Sgt. Terry Jeffords, NYPD. (Universal Television)

As another television police procedural show explains at the beginning of every episode, the police are tasked with investigating crimes to serve the people. The people of New York City— and Brooklyn, especially—are served by one Sergeant Terry Jeffords of the 99th precinct, created by the same minds that brought us Parks and Recreation.

Whether you know him as The Ebony Falcon or the much simpler “Scary Terry,” Jeffords is an easily-recognized figure in the precinct. At six feet, four inches tall and 240 pounds of muscle and suspenders, he could cast a shadow over any of his colleagues, if he weren’t holding one of them over his own head. A chest bump with this former Syracuse University linebacker will end with someone on the floor. When Terry slams an office door, he causes structural damage.

When the audience meets Terry Jeffords in the series’ pilot episode, he is on desk duty after firing a combined eighteen rounds into two unarmed suspects while investigating a case.

Fortunately, the suspects were a mannequin and a piñata. After the brith of his twin daughters, Cagney and Lacey, Jeffords struggled with a fear of them growing up without a father. In contrast with the stereotypical “large black man” on TV, Jeffords frequently, and often in third-person, shares his softer side. Terry Jeffords is a devoted father, gifted artist, and an unfaltering pillar of support to his friends. He is intimidated by his somehow-bigger brother-in-law, who refers to him as “Tiny Terry.” He overcame obesity and struggled with a food addiction. After being detained by a fellow officer for being black in his own middle-class neighborhood, he struggles to balance the immediate consequences and the world he wants his baby girls to grow up in.

Terry Jeffords, artist. (Universal Television)

Many of Jeffords’ traits are lifted from the real life of Terry Crews, the NFL player-turned-actor for whom the role was created. As an actor, Crews has moved from action movies to drama to comedy, managing to design furniture, build computers, and illustrate magazine covers in between.

In fall 2017, as women worldwide came together to speak about their experiences as victims of harassment and sexual assault, Crews became an outspoken male voice within the #MeToo movement. Crews detailed his experience being groped several years earlier by a well-known Hollywood agent and his reaction to it. In November 2017, Crews filed a report with the real-life Los Angeles Police Department.

He was met with a mixed response. While many applauded his willingness to come forward, many did not. Russell Simmons, music producer and co-founder of Def Jam Recordings, encouraged Crews to “give [his abuser] a pass.” Twitter trolls decided that the victim of male-on-male sexual assault had to be gay (an attack also levied against actor Anthony Rapp, who recently accused Kevin Spacey of an assault in the 1980s). Others questioned Crews’ masculinity because he did not respond with violence.

“My wife told me, three years earlier, she said ‘Terry, never handle any situation like this with violence. You are a target. You can be baited and pulled if you react physically.’ . . . If I would have just retaliated, in defense, I would be in jail right now. And that’s one thing I knew, being a large, African-American man, I would be seen as a thug. But I’m not a thug. I’m an artist.” (Good Morning America)

There is a debate whether the #MeToo movement should limited to women, but Crews’ voice is needed in the fight against sexual abuse. 1 in 6 men experience sexual abuse in their lifetime, but 87% do not report the incident. In the weeks and months since Crews filed his report, more men have come forward with similar incidents in their own lives.

Terry, whether Crews or Jeffords, subverts the stereotype of what a man is. He has spoken openly about the challenges he has faced (writing “Manhood: How to Be a Better Man or Just Live with One” in the process), and remains committed to the fight against sexual abuse.

Next week we visit a land of make believe to see one of America’s favorite men.