#NFLVideos: How Ashton Washington’s Mamba Mentality Led to Her Becoming the First Female Scout in Bears History

How Ashton Washington’s Mamba Mentality Led to Her Becoming the First Female Scout in Bears History

You can ask anybody that knows me jobs never finished you’re always getting better you might be a champion for one day but in order to sustain it you’ve got to keep working and that’s the one thing that’s resonated with me and that quote it’s my favorite quote job’s not

Finished there’s one woman who has an important role in the bear scouting Department Ashton Washington is making history she’s the first African-American woman to work on the AL football staff Ashton is a Pioneer Washington is part of the group showing there’s a place for women in

Football when I was a little girl I would just lay in bed at night and just dream you’re not necessarily knowing what you want to do but you know you want to do something and you want to do something great when I first fell in love with the game of

Football it had to be I’d say 12 13 I remember going to the fields and watching my little brother play flag football watch my dad coach him and that slowly turned into okay Dad what are you writing on a piece of paper now I’m learning with the X’s and

O’s mean and how that formulates into a game plan Ashton will evaluate a situation and she would create a role and Ashton found a lot of that in books when she was younger reading As I Grew Up played a huge part in where I am today your thoughts start to move a lot

When you’re in bed at night and for me that was while I was reading cuz I love to read books s about past leaders that changed the world what did they do to do that how can I be great during the time my brother was playing flag football my dad was

Coaching I would look around and I would see girls cheerleading I’m like okay so girls are supposed to just cheerlead and cheer their boys on as they play football and for me I was never the cheerleading type this is not it this is not what I want to Do growing up I had Big Dreams but that’s all they seem like dreams you don’t often see girls who look like me doing the things I aspire to do when I knew I wanted to pursue a career in football it was freshman year at College I was 18 years old but but

You know looking around there really wasn’t necessarily a role for girls in football during that time so a lot of people would tell me you know I don’t think football is a realistic career for a woman and most importantly you know a woman of color I said don’t try to impress

Anybody Chase your passions chase your dreams do what you passionate about I said because at the end of the day if you love what you do you don’t have to work a day in your life whenever you see somebody doing something big it’s usually just the headlines what you don’t see is

Everything that went into that moment I was only 18 working at a sandwich shop making 725 an hour working as an intern at a news station and then working within Sports and being on the sideline reporting hey guys Ash Wasington lead publisher football recruiting and right

Now I’m sitting with some Texas boys and having built relationships at events like the Nike opening and the UnderArmour All-American games and different 7 on seven events across the country hey guys it’s ashon Washington here in Waco Texas with sick of 365 Texas Las Vegas in Los Angeles

California New Jersey I was all over the place the only thing that can get you to that next level is academics and your work and passionate and Harding with rivals.com transition in 247 Sports and then from there it transitioned to the XFL I’m here with Ashton one of the

Hardest workers in the business I was working towards again the vision for anybody that’s trying to get into the XFL tfl the NFL you know just trying to get into the league keep working keep working if you work hard find the right people to believe in you and follow that

Blueprint you can make it happen out of nowhere I get an email email from the University of Illinois it says you have a zoom call set with Coach Lovey Smith when you’re good at your profession where it gets around we were looking for a person that could evaluate

Players uh that would be good you know selling our University and he says a lot of people have been telling me to get in contact with you why is that she started talking and selling herself you notice right away she knew ball and she started talking ball she’s

Passionate about her belief in herself and what she can do I knew we wanted to to take the next Step he ends up hiring me and he hires me as the Director of football relations I immediately tell Dad tell Mom and I’m like I just got a job at the University of Illinois with Coach Lovey Smith he wants me a part of their team he sees something in

Me when she gained the confidence in Lovey Smith for him to bring her on his staff the University of Illinois for me that was big when you get to that next step appreciate it but don’t forget jobs not finished it’s one thing to be a Trailblazer and

To give someone an opportunity but then it’s about you know what do you do with that opportunity job’s not fness as he always says as he’s had that mentality and I could see that I could see her dig harder she was digging harder than she was digging when she was working for

Free trying to get paid Aston came in first you know recruiting setting up recruiting visits talking to parents she worked hard she was skilled she was what we were looking for I had a lot of big plans for ason I became the first female on the coaching staff and I was also the

