Students and faculty filled the seats of the concert hall inside of Windgate Center for Fine Arts to hear an impactful speech from award-winning journalist, filmmaker and author Jesse Washington on Oct. 6. 

Washington has co-written, produced and directed several films and books. 

Some of his notable works include: “I Came As a Shadow,” the autobiography of former Georgetown basketball coach John Thompson. “March On Washington: Keepers of the Dream,” a National Geographic documentary that showed the connections between the Black Lives Matter movement and the original Civil Rights Movement, and “Lucky Me,” a memoir by sports agent Rich Paul. 

Washington is also a senior writer for ESPN’s Andscape.

Washington said he is motivated by injustice and he cares about other people and how they think. 

The organization that inspired the night’s lecture was the National Collegiate Athletics Association.

“There’s something that’s been getting at me recently and getting me excited. I feel this familiar feeling of, ‘Man this is something that deserves more attention.’ It already has a lot of attention, and it’s the NCAA and things going on with NCAA sports right now in this country that’s a big deal.” Washington said. 

“I would like to begin with a proposition, which is, the NCAA is — an open-ended statement. How do we finish that statement? The NCAA is —” Washington said.

His speech detailed several injustices and loopholes within the NCAA that are going unpunished and how former NFL player and University of Colorado Boulder head coach Deion Sanders is challenging these rules. 

Some of these injustices include: the NCAA not sharing revenue with players, college athletes cutting corners with paper classes and racial discrimination.

Washington said that the NCAA needs to do things differently and credits Sanders for busting the status quo. 

During his speech, Washington said there’s an attention economy and a traditional economy. An attention economy is a way of getting money from views and followers. 

Sanders is using this strategy to generate revenue for his players and program.

“Deion represents the change we’re in,” Washington said.

After his speech, a question-and-answer session was held with attendees.

Attendees asked for his opinion on certain NCAA issues that weren’t previously discussed, Rich Paul’s forthcoming memoir, and advice for aspiring sports journalists. 

Cade Womack, a junior public relations and communication major said, “My favorite part of the event was the question and answer presentation. It was so cool to hear so many people that are interested in this subject talk about it even more and help deepen the presentation that Washington gave.”

“It was interesting to hear about the absolutely crazy things that are happening in NCAA schools, as well as how coach Deion Sanders used an HBCU [historically Black college or university] to work his way up to a more advanced school in the country. It was just mind-blowing to hear about all the crazy things going on in the country,” Womack said.