Second of two parts
Maya Washington, an award-winning author and filmmaker, now is a strong NIL advocate for legacy athletes because of her family’s recent experiences.
Maya’s father is Hall of Famer Gene Washington, who played at Michigan State and in the NFL with the Minnesota Vikings, then established a successful career in corporate America. But the last few years, she and her father have been fighting against a 2018 book by David Claerbaut, “Duffy Daugherty: A Man Ahead of His Time,” and a “Black Spartans” film project by his stepson based on the book.
Washington said in our interview in last week’s MSR (“Michigan State’s ‘65,’66 Spartans subject of book/film controversy”) that both the book and the screenplay were full of errors. Eventually Michigan State stopped publishing the book, but not before copies were sold. The film was stopped after Washington read the screenplay.
However, getting MSU officials to finally release its findings from a fact-check and plagiarism review that they conducted has not been successful, said Washington. “It is a complete mess that clearly the [MSU] leadership does not understand,” she reiterated. “The mess is big, it’s deep and it’s wide, and it’s bigger than me.”
More so, the Claerbaut book overshadows her own work. Maya’s father was among 20 Black players on the 1966 MSU football team coached by Daugherty and featured in her award-winning film, “Through the Banks of the Red Cedar” (2018) and her 2022 memoir, “Through the Banks of the Red Cedar: My Father and the Team that Changed the Game.”
Washington’s film currently is on PBS platforms, including PBS Documentaries Channel on Amazon Prime.
Furthermore, Maya strongly points out, it’s not just about her father.
“Whether that’s at Michigan State University or at other universities around the country, that is not only concerning from my father’s generation and those who have passed on, but for young athletes who are not protected by the current NIL landscape, which is a decades’ worth of athletes whose name, image and likeness might exist in archives,” she stressed.
“Gene Washington, what he contributed to the institution in numerous ways while he was there [as a student-athlete in the 1960s], after he left — he’s a College Football Hall of Famer,” his daughter said proudly. “He had a successful NFL career, had a successful career in business, has been a very enthusiastic ambassador for the institution for over 60 years.
“If this can happen to him, you need to understand that there is a real potential that this can and will happen to other student athletes,” emphasized Washington. “No steps have been taken to sit down and unpack what happened, to actually sit down with my father and his teammates.
“That is an offer and a request that we’ve extended to Michigan State since 2022 … and they have declined our request that we’ve made and every offer in four years,” reported Maya. “My dad is in his ‘80s. We’re trying to nip this in the bud.”
“There are other younger legacy players who have lawsuits related to NIL, and you’re going to see more of that,” said Washington. “You’re going to see more of that because institutions are sort of spinning their wheels trying to figure out [NIL] in this new climate.
“I think raising awareness about the need for legacy athletes to be vigilant when it comes to their NIL, to access their own sense of boundaries with the institution… What is the acceptable use of their name or their face?
“It’s really educating the general public,” concluded Washington, “but especially those who are sincere about their desire to preserve history or show respect or pay homage … The consequences of rewritten history isn’t just offensive but hurtful to the families who have to endure it.”
Charles Hallman welcomes reader comments to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.