Walking in Their Shoes      

   The officer during a traffic stop got up to the car, when they started shooting at him. "I was like, 'Dang!' I had to react. I wasn't expecting that one."

   This "officer" was NFL player DeSean Jackson, and the "shooters" were cops in a simulation training session. A year ago, Jackson and Buccaneers' teammate Mike Evans took a knee during the national anthem to protest social injustice.

   While the NFL tries to figure things out, the Tampa Police Dept. has been helping athletes learn more about police work. Their Social Justice Initiative was created with $1 million in matching funds from the team's owners.

   Players identified four areas that need the most help: police relations, criminal justice reform, racial equality and youth empowerment. 

   Nineteen Bucs attended the latest exercises and Q&A sessions. Tampa's mayor believes this kind of conversation needs to happen in every city. 

   Lineman Gerald McCoy, who has family members in law enforcement, said "When you're right in the midst, in the heat of the moment, it's a lot harder. It's not easy at all, and they take a lot of heat." 

   "But there's a lot, a lot, a lot of great police officers out there," he adds, "and they do a lot in the community...protecting us, going to schools and talking to groups or spending time with kids."

   McCoy admitted he was "stabbed" in his simulation exercise, because he missed with the taser. "It teaches you that you have to make split-second decisions...similar to on Sundays." 

       Jimmy