Jesse Washington

Senior Writer at Andscape

@andscape x @ESPN. director of the @hulu doc HIP-HOP and THE WHITE HOUSE. co-author of the Rich Paul memoir LUCKY ME.

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Articles

The elephant in Shedeur Sanders’ draft room

2 weeks ago | andscape.com | Jesse Washington

As Shedeur Sanders sank further and further in the NFL draft, I noticed an inconvenient topic bubbling beneath the surface. TV analysts skirted it, top football writers danced around it, but the subject dominated conversations over the weekend in my text messages, face-to-face conversations, phone calls and social media:The NFL, according to the homies, wanted to “humble” Shedeur and his father, Deion Sanders.
Finding hope behind bars: The story of ‘Fatherless No More’

3 weeks ago | andscape.com | Jesse Washington

When Kayla Johnson and Ashly Robinson started bringing cameras inside New York City’s notorious Rikers Island jail, one of the first things they noticed was that their subjects often asked the filmmakers to see the footage—they wanted a glimpse of the tiny camera screens. It took Johnson and Robinson a while to realize that these young men did not have any way to see themselves. Rikers does not have mirrors. Locked away from the world, they felt invisible. No longer.
We wear the shoes: My Air Force 1 GTX “Phantoms” remained fly for years

1 month ago | andscape.com | Jesse Washington

For me, the great ones come along every decade or so. This particular pair came out of the box turning heads, then aged gracefully, adding character as the marks of life accumulated. They kept their form and function, highlighting my feet and flavor. Somehow, in a world of instant gratification and disposable trends, my Nike Air Force 1 GTX “Phantom” boots stayed fly through four Northern winters of near-daily wear.
RaMell Ross directs films like a hooper

Feb 7, 2025 | andscape.com | Jesse Washington

If the film Nickel Boys was a basketball play, it would be a Steph Curry 35-foot transition 3. Or a Kobe Bryant buzzer-beater. Or a 40-year-old LeBron James windmill – something that seems risky to everyone except the athlete prepared to perform. RaMell Ross, the director and co-screenwriter of Nickel Boys, is a hooper.
At long last, equal opportunity for Black college football coaches?

Jan 8, 2025 | andscape.com | Jesse Washington

The evidence is right in front of us, hiding in small but pivotal moments which only resonate if we understand the history. Together, they signal the arrival of equal opportunity for Black college football coaches. I almost flinched when I wrote that, expecting one of my elders to smack me in the back of the head and bark, Equality? When only 16 of 134 head coaches at the top level of college football are Black?
James Franklin can make history at Penn State

Dec 6, 2024 | andscape.com | Jesse Washington

No Black coach has ever won the college football national championship. Let that sink in for a minute: Universities that profit from Black sweat on the field have denied equal opportunity to Black minds on the sidelines. But as the expanded College Football Playoff hastens the end of this discriminatory era, Penn State coach James Franklin is a top contender to achieve one of the last “firsts” in sports.
The deeper story behind Tennessee State University’s budget crisis

Nov 22, 2024 | andscape.com | Jesse Washington

Living with no money can make us do things that look wrong. When I say living with no money, I mean having less in your bank account than the looming cost of necessities – cellphone, mortgage, Jordan 11s – and still figuring out a way to stay solvent. Living with no money means we sign up with a different email address to get another free trial period or take our daughter’s camera, which she never used anyway, to the pawn shop, or play the American Express billing cycle like a hand of spades.
In Pennsylvania, hip-hop could swing the election

Oct 31, 2024 | andscape.com | Jesse Washington

PITTSBURGH – Hip-hop could put the next president in the White House. Before you call this an exaggeration – like Lamborghini rhymes from a broke rapper – know that in the crucial electoral state of Pennsylvania, the organization 1Hood Power has imported a Hall of Fame rap roster to mobilize voters. Fat Joe, Jeezy, Common, Cordae, Bun B, Redman, Method Man, and Lupe Fiasco have all come to Pittsburgh to discuss what’s at stake on Election Day.
Jaylen Brown’s impact goes further than the Celtics’ championship

Oct 21, 2024 | andscape.com | Jesse Washington

BOSTON – A recent evening with Jaylen Brown was a manifestation of the true power of sports. We met in the lobby of a downtown residential building. Dressed head to toe in black, braids tight and beard trimmed low, the Boston Celtics guard was headed to an event just as important as the Celtics’ season opener Tuesday night, when they will receive their 2024 NBA championship rings. Brown was solo – no bodyguard, agent, or entourage – as I followed him into a black Cadillac Escalade.
Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman focuses on each moment, not on making history

Oct 16, 2024 | andscape.com | Jesse Washington

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Call it the Marcus Freeman Method. I went to Notre Dame to find out how Freeman feels about having an opportunity to become the first Black head coach – and the first Asian American coach, more on that later – to win a college football national title. But whenever I asked him about a championship future, Freeman focused on the present. “Winning it all is a reflection of winning the interval.