With advice from Shaq, Byron Washington plays for a bigger purpose
Recruited as a key part of SU's future, 6-foot-8, near-400-lb Byron Washington’s journey to get his body into football shape is paying off. Leonardo Eriman | Photo Editor
Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox. Subscribe to our sports newsletter here.
Byron Washington couldn’t believe who popped into his Instagram DMs one day in the fall of his junior year of high school. NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal wanted a word with the 6-foot-8, 400-plus-pound offensive line recruit.
The man known as “Shaq” watched a highlight video featuring the mammoth from DeSoto High School (Texas), who went viral for moving so smoothly at his colossal stature. O’Neal — standing at 7 feet tall, over 300 pounds — saw shades of himself in Washington. He asked for Washington’s number and if he could FaceTime him. Starstruck, Washington obliged.
“At first, I didn’t think it was real,” he said. “Of course I was surprised, but we just chopped it up like I’ve been knowing him.”
Over the last two years, they’ve regularly spoken on the phone. Washington hails O’Neal as his “uncle.” He, however, rarely asks O’Neal for athletic advice.
O’Neal provides Washington with wisdom on how to handle fame and finances at an early age. The first thing O’Neal told Washington on FaceTime was to “Go buy mama that house;” a reminder to stay grounded on what matters most.
“Sports are sports,” Washington said of O’Neal’s advice. “But how are you going to set your life up to be great after sports?”
Washington’s purpose is to use his football career to financially take care of his mother, Brittany Lewis. Lewis had Washington when she was a teenager. She then got diagnosed with brain cancer while her son was in high school. Doctors gave Lewis six months to live. She miraculously recovered. Washington says the sacrifices his mother has made to create opportunities for him helped propel him to Texas high-school football stardom.
For Washington to give back to his mother, though, he has to lose weight. He’s been upwards of 450 pounds before. Washington has been on a mission to get his body into Division I playing shape, searching to fulfill his dream of providing for his mother while answering Syracuse head coach Fran Brown’s calls to become a fixture of SU’s offensive line.
“For me to be able to take care of my family, when I’m on the field I just think about that,” Washington told The Daily Orange. “Each day, it’s like I’m punching a ticket. Now, I can take care of my mom a little bit, but the overall goal is for her to never have to work again.”
As of Friday, Sept. 12, Washington’s taken crucial steps in his ultimate quest. He dropped his weight below 400 pounds and logged 29 snaps at right guard in Syracuse’s 66-24 win over Colgate. The freshman held his own, too, finishing with an 82.1 pass blocking grade, per Pro Football Focus.
“We’ll be a better football team when Byron Washington is playing,” Brown said. “We got a lot of freshmen that we think are helping build the culture here and build this program the way it needs to be built. And Byron is one of those guys.”
Washington’s size created some burdens. As a 12-year-old, he grew six inches within a month. The growth gave him horrible leg pain. Lewis took him to the emergency room, where he underwent surgery to put rods in his knees so his growth plates wouldn’t collapse. The procedure was successful and is the reason Washington can walk normally today.
But from sixth grade through sophomore year, Washington struggled to move around well, DeSoto head football coach Claude Mathis said. DeSoto’s staff always had a sense something was bothering Washington. Mathis described it as Washington wanting to move in certain ways but his body disallowing him.
DeSoto offensive line coach Charles Williams said Washington’s powerful traits remained palpable in practice. He pancaked just about everybody. But his knee rods and his weight — 470 pounds when he entered DeSoto — limited him early on.
“A lot of people doubted me because they thought I was overweight, couldn’t move,” Washington said. “Since then, I’ve had a chip on my shoulder.”
Washington adopted an intense diet and gained renewed athleticism after his rods were removed entering his junior year. It allowed him to take giant leaps as an upperclassman.
“Once he got them out, he was just a different person,” Mathis said.
Washington started on DeSoto’s offensive line his junior and senior seasons, playing as a left guard and then a left tackle. Mathis and Williams said, even at his size, Washington is an elite pulling guard and is a brick wall when lined up against quick edge rushers. They said he would send players six-to-seven yards back when he’d block them off balance. He also could block multiple defenders at once — a regular occurrence for him at DeSoto.
Williams’ main priority coaching Washington was getting him to play less vertically, meaning he needs to position himself as low as possible to exert his leverage on defenders. The offensive line coach said Washington stayed for hours and hours after practice ended, honing in on his technique to stay low to the ground.
If Washington’s technique is proper, his coaches say opponents should proceed with caution.
“We’ve got some film where he’s blocking the linebackers, and we’re sitting there all holding our breath, because it looked like he just folded them up like a lawnchair,” Williams said of Washington.
Zoey Grimes | Design Editor
Mathis’ favorite performance from Washington came in his junior campaign against Duncanville High School on Oct. 28, 2023. DeSoto won 49-35 — en route to an undefeated Texas state title-winning season — which Mathis credits Washington with a large part for.
“That was the best game I’ve ever seen him play — when it comes to having a pissed off attitude and not taking no sh*t from nobody and basically whooping they a** the whole goddamn game,” Mathis said of Washington. “He was a manchild. A freaking manchild.”
His strict diet paid dividends, too. Williams said Washington made a concerted effort to stray from fried foods. Chicken and rice. Fish and rice. Fruits. Vegetables. Water. Exercise. And not much else. When Mathis first saw Washington, the lineman weighed 470 pounds. By his senior year, he dropped to 425.
Washington said his desire to get in shape helped his recruiting process. The three-star recruit, per 247Sports, fielded offers from top programs like Texas, Oregon and TCU. People in DeSoto clamored for Washington to stay home and play for the Longhorns. They couldn’t get enough of the viral “Big Baby” sensation.
But Williams said he thinks Washington wanted to escape the glamour of Texas football. Instead, Washington felt going to Syracuse was a better fit. He saw an opportunity to play early and trusted Brown’s big plans for his future.
“They see that I want to lose weight, they see that I want to be dominant,” Washington said of his recruiting talks with the Orange. “So that’s where we clicked.”
Washington is currently on a 36-month plan, he said. He wants to be “three-and-done.” That’d mean entering the 2028 NFL Draft after three seasons with Syracuse. He’s been tirelessly working with SU’s nutritional staff to develop a sustainable diet plan during the season — where he still has to maintain a gargantuan size — and his weight keeps gradually sinking.
Washington said he’s never felt this fast out on the field.
“He’s obviously a huge dude,” said Johntay Cook, a Syracuse junior receiver and former teammate of Washington at DeSoto. “But he can move, he can block, so I think Byron’s on the right track. He’s just got to put it all together.”
A big indication that Washington’s work is paying off came on Sept. 1 during Brown’s weekly press conference. Syracuse’s offensive line gave up five sacks against Tennessee in its 2025 season-opening loss. When questioned about what changes the Orange could implement ahead of their subsequent matchup versus UConn, Brown delivered a big statement.
“I’m excited about Byron Washington,” Brown said unprompted. “He’s dropped some more weight, so Byron should be ready to get in the mix.”
Now, he’s 390 pounds: playing weight.
With every pound lost, Washington is another step closer to buying his mom that house.
