Washington
Darnell Washington’s weight was the Steelers’ worst-kept secret
PITTSBURGH — When Darnell Washington moves through the Steelers locker room, his 6-foot-7 frame sways with every lumbering step. With rare athleticism for a man with those imposing physical dimensions, he is one of the NFL’s most unique players. Put him in a three-point stance and he looks like an offensive lineman capable of grappling with the AFC North’s best edge rushers. Line him up wide and he can back down smaller defensive backs like a power forward, or bully them after the catch.
Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith thinks of the third-year tight end as a wildcard in his offense, a create-a-player from the Madden video game — but in real life.
In that locker room a few weeks ago, a reporter posed a question that many have wondered:
How much do you really weigh?
A gentle giant with an easy smile and good sense of humor, Washington laughed off the question. The Steelers list him at a — clearly erroneous — 264 pounds.
Come on, the scale is right here. Just step on — real quick.
Again, the only response was a hearty chuckle.
Many tried, but getting an answer to that question proved more difficult than trying to tackle Washington in the open field. That 264 pounds was his weight at the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine.
Why not update it?
“Honestly, I don’t know,” Washington said. “I’m just like you. I see it, just keep on about my day and laugh at it.”
Well, how close to 264 are you?
“How close? Honestly, I don’t know.”
The first indication that Washington is even bigger than his listed dimensions came last year. Tight ends coach Alfredo Roberts was detailing all the ways his tight end could be used in the offense when he accidentally let it slip.
“He gives you that added dimension because he is athletic,” Roberts said. “You don’t expect a guy to be 6-7 and 300-plus — oh, I said that out loud.”
Sorry Darnell Washington, your coach misspoke about your size #Steelers pic.twitter.com/0UlKpr47ps
— 93.7 The Fan (@937theFan) October 30, 2024
During the Steelers’ Week 7 Thursday night game against the Bengals, the Amazon broadcast listed him as “300+” pounds. But if you were looking for an exact number, well, that information was guarded as tightly as a weekly gameplan.
“It’s no secret,” Washington said. “I truly just don’t know.”
Or does he?
When Washington was coming out of Georgia, the Steelers weren’t necessarily in the market for a tight end. Intrigued by his potential, the team hosted him for a pre-draft visit, the only tight end in that cycle to visit. When Washington slipped to the third round, the Steelers took him; the hope was that he would help slow Myles Garrett and the other dominant 4-3 defensive ends in the division.
From the moment Washington entered the league, he’s been the dominant in-line blocker the team imagined. During his first training camp, Washington proved himself by holding his own against T.J. Watt in one-on-one reps. This year during the ‘backs-on-‘backers drill, Washington stood up another edge rusher.
“Not bad for a tackle,” one teammate chirped.
“Pay me like it then,” Washington quipped back.
The Steelers have highlighted Washington’s physicality even more so this season by lining him up next to extra offensive lineman Spencer Anderson in their jumbo packages. When a tackle (like Broderick Jones on the left side, or Troy Fautanu on the right), Washington and Anderson line up shoulder-to-shoulder, the Steelers have three 300-plus pound humans on the same side of the formation.
“I think it was a George Young quote about the Franco Harris debate that’s in Chuck Noll’s book,” Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith said. “He said, this was settled 2000 years ago when Alexander the Great came riding in on elephants. That’s kind of what it looks like. You put the tackle over, you’ve got 1,000 pounds over there.”
This season, Aaron Rodgers has helped unlock another dimension. The veteran quarterback was immediately intrigued by Washington’s physical dimensions; he often likened Washington to former teammate Mercedes Lewis, who was listed a 6-foot-6 and 265 pounds. With Rodgers behind center and Smith calling the plays, Washington has caught 18 passes for 209 yards and a touchdown. With seven games to go, he already has more receiving yards than last season, and he’s one reception short of last year’s total.
D.J. Turner II was one of three Bengals defenders to feel the brunt of Darnell Washington during the tight end’s 31-yard catch-and-run on Sunday. (Justin K. Aller / Getty Images)
If he looks at times like a grown man playing against children, that’s exactly how he feels, too. When he was a kid growing up in the Las Vegas area, Washington and his friends used to play a game called “Three Flags Up.” The rules are simple: One person throws the ball into the air. Everyone else jumps to try to catch it. First person to catch the ball three times wins.
“Honestly, it just takes me back to the childhood days playing three flags up,” Washington said. “I see someone out there a lot smaller than me, I know what’s coming. I feel like everybody knows what’s coming.”
