Seattle Seahawks Show You Get What You Look For In Regard to Frank Clark's Domestic Violence History

The Seattle Seahawks drafted Frank Clark, who was kicked off the Michigan football team last November after a domestic violence arrest at a hotel, in the second round on Friday. That incident was just the final straw at Michigan for Clark, who had previously pled guilty to felony robbery in 2012. The team has since come under plenty of scrutiny because, while Clark would eventually plead down to a lesser charge, the accounts of the incident were not good.

But that depends, I suppose, on who you choose to ask. NFL teams want you to believe that they leave no contingency unconsidered. Coaches pore obsessively over game plans, and talk about late hours burning the midnight oil.

We’ve seen, though, with the domestic violence issue, that one of the biggest problems with the teams and the league is perspective, and one that seems to discount wanting to hear from female witnesses . Who you choose to listen to hints at what you value. We saw it with the difference in how Ray Rice was treated before and after the video emerged. Tampa Bay’s attitude toward investigating Jameis Winston also hints at a “we’ll find what we want to find” vibe. Then, there’s the Seahawks and their approach to Clark.

From the Seattle Times:

"Seahawks general manager John Schneider has said the team investigated the matter thoroughly and would never have drafted Clark if they believed he’d struck his girlfriend. Schneider made those statements Friday and repeated them again in a radio interview Monday with 710 ESPN Seattle. He said in the radio interview that the team had three people investigate Clark’s background, and had concluded that “whether it was punching a woman or striking a woman he would not have been on our board. Told later Monday of what Babson and Colie had said in their interviews with the Times, the Seahawks issued a statement saying the team conducted “confidential interviews with people directly involved with the case.’ But other than Clark, the statement added, the team did not “speak directly to any witnesses from that night.’’"

Well, about that.  Babson and Colie were two women who were in the hotel room next to Clark’s last November, who responded to sounds of distress and ultimately called 9-1-1. They were there with their kids at a water park and were witnesses independent of the victim. They described the victim as looking “unconscious”, “knocked out”, and “on the ground, curled up and holding her head and stuff.”

That largely corroborated the other witnesses, younger brothers of the victim who were in the room. Clark, of course, denied it.

Seattle made this an issue about whether Frank Clark hit anyone (which goes beyond whether a conviction occurred). They aren’t the first team to extend an opportunity to a person accused of domestic violence since last September. We just saw Dallas sign Greg Hardy, and the Tennessee Titans drafted Dorial Green-Beckham. Of course, we haven’t seen either of those teams try to stand behind a “we don’t think this guy did anything” stance and draw a line in the sand that they wouldn’t have brought him on the roster.

Titans GM Ruston Webster said this, for example:

"Not having football has had an effect on him,” Webster said. “He went to Oklahoma and handled himself well and stayed out of trouble, and he wasn’t playing. He was just practicing. He was basically a scout team player. … That was my impression that he understands that he probably made some mistakes and he wanted to continue to play football he had to do the right thing.”"

You can agree or disagree with the Titans’ decision, but at least it’s cast as a “second chance” thing and a “worth the risk” move. Not a “we did our homework and we are comfortable he didn’t hit a woman” thing.

Seattle, meanwhile, apparently ran an investigation that told them what they wanted to hear. In the end, they are getting exactly what they asked for.