Speaker 1: We were presented by win Bett. Betty is a team sport,
Speaker 1: but together at win Bett. Eric Ellen here inside the
Speaker 1: studio at one Jets Drive, joined by new Jets safety
Speaker 1: Chuck Clark. How does that feel, Chuck? Uh? It feels good.
Speaker 1: It also feels different at the same time. It's new,
Speaker 1: so I mean just just a lot of new new
Speaker 1: emotions and you know, just a different experience. So definitely,
Speaker 1: it definite feels different though, but it feels great at
Speaker 1: the same time. So how did this all go down?
Speaker 1: The Jets make the trade with the Baltimore Ravens uh
Speaker 1: in order to get you, of course, for a late
Speaker 1: round pick in twenty twenty four. But when did you
Speaker 1: become aware of the deal? Honestly, I thought it was
Speaker 1: gonna happen last year before training camp. I thought I
Speaker 1: wanted out of there last year. And when I tried,
Speaker 1: it was much deny and I thought I was coming
Speaker 1: to the Jets, like when the process is happening, it
Speaker 1: was Jets for the Philly. But fast forward a year later,
Speaker 1: pretty much end of this season, like, hey y'all, y'all
Speaker 1: either got to release me or trade me, you know,
Speaker 1: And I think that that that relationship and Baltimore ran
Speaker 1: soidware at the time, so I was like, you gotta
Speaker 1: least me and trade me, and they pretty much agreed
Speaker 1: to it. And when I found out about it, then
Speaker 1: I knew that it was about to happen. I was
Speaker 1: heading into a workout and I was like, oh man,
Speaker 1: I'm headed to the jets, Like it was crazy, So
Speaker 1: my phone started going crazy a little bit. I'm in
Speaker 1: the workout, but I think doing that workout was good.
Speaker 1: Actually that initial little time just to use my mind
Speaker 1: away from it. But yeah, I pretty much knew it
Speaker 1: was gonna happen. Relief for jubilation or a bunch of emotions.
Speaker 1: How would you describe that? I think a bunch of
Speaker 1: emotions honestly, because like I said, I wondered out of
Speaker 1: the last situation. But then also with that, in this business,
Speaker 1: you never know what comes with it. You know, this
Speaker 1: a league full of uncertainty. So you're like, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: if I get released, I won't have a job. I
Speaker 1: get traded. It's a new new scenery, new scenario. You
Speaker 1: never know. So it was definitely a bunch of emotions
Speaker 1: with it. What was the mindset last year? Like you said,
Speaker 1: you talked to the front office and said, hey, I
Speaker 1: think it would be best if we parted ways and
Speaker 1: I got a new start and whatever. After obviously, they
Speaker 1: drafted Kyle Hamilton and they signed Marcus Williams a free agency.
Speaker 1: But with all that being said, you put your head
Speaker 1: down and you never came off the field again. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I knew like who I was as a person, who
Speaker 1: I was as a player. I mean, at first I
Speaker 1: was I was. I was upset about everything that went on,
Speaker 1: and I pretty much made that known and try to
Speaker 1: make it known. And when I realized I wasn't gonna
Speaker 1: get what I was asking for, I was like, you
Speaker 1: know what, I just got to make the most of
Speaker 1: the situation. And at the end of the day, I
Speaker 1: still got to put good film on tabe. You know,
Speaker 1: go out there ball. I'll do what I gotta do,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, eventually what I want will come.
Speaker 1: So um what that like you said, how was that?
Speaker 1: It was tough a little bit? But then once I
Speaker 1: got playing and got in the group of the season,
Speaker 1: it's like, all right, you're playing ball, Like, you're not
Speaker 1: about to complain now, are you in it? Who did
Speaker 1: you talk to from the Jets? Initially when the trade
Speaker 1: was final. Uh so when it first happened, head coach
Speaker 1: called me, DC called me. They was all on a call.
Speaker 1: Um player wise, DJ re had reached out to me
Speaker 1: and we texted back a little bit. Um who else
Speaker 1: talked to Joe? So so yeah, yeah, you know I
Speaker 1: got good feedback. I was all right, cool, they reached
Speaker 1: out to me, They welcome to me. You know, it's like, cool, dude,
Speaker 1: this is what's up? What did DJ say to you?
Speaker 1: Because of course he came over from Seattle himself last
Speaker 1: year's signing a free agency. He was just like excited
Speaker 1: to have me on board, you know, ready to rock
Speaker 1: out this season. I pretty much said back to him, like, hey,
Speaker 1: you know the same. I'm ready to ball out with y'all.
