NEWSLETTER
As a charter franchise, the Chicago Bears should set a high standard by which to follow.
And while the NFL has a long way to go to be where it wants in terms of diversity, the league’s recent pleas to increase diverse hirings appears to be working in Chicago.
Ashton Washington is set to become the Chicago Bears’ first female scout:
Big, big news.
The @ChicagoBears hire @NFL Women’s Careers in Football Forum 2021 participant, @aawashington_3 in a full-time scouting role after she spent the summer as a scouting intern.
Ashton is the first woman to hold a scouting role with the Bears.
Forward. Progress. pic.twitter.com/VElKKLnuLA
— Sam Rapoport (@samrap10) August 29, 2021
The Bears brought in Washington as part of the Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship/Nunn Wooten Scouting Fellowship class earlier this summer. When she arrived, Washington had prior experience as Texas Tech’s Director of Recruiting Operations and Creative Content, as well as a role as a Gameday Operations Specialist while with the XFL’s Houston Roughnecks. And now, she joins the Bears as the first-ever female in the team’s scouting department. Breaking barriers is always awesome to see, and especially when it’s a team like the Bears.
For what it’s worth, the Bears have seen the Walsh Diversity Fellowship lead to full-time gigs in recent years. Ronell Williams (Defensive Quality Control) and Henry Burris (Offensive Quality Control) were recent coaching interns in the program who are now full-timers on Matt Nagy’s staff. Meanwhile, Michael Pitre (RBs Coach) was a Walsh Fellowship intern with the Chiefs in 2017, where he crossed paths with Nagy. Now, Washington joins the bunch as the latest to join the full-time ranks. It might look like a small step for now, but it’s good to see the Bears bring people into the fray, and promote them. Small steps toward progress are still steps.