First African-American female on that coaching staff with Him I took the moment in and went back to the basics went back to the blueprint the foundational pieces the puzzle piece is put it all together for the vision the vision is coming to Illinois football coach Lovey Smith leaving the facility for what could be the last time after getting fired Sunday

Morning next thing you know you I have a meeting it’s an exit meeting basically and I get let go so I experienced my first firing and my first Power five opportunity so you get this big deal and then the big deal is gone just like that that was devastating after only

About 4 months on the job thought I was growing but then it’s like ah right back to where we started this is a young lady who has worked tirelessly I mean she worked her behind since she was little it was a very trying time for her confidence that

She was not even given the chance to see what her capabilities are I call one of my mentors and one of my mentors is Sam rapor soft sticks ashon was crushed when you lose the opportunity to work with your One champion especially as someone who is underrepresented and marginalized

In the game of football it is much more difficult for you to get back in the game because we have so many less connections than other people call her tell her what happened and she tells me exactly what I had already thought from the beginning I kind of gave her a

Little tough love I gave it to her straight and said look you need to start emailing everyone you know it’s okay to be upset and it’s okay to be crushed but it’s time to get back on the horse and get back into football another fire was lit back at it again let’s get

It job’s not finished Ash called hundreds of people emailed hundreds of people I mean she was determined to get back in the glass always had full that’s not only way you could look at it and if you go back to the things that she did well if one person saw it another

Will I get a call and it didn’t have a number it just said no call or ID I answer it and it was a man on the phone and he says is this Ashton Washington and I’m like I didn’t know if I wanted to say yes or if I wanted to

Say no I was like um who is like what yes and he says you know would you be interest in opportunity with Chicago Bears pack my bags I’m leaving LC Texas and I’m headed to Chicago Illinois when I went in for training camp for the internship I wasn’t thinking about a job

I wasn’t thinking about getting a job with the Chicago Bears I was thinking about the opportunity uh learning being with an NFL team and especially you know Chicago Bears that’s a charter franchise she was focused um she had a great sense of urgency you know we’re work in a

Really fast- based environment and she works extremely fast her attention to detail was incredible they started giving more assignments uh teaching us within Scout school so we would come in here in a draft room and we would watch film and learn how to watch film like a

Scout just kept giving me more and more a challenge and towards the end of the internship you know the Chicago Bears masu family they allowed me an opportunity to be a part of this franchise I became the first female Scout in franchise history the vision came to

Life even if you think you’ve made it always remember the jobs not finished I’m Nala McLure recip of the Ashton Washington women of color annual scholarship and today I have the honor of meeting Ashton in person for the first time hello I’m Nyla we met she’s trying to of course move up

And her profession but she’s also trying to bring others along to to help them get that same opportunity that was given her for she writes a scholarship for $1,000 to a woman in college at an HBCU in Mississippi and just gives her an opportunity a leg up so she can

Potentially fulfill her dreams like Ashton did so I heard that you love books as much as I do and I heard you also inscribe them so I put something in here for you I know she reads all the Kobe Bryant books the mama mentality cuz that’s that’s how she moves and uh she

Wants to be special but she’s doing the work to get there just felt like it related so much to our relationship because you believed in my dreams enough to give me $1,000 scholarship and so I wanted you to have it work home you know the Bears are doing keep

Giving them more and more responsibility but not skipping a step I don’t want ask him to skip a step along the along the way just keep working up wow I appreciate you so much she’s just all about hard work dedication fairness she can do whatever she wants she could be a general manager

She could be a president she could be a CEO he just transcends race and gender my hope is that by the time Ashton Washington becomes an NFL general manager it won’t be a big deal it will have happened long before then it will become a regular thing I’m going to go

To DC to talk to um policy makers on Capitol Hill about the importance of like we productive of being HBCU students making a wave in a state you changing a lot of lives and you don’t even know that yet you’re doing things that have never been done with the first pick the

Chicago Bear select this could be one of the most momentous off seasons in Bears history the stakes are huge and I’m thrilled that Ashton’s right in the middle of it helping us meet these challenges and moving the bear trans for I hope that other little girls see me see other women across college

Football high school football the NFL and they see that it’s possible no matter what you look like it is possible e

The inspiring story of Ashton Washington, the first female scout in the history of the Chicago Bears franchise.

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