Speaker 1: You know, we're about to turn a new new page
Speaker 1: over here and all, let's let's hit our individual goals
Speaker 1: and let's go get our team goals. And I was like,
Speaker 1: I feel like, hey, playoffs need to be a minimum
Speaker 1: for us, Like that's the mindset that we need to
Speaker 1: have before. What about Robert Salah and Jeff Rawbrook when
Speaker 1: they got on the phone, Because Sala to a man,
Speaker 1: everybody talks about his connectivity with the players definitely, So
Speaker 1: I mean with that, like we kind of hopped on
Speaker 1: the phone and got to chop it up a little bit.
Speaker 1: And I always heard about him, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: just talking through the league and different guys. You know,
Speaker 1: all right, he's really good with the players, you know,
Speaker 1: connect with him and just hopping on the phone and
Speaker 1: we're talking back and forth. He's like really excited to
Speaker 1: have me over and I think like divided that guy
Speaker 1: was like very welcome and all right, like hey, I'm
Speaker 1: be here for you. You know what I'm saying, everything
Speaker 1: that you need and we're gonna go and do we
Speaker 1: gotta do. What do you think about the secondary? How
Speaker 1: much were you able to take in maybe last year
Speaker 1: from AFAR, watching DJ come over and thrive, Sauce Gardner
Speaker 1: be drafted number four overall. He goes on to be
Speaker 1: defensive Rookie of the Year the Jets side Jordan Whitehead
Speaker 1: and free Anancy. Last year from AFAR, what did you
Speaker 1: see from the secondary? I definitely seem like a mixture
Speaker 1: of young and experience and within the group, but a
Speaker 1: lot of playmaking for sure, a lot of playmaking on
Speaker 1: the back end over there. Different intangibles, you know different,
Speaker 1: Tracy got tall guys, sweater guys, you know, athletic quick.
Speaker 1: So I'm excited to be in the mix for real.
Speaker 1: I can't I can't wait to be out there with them.
Speaker 1: Can you talk about adding to the culture and what
Speaker 1: you will take from you from your time in Baltimore,
Speaker 1: Because when you think about the Ravens, you think about
Speaker 1: a perennial contender or a a team that's going to be
Speaker 1: battling in the playoffs every year. Yeah, I think that's
Speaker 1: like how I told you. I was talking with DJ
Speaker 1: and I had this conversation with somebody else in the
Speaker 1: building when I was there last week, like like, I
Speaker 1: feel like playoffs is a minimum, Like we gotta get
Speaker 1: in there, like win the next game and let's get
Speaker 1: to the playoffs, les, Dude, we gotta do and once
Speaker 1: we get into the playoffs, we're gonna set up and
Speaker 1: start moving from there, and dude, we gotta do so
Speaker 1: like just having that experience. So I've been in the
Speaker 1: league six years and I missed the playoffs too, So
Speaker 1: I feel like, hey, we gotta get in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Gotta get yourself a shot to go win the ring.
Speaker 1: Do you like that attack style the Jets are playing
Speaker 1: with on defense. I mean Solos first year in all
Speaker 1: Brooks first year, this was a team completely in transition
Speaker 1: and they finished thirty second in the National Football League,
Speaker 1: but across the board last year top five and several categories. Right, definitely, definitely,
Speaker 1: definitely a lot of balls on defense making explosive play. So,
Speaker 1: like I said, I can't wait to get in the
Speaker 1: mid right there. It's it's a lot. It's a lot
Speaker 1: to be excited about. What's been the key as far
Speaker 1: as your debundability, debundability and durability over the course of
Speaker 1: your career because this is one hundred percent injury league. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Chuck Clark's always on the field. I really try not
Speaker 1: to think about it, honestly, because, like you said, like
Speaker 1: anything can happen in this game any day, So honestly,
Speaker 1: I just try not to think about it, you know,
Speaker 1: but give a lot of it to God. You know,
Speaker 1: It's it's a physical game, like anytime you stop in
Speaker 1: that field, practice, field, game, field, anything can happen. But
Speaker 1: just trying to take care of my body, you know,
Speaker 1: getting in the routine, lifting, lifting, eating, right, stretching, taking
Speaker 1: care of my body. But I remember, like my rookie year,
Speaker 1: I was in the weight room and I was stretching
Speaker 1: and to real sous that came up to me and
Speaker 1: he is like, what you're doing in here stretching? He's like,
Speaker 1: and I mean and if you kind of know, like
Speaker 1: his personality didn't really come off like that really, so
Speaker 1: it's a little bit more like I ain't starting stretching
Speaker 1: and getting getting massage or nothing like that until a
Speaker 1: year or four, and he's like, you know what, keep that,
Speaker 1: keep that up, you know. So I'm like, you know what,
Speaker 1: that kind of always stuck with me. You know, just
Speaker 1: stay on top of your body, you know, because as
Speaker 1: you go and well to speak on that, like he
Speaker 1: went on to play fifteen sixteen years or something like that,
Speaker 1: but I mean, as as you keep going, you know
Speaker 1: things what happened to your buddy Nixon Bruges, So you
