Catch Up with the Jets Legend from UTEP

Jim Gehman

Marvin Washington changed his mind. And in effect, his future.

After playing basketball for two years at UTEP, he transferred to the University of Idaho and continued to do so as a junior. He then contemplated his immediate future and reached a decision that didn't include dribbling.

Instead, he'd go out for the football team as a senior.

"I wanted to give it a try because I thought a 6-foot-6 defensive end had a better chance of playing at the next level than a 6-foot-6 center that couldn't shoot the ball and could only play defense and rebound," Washington said.

"And I had friends that were playing college football that I went to high school with and I saw them at Notre Dame and Texas A&M, Texas, or whatever, and they were doing well. And I thought I was just as good an athlete as them, so I wanted to give it a shot."

Washington would earn first-team All-Big Sky and third-team NCAA D-1AA All-America honors while setting a school record with 14.5 sacks, and helping Idaho win the Conference championship.

He clearly overcame his lack of gridiron experience, which in turn brought no lack of interest from NFL teams, and he was chosen by the Jets in the sixth round of the 1989 Draft.

"I was excited. Back then it was 12 rounds, so I was drafted solidly in the middle," Washington said. "But then looking at the Jets' picks, they had drafted two linemen in front of me: Ron Stallworth in the fourth round, and Dennis Byrd in the second. We became fast friends, but I was worried about making the team.

"The Jets had kept six linemen the previous year, and if they did it the same year I was drafted, I don't know if I would have made the team. But they made an exception, and I was the seventh lineman my rookie year.

"That was my second year playing football and I just worked hard. I think they saw potential in me. I came in on my days off, and from the first mini-camp through training camp through the end of the year, I was learning more about football. And I was getting better and better. That's the thing that kept me around that first year."

Appearing in every game as a reserve D-lineman and on special teams during his first two seasons, Washington posted 65 tackles and six sacks before becoming a starter at defensive end in 1991.

"I actually had it in 1990, but I lost it. And I understand why they did that, I wasn't ready," Washington said. "And in '91, it was just trying to live up to that expectation as far as being a starter and making plays. And I think I did that. But we didn't have that much team success, and so that was the frustrating part about it. That was a very frustrating part."

The words Jets and successful weren't often said in the same sentence during Washington's eight seasons [1989-96] with the team. No winning records and making the playoff only once led to head coaching changes. Joe Walton was replaced by Bruce Coslet, who was replaced by Pete Carroll, who was replaced by Rich Kotite.

"It was very difficult because everybody comes in with a different philosophy," Washington said. "But it didn't change, and I felt then and know now, in order to win, if you're coming in there, you have to change the whole culture. We were only changing the head coach and the coaches and a few players, but the Jets' culture really didn't change."

Other things that didn't change were Washington's reliability and his ability to spend time in the opponent's offensive backfield. After becoming a starter in his third season, he only missed four games over six years, and was in at 445 tackles, 296 solo, and had 37.5 sacks.

"I was just trying to get better each and every year," Washington said. "It harkens back to when you're 4-12 and you're behind. It's easier to get sacks when you're 12-4 because teams are passing and you get more opportunities to do it. I just wish I had more opportunities to rush the passer when we were ahead in the fourth quarter, and could pin my ears back.

"But I didn't get that opportunity a lot of times. And that's fine. I have no problem with what I did with the Jets. You know, at the end of the day, it's a net profit positive."

Another positive of being with the Green & White

"The people that I met off the field in the administration that I'm still friends with now 30-something years later. And I'm friends with even some of their kids. Those are my fondest memories. They're like family," Washington said.

"We're all connected now on social media, and we keep up with the Jets and we comment on it. From ex-players to ex-trainers to ex-administrators and what have you. We've got a pretty good Jets community."

Following his time with New York, Washington would go on to play three seasons with San Francisco and Denver, helping the Broncos win Super Bowl XXXIII. What makes him most proud of his career?

"The longevity of it, for a basketball player or any football player to come in and play 11 years in the NFL," Washington said. "Because you look at the draft and see these guys going on the first day and they don't know if they're going to play a year, three years, four years, 14 years.

"But I was able to play 11 years. And I don't know what the percentage is of players that have ever played in the NFL that reach a double-digit career, but I'm one of those guys. So I'm very proud of that."

Washington is also proud of what he's doing now as an advisor for Leafwell, a virtual care clinic for medical cannabis and data-driven cannabis research, that boasts 500,000 members and 1 million website visitors.

"Leafwell is the leading canna health company in the country, and it's through telemedicine where we connect doctors, patients, dispensaries and insurance to make sure that people are medicating with this medicine in a proper way," Washington said. "Because Leafwell has taken data, research, and science, and their doctors are making sure that they brought this medicine out of the anecdotal and the rumors.

"We have over 100 doctors and 30 different specialists. And so if you have something wrong with you, you call and talk to a doctor, get a prescription, and go to the dispensary."

On account of his athletic background, Washington mainly focuses on helping others who have played in the four major sports professionally through former player associations.

"We're going after the former player associations because that's the bigger body. That'll be our beta test," Washington said. "And then we're going to go after the active players eventually, once we get traction with all of these alumni associations. And hopefully, we'll get some clarity on the legality of it from the federal level. But this is not a matter of if, it's just when. I think we're going to do it now, and we are doing it now with the former players associations.

"We want to give the former players an alternative to the opiate and benzodiazepines that sometimes these guys are poisoning themselves with, sometimes these guys are getting addicted with. We want to give them a natural alternative. And if you take cannabis as medicine and follow the signs, you will come through to that conclusion, too.

"I started with Leafwell in January, but we have been talking since late in '24. And once I started talking to them, I just saw the future of cannabis, to what they were talking about, and the way they're going about it, bringing the doctors and patients together.

"We're in 37 states, and that covers most of the major leagues. And I definitely want to bring it to my community first, and that's the sports community. I want to show that former athletes can medicate with this plant and have no negative side effects, no addiction, and they're doing it under doctor's care. Because cannabis is medicine. And medicine is supposed to make you feel good, make you feel better, and that's what cannabis does."

Making his home in North Bergen County, NJ, Washington has three adult children: Evan, Sydney, and Isaiah.

"All of them have their bachelor's degrees. One has two bachelors; another one has a master's. They're productive members of society and they're very successful. They're on that corporate track. And I am so happy that I can look at that and say, 'Man, I didn't mess my kids up,'" he laughed.

"I'm at peace with my life. I have good friends. I have a good family. I have a good relationship with my God. I have a good relationship with the people that are in my sphere of influence because the whole thing is, I wasn't like an All-Pro player or this, that, and the other, but I can pick up the phone and call any of the teams that I was with, because I came and I did my job. I didn't cause any problems. Always came in shape. Always knew my assignment. And right now, it's good because I can look back on it and not have any regrets."