All-Pro Advice : Former Football Players Huddle With Young Inmates at Sylmar Juvenile Hall

Hal Smith, 57, went back to juvenile hall Wednesday.

Smith spent some time there after bashing his father’s head with a rock when he was 12.

“He deserved it,” Smith said. “He was a drunk who used to beat up my mom.”

This time, Smith went voluntarily, on a mission to show arrested youths there are alternatives to being a criminal for life.

A short stint in a juvenile hall changed his life, he said. By age 13, Smith had moved out of his parents’ Canoga Park home and supported himself through high school by working at a North Hollywood restaurant, he said.

His athletic prowess won him a football scholarship to UCLA and led to three years as a wide receiver with the Chicago Cardinals and Oakland Raiders from 1959 to 1962. Now, he has a contracting business in Tarzana and works with troubled youngsters, visiting youth facilities throughout Los Angeles County.

“Someone once gave me a talk that got me thinking,” Smith said. “Maybe I can get someone else to think.”

Smith was one of three former football players who spoke Wednesday at Sylmar Juvenile Hall to a group of 40 inmates in a high-security cellblock for boys charged with or convicted of murder. The other athletes were Timmy Brown, a star running back with the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1960s, and Reggie Berry, a defensive back with the San Diego Chargers from 1972 to 1974.

“You have choices. You made some dumb ones to get here,” Smith said. “If you don’t make some good choices you’ll be in places like this the rest of your life.”

Some careers may already be foreclosed by their criminal records, he told the youths. “You’ll never be President and you’ll never be a police officer--I don’t think any of you want that anyway--but it’s not too late to change your life.”

Smith asked how many repeat offenders were present and about half the inmates raised their hands. Smith told them the system always wins.

“It’s a hateful system, but you can’t beat it,” Smith said. “The only thing you can do is join the system--but join on your own terms. Quit listening to the crap people tell you about being tough. The toughest thing you can do is walk away from your homeboys.

“There’s nothing cool about spending your life in jail,” he added.

But Smith told the boys they needed to earn the right to be back on the street. “I don’t want to see any of you guys right now--you’d kill me and take my wallet,” Smith said. “I just hope one or two of you listens and gets their butt out of here--for good.”

Brown said he also had some brushes with the law growing up in Indiana. But he cleaned up enough to earn a college scholarship and then a 10-year career in professional football.

“You guys turn 13, start growing face hair and you don’t want to hear anyone talk to you like a kid,” Brown said. “Trouble is some of you will never grow up. You’ll keep making the same mistakes . . . You’ll end up dead in the street.”

The speakers received hearty applause. After the football players left, several inmates said they appreciated the advice but were pessimistic about changing their lives.

“I wish somebody had told us about this earlier,” said one boy with gang tattoos on his neck. “Maybe I wouldn’t be here.”

“No, I’d have shined them,” said another boy. “I wasn’t about to listen to anyone.”

“They need to talk to the outs--homeys still on the outside,” said a third youth. “It’s too late to help anyone here. We’re all killers.”

A fourth boy, whose scarred, weathered face made him appear far older than 17, agreed. “I’m facing murder as an adult. I don’t have a life.”