Patriots Players Question Candidates For Suffolk County District Attorney At Forum

Patriots cornerback Jason McCourty, along with his brother Devin and teammate Matthew Slater, moderated a forum Tuesday night featuring candidates running for Suffolk County district attorney.

The forum was the latest in a national series of conversations with DA candidates that's been organized by the Players Coalition, the group founded by NFL players to address social justice issues and racial inequality.

Present at the forum were Democratic candidates Evandro Carvalho, Linda Champion, Greg Henning, Shannon McAuliffe and Rachael Rollins. The event was sponsored by the ACLU of Massachusetts.

Michael Maloney, a sixth candidate, is running as an independent.

WBUR's sports and society reporter Shira Springer talked about the forum on Morning Edition.

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Bob Oakes: It sounds like the audience was pretty fired up. What was that scene like and how did the Patriots players handle their role as moderators?

Shira Springer: It was a packed house — about 150 to 200 people — at a middle school in Dorchester. And you're right, the people were fired up. The candidates were fired up. The players were fired up. The audience was fired up. And it was really clear that the players had prepared for their roles and took it seriously. Beforehand, I asked them, "Are you nervous? More nervous than a game?" And they said 'kind of, yeah,' because they wanted to do a good job. And then it was also impressive how much ground the players covered, everything from mass incarceration to discriminatory policing, to how candidates would handle investigations of police, to bail regulations to immigration. [It was] really, really well done by the players.

Did players tell you that they accomplished what they wanted to accomplish?

Yeah, because the whole point is to draw attention to these DA races, and they did exactly that.

And how did they feel about the forum?

I think they felt that they learned a lot, for starters, and they liked seeing all the passion from the candidates and the audience. Here's what Matthew Slater said:

I think that's what it's all about: passion and people, or people that end up making a difference. I just kept telling myself, 'I'm a moderator, stay calm, stay cool' and allow this thing to play out.

Matthew actually said afterwards that being a football player sort of helped because he was used to dealing with emotional teammates. Devin McCourty was also pleased with how things went:

Everyone looked fully attentive, so I think that's what we wanted. We wanted to get people here to listen to these candidates, and I think we got that tonight.

What about the candidates and the audience? What did they think of how it went last night and how the Patriots players moderated the forum?

They were impressed, particularly impressed with how many stats the players had, how well-prepared they were. All the players came out with notes in hand so they were happy to see that the players took this very seriously.

Are events like this designed to take the place of player actions that have drawn a great controversy during games — kneeling during the national anthem? How does that fit in here?

I don't think this is meant to take the place of that, and Devin McCourty was very careful to say this is a separate issue. But I think they do see these forums as sort of a progression of the social activism that they showed during games. This was really a way for them to engage the community, to make change. And here's what McCourty said about kneeling, before the forum:

If you listen to what players are saying all along, you know, taking a knee was a protest to get people to understand what we were trying to do. This is what we were trying to do: we are trying to make changes to the community.

McCourty and his fellow players wanted people in the community to be more aware of how they could make those changes.

So, I think you've got to ask before we end, do any of these players envision an eventual career in politics?

No, it was funny. I asked all three of them, and they sort of laughed at the question. I think for now, moderating was enough of a taste of the political arena for them.