Speaker 1: just gotta stay on top of it. Honestly, how much
Speaker 1: you pride yourself on your versatility, because yeah, you play
Speaker 1: a lot of snaps or free safety. You can play
Speaker 1: strong safety. People say line up in line back or
Speaker 1: you come down and play nickel m. Yeah, I just
Speaker 1: think I'm a ball player, like I don't really. When
Speaker 1: I think about it, I don't. I'm a DV but
Speaker 1: I'm a ball player. I don't classify myself like as
Speaker 1: anything Like, if I'm asked to do it, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go try to get it done, learn it and figure
Speaker 1: it out, and go get it done and play at
Speaker 1: a high level. Speaking of playing at a high level,
Speaker 1: what do you think about playing in New York for
Speaker 1: a hungry fan base. This team hasn't been in the
Speaker 1: playoff since two thousand tons. The reason why I mentioned
Speaker 1: New York. You put on a Clark Chuck Clark highlight film.
Speaker 1: You're seeing him make a lot of plays against the
Speaker 1: Jets in Week one, then he came back against the
Speaker 1: Giants last year. Seemed like you felt like you were
Speaker 1: playing at home anytime you were up here. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's definitely played something I'm gonna say, semi familiar with.
Speaker 1: You know that I took the train of a few
Speaker 1: times from Baltimore. You know, move around in the city
Speaker 1: a little bit. But I'm excited about that opportunity to
Speaker 1: be able to play on that stage in New York,
Speaker 1: just to be there. You know, everybody you know knows
Speaker 1: about New York people across the country, across the world,
Speaker 1: no about New York. So just to be able to
Speaker 1: come there and play there, I can't wait for the opportunity.
Speaker 1: How have you progressed throughout your career that you mentioned
Speaker 1: before coming into the league out of Virginia Tech and
Speaker 1: the interaction with Terrell Suggs T Sugs. But you look
Speaker 1: at your trajectory and how you just you came in
Speaker 1: as adopt player who's going to participate on special teams.
Speaker 1: Then you became a regular in the starting lineup. How
Speaker 1: would you describe your ascension in this league. I think
Speaker 1: the way I got going in this league is the
Speaker 1: same pretty much how it happened in college. Just started
Speaker 1: off on special teams. Pretty much that first year, You're okay,
Speaker 1: you know, you're making plays, making tackles on special teams.
Speaker 1: Let's try to evolve you into a little package. Let's
Speaker 1: get you a package, Let's get you a role. And
Speaker 1: then that that turned into you know, injuries happened. Then
Speaker 1: next thing you know, I'm go from being a core
Speaker 1: special team guy in a matter of a week to
Speaker 1: a defensive starter wearing the green dit the next league.
Speaker 1: And that's pretty much how I have you know, just
Speaker 1: starting off special teams, special teams, special teams, and then
Speaker 1: this thing like you try to piece to like a
Speaker 1: lot of guys coming in the league now, like don't
Speaker 1: sleep on special teams because that could be where you know,
Speaker 1: project your career to take off, honestly, and a lot
Speaker 1: of guys don't really want to do it because they're like,
Speaker 1: for what, I just was a four year starter at
Speaker 1: this school, Like, well I'm gonna do that, But I
Speaker 1: mean it really can get your career going, honestly. What
Speaker 1: about your hunger for the ball? Not a lot of
Speaker 1: safeties you're looking up and saying, yeah, he had tripled
Speaker 1: digit tackles last year. You go over one hundred tackles
Speaker 1: last season. Can you talk about that mindset of always
Speaker 1: getting there? I just pride myself on getting to the ball,
Speaker 1: making a tackle, making a sure tackle. If you're not
Speaker 1: getting to the ball, if you're not if you're not
Speaker 1: showing up on the film and the camera on every down,
Speaker 1: then what are you doing? You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: Like what side of the field you want? You got
Speaker 1: to get to the ball and make plays. That's just
Speaker 1: how I feel, you know, That's what it's about football,
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Speaker 1: The best part, you get an entry for every one
Speaker 1: hundred dollars you wager. Yeah, I want to ask you
Speaker 1: about the intangibles you're going to bring to the table
Speaker 1: because anybody knows you or followed your career knows that
Speaker 1: you're gonna be a force inside the locker room and
Speaker 1: also in the community. And we're gonna get to that
Speaker 1: in a second. But you were at n Fall Honors
Speaker 1: this year, correct. Yeah, Yeah, that was the first time
Speaker 1: experience for me. It was cool. So the Baltimore Ravens
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two Man of the Year. I wanted to
Speaker 1: ask you about this that night. How special was it
Speaker 1: for you individually? And then what did you think when
Speaker 1: you saw a pair of Jets get Defensive Rookie of
Speaker 1: the Year and Offensive Rookie of the Year and Sauce
Speaker 1: Gardner and Garrett Wilson as you were taking in that night. Now,
Speaker 1: looking back for me personally, that night, like I said,
Speaker 1: it was the first time for me ever being there.
