What they got was a police chief and a crew of officers — many of them former college athletes themselves — looking to hear from them.
"We wanted to have a real discussion about people's perception of law enforcement," head coach Brent Brennan said. "Our football team is a really unique group of people that is so diverse, and comes from different parts of California. It's just a really healthy conversation to have."
For a couple of hours, the Spartans heard from Chief Eddie Garcia and participated in an anonymous text-based survey of the players' attitudes toward police, and their thoughts of their own roles as student-athletes in driving the public discourse.
Of the 100-plus players who participated, more than three-quarters indicated that athletes should have a prominent role in discussions about policing issues, and several acknowledged how the football field has become a centerpiece of the national conversation about police and communities of color, catalyzed largely by the protests of former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
"Athletes have a platform that can help them go in the direction they want, and change the dynamic of people's perspective of police," said Owen "Boogie" Roberts, a graduate student and defensive tackle from Los Angeles. "But we have to find a balanced way to do it, and conversation is the best way to open up someone's eyes to what's going on."
Garcia said he and his officers relished the face-to-face contact and deeper talks with the players, many of whom either had infrequent encounters with police in the past, or adverse ones.
"A great majority said they had trust in police, but I'm more interested in the percentage that didn't. That's why we're here," he said. "We want to let these young men vent negative situations that occurred to them, and have a dialogue about that. For coach Brennan to open up his football team to allow us to have that dialogue, that's teaching way beyond X's and O's."
Roberts counted himself among those, recalling growing up in what was commonly known as South Central Los Angeles amid a mutual wariness between residents and police.
"People tied into it and already had an attitude, which makes the situation worse," he said.
Dakari Monroe, a senior cornerback who attended Archbishop Mitty in San Jose, described having mixed emotions about police based on his reading of news and social media. But sitting down with officers, he said, put him and his teammates more at ease.
"After the presentation, I can see SJPD is trying to get more involved in the community," he said. "I saw their point of view, which is something people lack. If all police departments did this, we would get along much smoother."
Freshman wide receiver Steven Houston, from Dublin, said being exposed to police officers in the casual setting was helpful to him, particularly as a friend of a current SJPD academy cadet.
"It turned out to be a better conversation," he said. "When we're out there, we can have a relationship with authorities and can communicate with them, since now they know us personally."
Garcia said he was impressed, and somewhat surprised, by how receptive the players were to his officers, regardless of their past experiences.
"One of the things I discovered is that with these young men, their heels weren't dug in. They were willing to listen," he said. "They were willing to hear us out, and that's all I've been asking for."
Brennan said he was encouraged by the positive response from his players, and said this kind of exposure is key to his goal of preparing them for life outside of football.
"Every (football) program has police come talk to the team, but this was different," he said. "This was about education and communication and understanding, and finding a way to understand where everyone is coming from. We want to do everything we can to help these young men grow to become future leaders, and this was a really great day for that."
