In the long and storied history of Jackson State University athletics, 86 former Tigers have had the distinguished honor of being selected in the National Football League Draft . Now, a new group of former JSU athletes are on a mission to join this elite fraternity.
The highly anticipated documentary profiles four JSU athletes – wide receiver Rico Richardson, defensive end Joseph LeBeau, defensive tackle Johnathan Billups and left tackle Zion Pyatt – as
they compete for gridiron glory in front of NFL scouts during the annual Pro Day workout. The documentary also features JSU head football coach Rick Comegy and his entire coaching staff.
Antonio Smith, producer of the documentary with JSUTV, said: “A lot of players don’t get this type of exposure, so I think it’s important that people see another side of our athletes, not only on
the field but their personal lives.”
They interviewed coaches, assistant coaches, coordinators and players.
He added: “It was a team effort. Ashanti (Ishakarah) made a lot of the phone calls and got the coaches on board.”
Ashanti Ishakarah, programming coordinator for JSUTV, stated that ‘Path to Pro Day’ started as a regular news story and evolved into a documentary.
“It was a team effort. We were just looking up campus events and stories we could cover and Pro Day came up so I figured this is really cool. Ultimately, we came back and saw the footage and said this is too much of a master piece, we have to go out of the box.”
Taylor Bembery contributed to this story