Speaker 1: So it was cool just to see how like the
Speaker 1: I guess the TV show of TV program runs like
Speaker 1: they got the TV breaks and hey, we need you
Speaker 1: to see her in the set whatnot. So it was
Speaker 1: cool and it was it was good just to be
Speaker 1: recognized for that. But seeing the two guys that won
Speaker 1: the Rookie Rickie of the Year awards and then looking
Speaker 1: back on like, okay, now those are gonna be my teammates,
Speaker 1: Like that's what suff for real, Like just like the
Speaker 1: sky's a limit for them at this point. You know,
Speaker 1: they don't get complacent, keep on balling out. But that's
Speaker 1: cool to two rookies from the same team win those awards.
Speaker 1: That's what suck. I'd encourage everybody to watch that video
Speaker 1: the Ravens put out of you getting that from John
Speaker 1: Harbaugh in front of the rest of the team. He
Speaker 1: brought you up in front of the guys. Can you
Speaker 1: talk about what platforms you are a part of as
Speaker 1: far as off the field, and also do you look
Speaker 1: at this as an opportunity for you to, hey, take
Speaker 1: your platform and then extend it up here in the
Speaker 1: Northeast now at your new home. Definitely. So, I think
Speaker 1: my thing has always been just community outreach, you know,
Speaker 1: not specifically geared to a certain I guess if you
Speaker 1: want a sickness or a disease or something. It's just
Speaker 1: always been community outreach. So just trying to feed and
Speaker 1: pour back into the community in which I live, where
Speaker 1: I work and whatnot. So had the opportunity to do
Speaker 1: it in Virginia in Baltimore. So now I get to
Speaker 1: carry that up to this some more of the East
Speaker 1: coast to New York, New Jersey area. So I'm looking
Speaker 1: forward to that for sure. What put that in you?
Speaker 1: What installed that in you that, hey, listen, I'm in
Speaker 1: the NFL, now I'm gonna go out and help others.
Speaker 1: I just think a lot of it has to do
Speaker 1: like with how I grew up, you know, the things
Speaker 1: that I've seen, and then then personally it's just like
Speaker 1: if you're not trying to better your community where you live,
Speaker 1: and it's like, what are we doing? Honestly? Uh, you
Speaker 1: just try to make things around us better? Can you
Speaker 1: talk about it? Yeah? So, like you never know like
Speaker 1: what your time, your presidence can do to someone who's
Speaker 1: in a less fortunate situation to you. But I've had
Speaker 1: the ability to have m back to school drives, bike drives,
Speaker 1: UM doing different showing up at different UM group group
Speaker 1: events with kids juvenile, So just just just trying to
Speaker 1: do whatever I can, not not limiting it to one
Speaker 1: specific thing. Yeah. The Ravens say, if there's an event,
Speaker 1: Chuck's at it. Yeah yeah, Yeah, they definitely got me
Speaker 1: out for a lot of events you know here and there.
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, just trying to do what I could.
Speaker 1: So can you talk about your up upbringing, in your
Speaker 1: background of the environment and how that helps shape you. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I grew up always playing sports, you know, year
Speaker 1: round baseball, basketball, football, being competitive, and I think that
Speaker 1: just always like stuck with me. Like playing sports, it
Speaker 1: develops a mindset and mentality, you know, being a team,
Speaker 1: team building, buying a community building, you know, so just
Speaker 1: always being involved in sports. Active. My dad was in
Speaker 1: the military, so but fortunately we never had to move
Speaker 1: around a lot. We was stationed in one spot in Virginia.
Speaker 1: So yeah, just grew up playing sports, you know, just
Speaker 1: always active in sports. And I think like a lot
Speaker 1: of that, Like I said, a lot of that helped
Speaker 1: with shaping me mindset and mentality. Was what service in
Speaker 1: the military was he nabe? Okay? And how did he
Speaker 1: take some of those lessons and transfer them to you.
