Chris Stearns

The Players’ Tribune Gives Athletes a Voice

Since launching two years ago, Derek Jeter’s The Players’ Tribune has grown into a media powerhouse within the sports world. It gives athletes across the globe and within every sport a unique platform to voice their thoughts and opinions. From letters to younger selves, to reflections on their careers. From photo essays to video journals. The Players’ Tribune has evolved into the media platform for athletes.

It’s become a go-to source for athletes to break personal news. Instead of pushing out a Facebook post, or tweet with accompanying graphic on their own social media profiles, they publish they’re “I’m retiring” announcements on The Players’ Tribune.

Kobe Bryant even crashed their website back in November of 2015 when he penned a poem “Dear Basketball” that announced his retirement.

This year, we’ve truly become fans of the site…for what it’s done across all sports, and for what it’s done specifically for some of the most important voices in our sport.

Players are your most valuable asset when it comes to your club. They’re club ambassadors, drive ticket and merchandise sales, and can help with sponsorships. With social media, fans have more access to players than ever but many player accounts are run by agents and are a seemingly a mix of marketing messages and generic “go team” messaging. That’s not to say all are bland or vanilla, but most of the time, the content feels very safe.

That’s where The Players’ Tribune excels. Athletes get to be themselves and give you insight into their lives and minds while become storytellers. With the international break upon is, we wanted to share some of our favorites to date. We also suggest you explore the entirety of their soccer content here.

Heather O’Reilly: The Best Team I’ve Ever Known

Francessco Totti: For Rome

Brad Friedel: How Far We’ve Come

Pelé: Letter to My Younger Self

Jerome Boateng: What You Don’t Know About “Being a Defender”

MLS Cup 2015 Photo Essay: Portlandia

 

Header image from The Players Tribune Soccer page

Categories: Digital Content, Editorial, Just For Fun