter in Ohio.

“I was bringing in groceries, I seen a snowflake fall, I’m like, ‘Man, what is this?'” he said. “A couple weeks later it was 3, 4, 5 feet of snow on the ground and I’m like, ‘Wow, I can make a snow angel.’ Then probably two, three years down the road, I hated it. I had a hate for it and it was like, ‘Whoa, I don’t want to be around the snow no more.'”

Clark said he looked at the change as a chance to start a new life, and decided he needed to do something with it.

“The biggest part was knowing that it was another side of life,” he said. “Being in L.A., I adapted to a way of life there. I adapted to the street life, I adapted to not knowing what’s next and finally I got to Ohio and I had structure… and I was like ‘Woah, this is what it feels like to have somebody tell you you can’t do that or you can do this. ‘So, I had guidance and I believe that helped a lot.”

When it came time to pick a college, Clark shocked his Glenville High School brethren by not only bypassing the most obvious choice of Ohio State, or even his believed destination of North Carolina, to play for rival Michigan.

Despite the Big Ten betrayal, Clark leaned heavily on Glenville and Ohio State alumni Ted Ginn Jr., who he called “a big brother.” Ginn’s father, Ted Ginn Sr., was Clark’s high school football coach and helped school Clark on what it takes to not only transition into the NFL, but also be a quality person.

Clark said Ted Sr. has been a father-figure through the process, and recalled previous talks about how his primary goal wasn’t to send kids to college, but save them from themselves.

“I understand now, he always told me, ‘These kids, they don’t get it – they don’t get it, they don’t get it,’ and at the time, I was one of those kids who didn’t get it,” he said. “I thought it was all about playing football and it got to a point where he said, ‘Man, I’m trying to save you from you. Everything you want to do, everything you think you want to do, everything you think you see, that’s not what it is. You want to be in the streets, you want to be out all night, you wanna go party here. There’s bigger things in life than that.'”