Speaker 1: It's like thinking about it, I can't like necessarily put
Speaker 1: one thing on it, but I think like different things
Speaker 1: as far as like growing up learning how to cut
Speaker 1: the grass and not not stopping, like not giving up
Speaker 1: because it's hot outside or something like that, like to
Speaker 1: keep pushing through, or you know, learning how to wash
Speaker 1: a car, like okay, like you know, you gotta be
Speaker 1: specifically with it. You know, you can't just wash the car.
Speaker 1: You gotta get the wheels, you gotta get the rims
Speaker 1: to do the little details, you know, the small things
Speaker 1: that matter as well. What do you think that meant
Speaker 1: to the guys in the locker room last year, knowing that, hey, listen,
Speaker 1: you were going through some personal adversity. I would say
Speaker 1: professional adversity, because hey, you didn't necessary really want to
Speaker 1: be there, but you put your head down, like we
Speaker 1: talked about before, and said, I'm gonna do what's best
Speaker 1: for the team and my teammates here as long as
Speaker 1: I am here. I think I know how personally to me,
Speaker 1: if somebody don't want to be there, you know, it's like,
Speaker 1: why why I be here? But then, like I think
Speaker 1: once I like prude and showed the I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm here, y'all, y'all getting all of me. And I
Speaker 1: even expressed that to them. It's like, all right, he
Speaker 1: on board. You know, he'd been around here. One of
Speaker 1: those type of things. But I got like at the
Speaker 1: end of the year, a lot of guys, you know,
Speaker 1: they gave me their respect and whatnot. I was like,
Speaker 1: appreciate you sticking it out, staying here, you know, not
Speaker 1: going crazy or turning up and whatnot. So I mean,
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, I can I can
Speaker 1: feel good walking away from that situation knowing that I
Speaker 1: did what I had to do. And uh, I mean
Speaker 1: there's so many people in that building that reached out
Speaker 1: to me. It's like, appreciate you, respect to you, So
Speaker 1: I could I could walk away fields good with that.
Speaker 1: What do you think this offseason is gonna be like
Speaker 1: for you as you and park on your second professional
Speaker 1: team here. It's definitely gonna be different from the standpoint
Speaker 1: of learning a new playbook, learning a new city, a
Speaker 1: new team, new locker room, just how things flow on
Speaker 1: the day to day basis. You know, being somewhere for
Speaker 1: six years, you kind of understand how things flow, you know,
Speaker 1: you figure things out, but then all the stuffing that
Speaker 1: changes into a different environment. So I guess just trying
Speaker 1: to figure out the new uncertainties. But I mean there's
Speaker 1: nothing new that anybody hasn't done any league before, so
Speaker 1: I think i'd be all right. You mentioned DJ before.
Speaker 1: Are there some other guys in this roster that you've
Speaker 1: talked to or you know, have come to contact with recently? Nah,
Speaker 1: I really haven't talked to too many guys yet, But
Speaker 1: I mean I think it's better, you know, in person interactions,
Speaker 1: so you can really get to know a person, meet them,
Speaker 1: see how they talk, you know. I think it's definitely
Speaker 1: a little bit. It's cool for guys to reach out,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, for sure, But like I said,
Speaker 1: I can't wait to meet guys in person. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: how do you think it's gonna be when you do
Speaker 1: walk into that locker room with that young mix of
Speaker 1: this team that has so many somebody talented young individuals.
Speaker 1: You're fitting yourself into that locker room. But also you're
Speaker 1: gonna be looked at for leadership ability as well. I
Speaker 1: don't know. Like I said, it's all gonna be new
Speaker 1: for me. So I'm gonna be looking around the same way,
Speaker 1: like all right, what we're doing here. But at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, like I understand if we had
Speaker 1: guys come over in the past and bottom and they're
Speaker 1: like they like they call them me o G I'm like, gee,
Speaker 1: what five year six? You know, I'm yere five year six.
Speaker 1: So I mean I understand what comes with it in
Speaker 1: this game. Like if you get past three years in
Speaker 1: this game, like you know what I'm saying, you almost
Speaker 1: a better than here, you know. So just gonna be
Speaker 1: me day in and day out. You know, anything that
Speaker 1: I got to share, I will share. Not afraid to speak,
Speaker 1: and I'm not afraid to talk, so definitely just gonna
Speaker 1: be me' awesome, tchuck, Well, we really appreciate your time
Speaker 1: to that. Definitely definitely appreciate y'all having me