Seahawks defensive end Frank Clark apologized to teammate Germain Ifedi for punching the offensive lineman in the face.
“It was a heat of the moment thing,” Clark said, via Sheil Kapadia of ESPN. “I let my emotions overcome the situation. For a brief moment, I thought that myself, that I was bigger than the team in all regards. I thought about myself first before I thought about my defense as a whole and my defensive line, to be more specific. Because it was a one-on-one drill. And that was basically it. It was an overheated thing. We always get heated up. It’s O-Line, D-Line. It’s supposed to happen. But it just got taken too far.”
Clark, who hadn’t talked since the Aug. 3 practice fight, knocked the helmet-less Ifedi to the ground. Clark was ejected from practice and sat out the following day after before spraining the MCL in a knee in his return.
He met with coach Pete Carroll and heard from General Manager John Schneider after the incident, and Clark told them -- and Ifedi -- he was sorry.
“The biggest message was just letting them know how remorseful I was,” Clark said. “I just wanted to let them know that I was actually sorry, and I wanted to let Germain know that I was sorry, besides the team. That was my biggest thing. I just wanted to let him know that it was my fault, and that it would never get to that point again. I’m sure things are going to get heated again. It’s football. It’s the offensive line and defensive line. But you’ve got to be aware of those situations and know how to take the actions out another kind of way.”