Getty Kansas City Chiefs defensive end Frank Clark chats with tight end Travis Kelce after the AFC Championship.
Kansas City Chiefs defensive end and team leader Frank Clark addressed the media on February 2, and he was asked what the best way to handle Super Bowl week is from a player perspective — being that he’s gone through it all before.
“Just keep doing the same thing you’ve been doing,” Clark responded right away. “Stay focused on the task. Just keep doing what you been doing, don’t change nothing, don’t switch up too much, don’t invite too many more people [than usual] — I know it’s the Super Bowl but just try your best to keep everything the same.”
“At least that’s what I’m doing,” Clark added, explaining that the Chiefs’ coaching staff has prepared them for this moment with the way they practice throughout the season. The 29-year-old went on with some wise words for any teammates that are new to the Super Bowl, and it almost felt like a subtle warning from the veteran.
“With family especially, I think that’s kind of on us,” Clark told reporters. “That’s usually the bigger distraction — families, people pulling you left and right for events and different things — so I think it’s imperative that you focus on the task at hand [which is] playing football. We still have a goal. Everybody else may not understand that or they may be on party time — like the first Super Bowl, what I experienced [was] you got family going out, you got friends going out, you got teammates that [aren’t] required to be in the hotel going out, so it can have you thinking like — ‘damn, I’m missing something.’ You not missing nothing. You’ll enjoy [it] way, way more after the game when you win.”
Playoff Frank Clark Showed Out vs Bengals
Say what you want about Clark, but he knows how to perform — and win — in the playoffs.
According to Pro Football Reference, the defensive end has registered 58.5 sacks, 67 tackles for a loss, and 131 QB hits throughout his regular season career (120 games). During the postseason, Clark has 13.5 sacks, 16 tackles for a loss, and 20 QB hits in just 16 games.
That yields the following regular season and postseason averages:
- Regular season per game averages: 0.488 sacks, 0.558 TFLs, 1.09 QB hits.
- Postseason per game averages: 0.844 sacks, 1 TFL, 1.25 QB hits.
As the old adage goes, that’s why they pay him the big bucks! Clark has continually remained focused and showed out in the playoffs with five sacks when KC won the Super Bowl in 2019 and another three during the 2020 AFC title run.
Against the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC championship game, Clark had three tackles (one for a loss), 1.5 sacks, and three QB hits — crushing both his postseason averages and Cincy.
Chiefs’ Frank Clark Reveals Strong ‘Father Figure’ Relationship With Andy Reid
During the same February 2 press conference, Clark spoke on his strong bond with head coach Andy Reid — who the vet went as far as to call a father figure of his.
“I love [Reid] because of the man he is first, not the coach, the man he is,” Clark opened up about the Chiefs HC. “I feel like if you know him from that standpoint, you would be able to attest to what I’m saying.”
Clark continued: “A lot of guys know him as a coach, and they only see the coach side of him. I’ve actually been fortunate enough to see the other side of him where I’ve had a lot of conversations with him from that standpoint in just helping me become a better father, helping me understand life a little bit more — in some of my tougher situations that I’ve had to endure over the last two years — and just sticking by me. Understanding that guys do have some bad times, guys do eff up sometimes… For me, having Coach Reid there was big.”
He got real deep after that, concluding: “My father passed a few years ago, I lost my father in a house fire a few years ago. The father figures are [lacking] at times, and having a guy like that — I spend a lot of time with coach… We have a great relationship, the things we’ve been able to talk about on the record and the things we’ve been able to talk about off the record have shaped our relationship and [brought] us so close. I feel like I’m able to talk to him about anything.”
A cut candidate ahead of the 2022 campaign, the Chiefs elected to restructure Clark’s contract in order to keep him in Kansas City. So far, the results speak for themselves.