They're used to rushing, tackling, and taking hits in front of 65,000 screaming spectators. But it was a whole different ball game when three New England Patriots came to a much smaller stage at a middle school in Boston's inner city this week to challenge five candidates vying to be district attorney on how they'd make the criminal justice system more fair. "[My] nervous level is pretty high right now," conceded player Matthew Slater, as the auditorium began to fill up. Each clutching a wad of notes, his teammates Jason and Devin McCourty, seemed to feel the same way. "It's been a little intimidating to be honest," allowed Jason, who noted that he and his teammates were definitely "out of their field." When the idea first came up to take player's activism beyond kneeling on the field to moderating a community forum on some of the issues underlying the on-field protests, the players were dubious. "All of us at first were like 'huh? What do you mean us host a forum?'"recalls Devin.
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