Colorado football and its campus police bond during impromptu softball game
While most of the offseason college football headlines have been dominated with players having various run-ins with the law, Colorado is trying to create a more positive relationship with its local law enforcement.
On Sunday, several Colorado players met face-to-face with members of the Colorado’s campus police department for a friendly — and rainy — game of softball.
"This is a great way for the team and the police to get to bond together and get to know each other a little bit more," redshirt sophomore running back Terrence Crowder told the Boulder Daily Camera. "Whenever we go out, even though we're not causing harm, it looks like we are because of how big we are."
Junior cornerback Brandan Brisco came up with the idea and brought it to Mike Lowry of the CU police. The idea was to build a more positive relationship between the two groups even if some glaring stereotypes still exist.
"You look at the relationship the football team has had with the police department over the last couple years, and I look at our ability to play together on the field today as an opportunity to strengthen our bond," CU police chief Melissa Zak told the Boulder Daily Camera.
"Sometimes you have our students of color who are coming to play at CU, who may have a different perspective of law enforcement, and I'd like to be able to show them that we aren't all bad."
The Buffaloes bested the police 14-9 despite back-to-back-to-back home runs by the officers. Though, if CU players wanted to really get on the good side of the police, they probably should have let them win.
Still, all parties thought this was a good experience and a good way to start some lines of communication between two groups that have often misunderstood each other.
"We get to show them that we are good young men," Brisco told the paper. "There's this perception that we're football guys and we have this attitude that we kind of run the campus, which is not true."
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Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter!Follow @YahooDrSaturday
