Buffalo Bills honor state trooper killed in the line of duty
Nick Clark had a pretty good Plan B when he failed to hook on with the Buffalo Bills as a linebacker in 2012.
Clark had a minicamp tryout with the team, but ultimately ended up as a New York state trooper.
And when Clark was gunned down in the line of duty Monday, the Bills showed in amazing fashion how even one unremarkable occasion is enough to make a guy a part of the Bills family for the rest of his days.
The Bills flew their flags at half-staff along One Bills Drive to honor the fallen trooper who had such a direct and personal connection to the team.
The flags at One Bills Drive are flown at half staff today in memory of New York State Trooper Nick Clark, who tried out for the Bills in 2012.
His family and our State Troopers are in our thoughts. pic.twitter.com/F67QXs1au4
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) July 6, 2018
Clark packed more life into his 29 years than some people manage in 80.
He earned the nickname “Captain America” in college, where his coach David Murray spoke to Clark’s indomitable attitude.
“Everyone thought of Nick Clark as the invincible man,” he said.
Clark attended tiny Alfred University southeast of Buffalo, in the far reaches of Western New York where he grew up.
Nobody seriously expected the linebacker to be Mike Singletary, but the Bills nonetheless worked him out in their unending search for talent during an 18-year playoff drought.
And when things didn’t work out, Clark took it in stride.
“When he didn’t make the team, he said he was happy he had the opportunity,” Murray said. “He was not a guy that ever made excuses.”
Clark earned a superhero’s nickname on the football field, but he truly earned it in his final hours.
Clark responded to a call July 2 of a suicidal man holed up in a house in Erwin, New York, where the suspect had upwards of a dozen illegal guns and nothing to lose.
The man, a 43-year-old school principal named Stephen Kiley, got in a shootout with the police who had come to take him into custody, and before police could bring him down with what would have been a fatal shot to the chest had the suspect not shot himself in the head before he had a chance to bleed out, he got off a shot with a 12-gauge shotgun that hit Clark in the chest and ended the trooper’s life.
Kiley had eight assault weapons, one rifle, three handguns, a pair of silencers, “numerous” high-capacity magazines, and a death wish.
And while it’s speculation to say so, it’s entirely possible that “Captain America” may very well have made the ultimate sacrifice stopping what had the potential to be another grisly chapter in America’s epidemic of mass shootings; whatever Kiley planned to do with all those military-grade weapons and all that ammo, his kill count, not including himself, was limited to one.
This is no doubt faint comfort to Clark’s loved ones.
But if you can’t have the hero-walks-away Hollywood ending, having the fallen hero remembered fondly by all who knew him will have to do.
Rest in peace, Nick Clark. Your sacrifice will not be forgotten.
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