Knowing what’s coming and stopping it are two different things. During Sunday’s win over the Bengals, Cincinnati’s defense felt the full weight of Washington. One play sums it up best: Washington caught a shallow cross, stiff-armed 231-pound linebacker Barrett Carter to the ground, ran through the arms of 210-pound safety Geno Stone and then finished the play with an exclamation point, bulldozing 185-pound DJ Turner II, knocking the cornerback off his feet.
GET OUTTA HIS WAY‼️ @_Dwfootball11
📺 #CINvsPIT on @paramountplus pic.twitter.com/Egz2vCb7BE
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) November 16, 2025
“They’re getting scared of him, for sure,” Rodgers said with a smile. “They should be.”
On Wednesday, Washington proved a little less elusive. Appearing on St. Brown Podcast, hosted by Detroit Lions wideout Amon-Ra St. Brown and his brother, former NFL wideout Equanimeous St. Brown.
How much do you weigh?
“I ain’t finna cap to y’all. I ain’t weighed myself in a minute, but I know—”
Bro, what do you mean, you got weigh-ins every week!
“Look, there’s no weigh-ins—”
Washington then, literally, ducked off-camera.
Look, he trying to get away!
“O.K., O.K. yeah, I’m gonna keep it a buck. I’m 311.”
Amon-Ra St. Brown (left) and Equanimeous St. Brown (right) finally wore down Darnell Washington (middle) on Wednesday. (via YouTube)
While Washington’s emerging presence in the pass game is new, it’s not necessarily unexpected.
“Some of the freakish things that you see him do in the stadium I saw on Georgia tape,” coach Mike Tomlin said. “Some of the freakish things that I’ve seen him do this year, I saw him do last year. He had a unique run after (catch) certainly the other day that kind of ignited our collective offensively and defensively, but he had a similar-type play, I remember, in Indianapolis last year, when we were kind of running in place offensively, and he made a play, and it kind of ignited us.”
“He’s a special athlete. He has unique talents. He’s certainly a tough guy to deal with in one-on-one tackle circumstances. It makes him a force to be reckoned with.”
All 311 pounds of him.
Washington
19-Year-Old Transgender University of Washington Student Fatally Stabbed
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This story contains descriptions of fatal violence against a transgender person.
The Seattle Police Department are searching for a suspect after a 19-year-old University of Washington student was stabbed to death in an off-campus student apartment complex on May 10.
Seattle Police Department Detective Eric Muñoz told NBC News that the victim is “believed to be a 19-year-old transgender female” who was enrolled at the university. The victim has not yet been publicly identified by name. She was found in the housing complex laundry room shortly after 10 p.m. on Sunday night.
The housing complex, Nordheim Court, is privately managed but affiliated with the university, located near an upscale shopping center in Seattle’s U-Village neighborhood. According to NBC News, residents received an official alert from UW to stay inside their homes and lock all windows and doors — an alert that was lifted around 1 a.m. with the acknowledgment that “a death investigation remains ongoing.”
According to SPD detective Eric Muñoz, police and the fire department attempted lifesaving measures but ultimately “pronounced the victim deceased at the scene.”
“Officers are actively searching for the suspect, believed to be a black male with a beard, 5’6-8” tall, wearing a vest with button up shirt, and blue jeans,” Muñoz wrote in a blotter report.
Muñoz noted that the victim would be identified by the medical examiner’s office in “the coming days.” The SPD did not immediately respond to Them’s request for comment.
This is the seventh known trans person to be violently killed in 2026. In mid-April, 39-year-old transmasculine farmer Luca RedBeard was fatally shot in rural New Mexico. Last week, police in Marion County, Florida opened a homicide investigation into the shooting death of a 29-year-old who went by multiple names and referred to “transitioning” on social media. In Kentucky, an investigation into the disappearance of 22-year-old trans college student Murry Foust remains ongoing.
Police are asking anyone with information about the University of Washington case to call the Violent Crimes Tip Line at 206-233-5000, emphasizing that anonymous tips are accepted.
This is a developing story.
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Washington
How the Sea Mar Museum Is Preserving Latino History in Washington
On a quiet stretch of Des Moines Memorial Drive in South Seattle, the Sea Mar Museum of Chicano/a/Latino/a Culture rises like a long‑overdue acknowledgment. Its brick exterior doesn’t shout; it invites. Inside, the rooms hum with the stories of families who crossed borders, harvested fields, organized classrooms, and built communities across Washington state—often without seeing their histories reflected anywhere on a museum wall.
For Rogelio Riojas, founder and CEO of Sea Mar Community Health Centers, the museum is a promise kept. “We wanted to make sure the contributions of Latinos in Washington state are recognized and preserved for future generations,” he told The Seattle Times when the museum opened in 2019. It was a simple statement, but one that captured decades of work—both visible and invisible—by the region’s Latino communities.
