College of San Mateo football team takes pledge against domestic violence

Published Oct. 9, 2010 10:29 a.m. ET

foxsports

SAN MATEO -- Two-time Super Bowl winner and former San Francisco 49er Darryl Pollard on Thursday discussed sexual violence and professional sports with the College of San Mateo football team before they signed a pledge against domestic violence.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and the team's declaration recognized the 25 percent of college-age women who have been victims of sexual assault, a statistic that comes from the National Violence Against Women Survey conducted by the National Institute of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"We all have women in our lives that we respect, and we don't want to see anything negative happen to them," Pollard told the group of more than 100 college football players in their locker room.

Pollard mostly spoke about what happens to successful athletes when women make claims against them and how to avoid those situations.

Tim Tulloch, the College of San Mateo's defensive coordinator, incorporated the event into the team's speaker series and life skills development program, which helps athletes achieve goals on and off the field, he said.

College athletes make up a small percentage of students, but a large percentage of rape perpetrators are on college campuses, Dr. Marla Lowenthal said during the educational part of the evening.

Players shook their heads in agreement as she talked to them about ways that genuine fun can escalate into someone getting hurt -- just as a friendly game of tickling can turn into a fight, flirting can sometimes lead to sexual assault, she said.