AVENTURA, Florida – Frank Clark took over this season as the Kansas City Chiefs’ top edge pass-rusher and said Tuesday he’s “not really too fond” of the player he replaced in that role, Dee Ford.
“I don’t know nothing about him,” Clark said Tuesday as the Chiefs prepare to face Ford and the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV. “I couldn’t name a stat. I don’t know the school he went to.
“I just know he had lined up offside and anybody who lined up offside at a time like that I feel like that’s a dumb penalty at the end of the day. I’m sure he feels the same way. Personally I’ve lined up offside before but not in that type of (situation) . . . In any (situation) that’s just something that shouldn’t happen.”
Clark wasn’t with the Chiefs then, but Ford’s offside penalty cost the Chiefs a berth in last season’s Super Bowl. Ford lined up offside on a late-fourth quarter play that wound up with Kansas City intercepting a Tom Brady pass that would have secured a victory over the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game.
Instead, the Patriots went on to score a touchdown and eventually win in overtime.
In the offseason, the Chiefs traded Ford to the 49ers and acquired Clark from the Seattle Seahawks.
The Chiefs haven’t shown much outward animosity toward Ford, but occasionally their feelings show through. Coach Andy Reid recently said the Chiefs lost last year’s AFC title game by four inches, or about how far Ford was lined up offside.
At Super Bowl Opening Night on Monday, Ford said he agreed it was a dumb penalty.
“He’s right,” Ford said. “It’s inexcusable. But don’t we all do it?”
Clark, who had eight sacks in the regular season and four in the playoffs, went on to call himself the best defensive end in the league.
“Because of everything I can do,” he said. “Watch me healthy against any other defensive end. I mean you can do all the talking, you can do all the praising you want about these guys who have been at the top of the league for the last couple years. But if you watch football and you understand football, then you know Frank Clark (and) you understand (who) the best of the league is at doing this.”