Walking through the galleries feels like stepping into a living archive. One of the most arresting sights is a pair of original farmworker cabins, transported from Eastern Washington. Their narrow wooden frames and sparse interiors speak volumes about the migrant families who once slept inside after long days in the fields. The cabins are not replicas or artistic interpretations; they are the real thing, weathered by sun, dust, and time. They anchor the museum’s narrative in the physical realities of labor that shaped the state’s agricultural economy.
Sea Mar describes the museum as “dedicated to sharing the history, struggles, and successes of the Latino community in Washington state,” a mission that plays out in photographs, letters, student newspapers, and oral histories contributed by community members themselves. These aren’t artifacts chosen from afar—they’re family treasures, personal archives, and memories entrusted to the museum so they can live beyond the kitchen tables and shoeboxes where they were once kept.
The story extends beyond the museum walls. Just steps away is the Sea Mar Community Center, a sweeping, light‑filled gathering space designed for celebrations, performances, workshops, and community events. With room for nearly 500 people, a full stage, a movie‑theater‑sized screen, and a catering kitchen, the center was built with one purpose: to give the community a place to see itself, gather, and grow. Sea Mar describes it as “a welcoming space for families, organizations, and community groups to gather, celebrate, and learn,” and on any given weekend, it lives up to that promise.
Together, the museum and community center form a cultural campus—part historical archive, part living room for the region’s Latino communities. Students come to learn about the Chicano activists who reshaped the University of Washington in the late 1960s. Families come to see their own histories reflected in the exhibits. Visitors come to understand a story that has long been present in Washington, even if it wasn’t always visible.
The Sea Mar Museum is open Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., offering free admission to anyone who walks through its doors. For many, it’s more than a museum—it’s a recognition, a gathering place, and a testament to the people who helped shape the Pacific Northwest.
Preserving Latino History and Community Life in Washington was first published on Washington Latino News (WALN) and republished with permission.
Washington
Mother’s Day Bunch at Lady Madison | Washington DC
Celebrate Mothers Day with à la carte brunch at Lady Madison featuring seafood, entrées, desserts, and premium beverage options.
Celebrate Mothers Day in sophisticated style at Lady Madison, located inside Le Méridien Washington, DC, The Madison. Join us on Sunday, May 10, 2026, from 12:003:00 PM for an elevated à la carte brunch experience in downtown Washington, DC.
Enjoy a refined selection of chef-driven brunch classics, fresh seafood, seasonal salads, and elegant entrées. Highlights include a Build Your Own Omelette, Crab Benedict with lime hollandaise, Chilled Seafood Trio, and signature mains such as Roasted Rack of Lamb, Cedar Plank Sea Bass, and Marinated New York Strip Loin.
End on a sweet note with classic desserts including Crème Brûlée Cheesecake, Fruit Tart, Strawberry Shortcake, and Passion Fruit Cake.
Enhance your experience with beverage offerings, including bottomless Mimosas and Bloody Marys for $30 with house selections. Piper-Heidsieck Champagne is also available by the glass for $16 or by the bottle for $49.
Reserve on OpenTable:
https://www.opentable.com/booking/experiences-availability?rid=1426987&restref=1426987&experienceId=695240&utm_source=external&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=shared
À La Carte Menu
Les ufs & Brunch
Egg White Frittata $24
spinach, tomato, mushrooms, green onion
Served with pommes de terre rissolées or seasonal fruit
Build Your Own Omelette $24
ham, smoked salmon, vegetables, cheeses (choose up to 3)
Served with pommes de terre rissolées or seasonal fruit
Crab Benedict $24
lime hollandaise, salsa cruda
Served with pommes de terre rissolées or seasonal fruit
Brioche French Toast $17
berry compote, whipped butter, maple syrup
Les Froids & Salades
Chilled Seafood Trio $28
Jonah crab claws, shrimp, cocktail sauce
Spring Berry Salad $17
brie, berries, champagne vinaigrette
Golden & Crimson Beet Salad $18
red wine vinaigrette
Add protein: shrimp, salmon, skirt steak +18 | chicken +16
Les Plats Principaux
Roasted Rack of Lamb $42
mint sauce, huckleberry reduction, sweet potato purée, asparagus
Cedar Plank Sea Bass $49
saffron rice, spring vegetables
New York Strip Loin $42
mushroom sauce, truffle croquette potatoes, haricots verts
Les Desserts $14
Crème Brûlée Cheesecake
Fruit Tart
Strawberry Shortcake
Passion Fruit Cake
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