Beyond Football, San Jose State’s community outreach program for football players, has focused its recent efforts on teaching student-athletes to become advocates against impaired and drunk driving.
A 2014 Santa Clara County Public Health report found that more than 10% of traffic collisions in the county during 2011 involved alcohol.
Additionally, a 2012 survey by the California Office of Traffic Safety showed that 14% of drunk drivers in the state that year tested positive for other impairing drugs.
“I think that our student-athletes have a platform that gives them an opportunity to have a voice that other general students may not necessarily feel they have,” Beyond Football Coordinator Tobruk Blaine said in a phone interview with the Spartan Daily. “They have a platform for being of influence to our community and in particular, our youth.”
Blaine worked with former SJSU quarterback Josh Love to create a partnership with the nonprofit organization Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).
Founded in 1980, MADD has expanded its programming to include building educational programs for schools and universities.
“One of the topics [Love] noticed we hadn’t discussed was in relation to impaired driving,” Blaine said. “So through that, he and I worked together to reach out to MADD, got in touch with our local chapter and got to know the work they’re doing with the NFL.”
MADD works with the NFL to provide educational workshops and training to incoming players. Blaine said she realized many of these discussions could also be held at the collegiate level.
Blaine and Love then invited representatives from MADD to speak with the SJSU football team, including an advocate whose father was killed by an impaired driver.
“[MADD wants] to make sure we share the stories of our victims with [students] so that they can also gain a better understanding by hearing it from somebody who has been directly impacted by [impaired driving],” said Emily Peirano, intern for MADD’s Bay Area affiliate.
After the first successful collaboration, MADD reached out to SJSU Athletics and Beyond Football, proposing a co-hosted 5K walk around SJSU.
“We have a short-and long-term goal of having more of a presence and impact in the university and colleges in the Bay Area,” said Peirano, who was also the co-coordinator for the event.
The walk was scheduled for March, however, shelter-in-place orders in response to the coronavirus pandemic have canceled the walk.
Despite this, Blaine said MADD and SJSU Athletics have continued to encourage community members to raise money.
Blaine said she wants to get MADD’s presence known in the larger SJSU athletic community, not just football players through Beyond Football.
She added that she doesn’t want Beyond Football’s partnership with MADD to be a one-time thing, but that it should get the wider SJSU community involved going forward.
“We want it to be a long-lasting impression that’s a part of our culture, a part of who we are and what we do,” she said.
Annalisa Duarte, SJSU Athletics academic support coordinator, said beginning these collegiate-level programs shows the importance of student-led advocacy.
“By starting these initiatives with our athletic leaders we will be able to get the most support and buy-in from our campus partners as we branch out,” Duarte said. “Our student-athletes are well connected on campus and we are able to use their networks to get the campus involved.”
Blaine said she would love to see other student organizations supporting MADD’s initiatives.
“How incredible would it be that we all come together and we support this incredibly powerful nonprofit that is raising money, awareness and advocacy for something that most people have probably been affected by in some way, shape or form,” she said.
While there are hopes for all students to become involved, Blaine said student-athletes play a large role behind spreading these ideas.
“It’s greater than just doing an event,” Blaine said. “They have a platform and we are trying to help foster that development and empower them to use that platform for good.”
