SEATTLE — During the dark years, when the Seattle Seahawks were not a winning football team, Seattle artist Meghan Trainor followed the Pittsburgh Steelers, almost out of desperation.

“There was just a point in the season where you have to pick someone who is going to make it,” she said.

Her relationship with the team went sour when quarterback Ben Roethlisberger became embroiled in multiple sexual assault cases. Though he was never charged, he was suspended by the NFL for four games in 2010.

“I’d be wearing my Steelers hat and women would call me out, like, ‘You can’t root for that team,’” Trainor said. “He’s the Bill Cosby of the Steelers.”

Soon, she stopped.

With the Seahawks’ most recent incarnation, personified by quarterback Russell Wilson and his weekly visits to Seattle Children’s Hospital, Trainor thought she had found an enlightened football team, one that defied the NFL’s image, which had been marred by domestic violence, rape and murder.

That changed with the announcement of the team’s pick of former Michigan defensive end Frank Clark during the NFL draft. On Nov. 15, Clark had been arrested for domestic violence and assault after an incident with his then-girlfriend Diamond Hurt; he struck a deal, pleading guilty to persistent disorderly conduct.

It was enough for the Wolverines to drop him, but the Seahawks decided otherwise.

Trainor, 41, was disappointed. “It just seemed like they were turning the corner on toxic culture of football.”

She is not alone in her feelings.

The Clark pick was immediately criticized by the media and by followers who lodged their disappointment on the team’s social media. It seems that the Seahawks might have turned off a key part of their growing fan base: women.

And the question remains: Did this damage the Seahawks’ brand? And what would it take to regain the trust of fans — especially women?

“There’s one thing that the Seahawks definitely are not — and that’s tone-deaf to their fans,” said Joe Favorito, a professor of Sports Management at Columbia University and former head of communications for the NBA’s New York Knicks.

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Trainor’s disenchantment, like that of other female Seahawks fans, extends beyond Clark’s transgressions to coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider.

Their claims that they had investigated the case thoroughly were called into question by The Seattle Times, which reported that the team had not talked to several witnesses or the case’s prosecutor. And previous proclamations that they would never stand for such a player on their team, including Schneider’s interview this week with 710 ESPN Seattle after the announcement: “In my opinion, if you strike a woman, you’re off our board. I’m sorry, there’s just no two ways about it,” seem hollow in retrospect.

Former Seattle resident Natalie Weiner, 24, a writer for Billboard.com in New York, wrote an op-ed on fansite Field Gulls, excoriating the Clark choice. Weiner noted that it flew in the face of Wilson’s “Pass the Peace” campaign, launched at the beginning of last season to promote awareness around domestic-violence issues. “It feels pretty hypocritical,” she said.

Another fan, Taylor Long, 30, a Seattle native who now lives in Windsor, Vermont, found Carroll and Schneider’s explanation disingenuous. “I think it was telling that his domestic-violence situation was mentioned in the same breath as his talent, and as a woman it’s really hard for me to wrap my mind around what kind of talent would make it worth bringing someone with that kind of history on board.”

But surprisingly the negative press has not hurt the league’s favorability rating, said Henry Schafer, the executive vice president of Q Scores, a company that measures the likability of sports, media personalities and celebrities.

“Among adult women sports fans, the NFL is also by far the number one most appealing sport this year, even after all the stuff that came out,” he said, referring to domestic abuse scandals such as those surrounding ex-Baltimore Ravens player Ray Rice. “No other sport is even close.”

In fact, female fans are the fastest-growing segment of NFL followers. Ebiquity, a marketing firm, found that female NFL viewership rose by 26 percent between 2009 and 2013.

While she will not stop watching football altogether, Long said she might protest with her wallet. In years past, she has paid for DirecTV access to the games; she attended the Super Bowl following the 2013 season; she has bought expensive jerseys; and she makes it a point to go to home games. Now, she might not do some or all of those things.

“It does have me considering maybe I need to not spend that much,” she said.

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But Clark is only 21 years old, and the Seahawks have a knack for taking on players with a troubled past.

One such example?

“Gee, the Seahawks have taken some iffy folks in, Marshawn Lynch being one of those iffy folks,” said Cynthia Sullivan-Brown, 51, a lawyer in Renton, Washington. “I love Marshawn, I think he’s awesome, but he has a weapons charge and a hit-and-run.”

In the end, for Clark, it is the on-field performance that matters most — so long as he does not get into trouble.

“They didn’t draft him to go out and give talks to the garden club. They drafted him to play football,” said Stephen Greyser, an emeritus professor of business administration at Harvard Business School. “The degree to which their brand may be affected awaits his ability to play football in the pros.”

While the players cannot be perfect, they have a greater responsibility than the average person. Said Long: “At the end of the day, these people are role models for people.”

Rehabbed or not, the specter of abuse threatens to darken the Seahawks’ halo.

“You can do all the yoga you want,” Trainor said, “it’s not going to tip the scales of domestic violence.”