Former Jet Washington On A Mission

His time dressed as No. 97 in a green and white uniform included the four head coaches in eight years, the six losing seasons, the 1-15 finale to the Rich Kotite era and the two 8-8 runs and one wildcard playoff game as the high-water marks.

- Brian Heyman

Marvin Washington was a sixth-round pick by the Jets, a 6-6 defensive end who arrived in 1989 with three seasons of college basketball and just one season of I-AA football behind him. He still contributed 37.5 sacks before his fifth coach, Bill Parcells, set him free during the 1997 preseason.

Despite all the minuses, Washington has no litany of Jets regrets these days about those days, thinking of them as a plus.

“I look back favorably on them,” said Washington, now 51 and living in New Jersey. “What sticks with me is the friendships that I made that I still maintain with some of my ex-teammates and some of the people that worked in the front office at the Jets. I still follow them. I’m still a fan of them. And I’m pulling for them. I pull for them every Sunday.

“I never look back (negatively) at my time and career with the Jets because everybody would like to win five Super Bowls, everybody would like to go to the playoffs, but everybody can’t do that. But I know there were good coaches, there were good people and there were good players, and for whatever reason, it just didn’t come together.”

After playing three more seasons, including a Super Bowl championship season with Denver, Washington went into financial planning. But the last few years, he has been involved in a whole different game — the cannabis industry.

Washington is an owner, partner or stockholder in four companies, looking to make a living and help people via a non-intoxicating compound in the marijuana plant.

So he also wants NFL players to be allowed to use medical marijuana and experience what he said are the positive health effects — preventing and treating concussions and bringing pain relief as opposed to them using possibly addictive drugs.