Will Athletes ever sit upon the Iron Throne of unique sports content? #RESM560V

The Captain may have bid farewell on the field, but off the field he is kicking up dirt within the sports media community. Within days of his retirement, Derek Jeter announced the launch of his new website The Players’ Tribune, which is a digital media platform that allows professional athletes a medium to create their own content completely unfiltered and without the need of reporters. In an interview with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show, Jeter explained the purpose of the website and its intention to not eliminate sportswriters by saying,

We want the athletes to be able to share their own stories, and really from a first-person perspective.

This is not trying to eliminate the sportswriters. The sportswriters are what make sports great and fun to watch, and people’s difference of opinion.

This is just another avenue for the athletes to use, to express themselves. In this day and age, I think athletes, they really like to share with the people everything about them. I personally have not done that. I personally will not do that. This is not about me. This is about an avenue for the players.

With an already changing landscape within sports media, the creation of websites such as The Players’ Tribune only complicates the issue of who will be the primary source of unique sports content more. In his article Becoming Our Own Media Company, Dr. Stephen Dittmore of the University of Arkansas examined the on going battle between sports organizations and the mass media to become the primary source of unique sports content. As digital media has transformed to allow sports organizations to become generators of content,

The perception of sport organizations competing with mass media may be reality, a fact not lost on sport organizations who recognize, now more than ever, they possess something of value

Only recently has this transition happened where sports organizations and athletic departments can take the unique content that they have rights to and publish it on their own platform. To protect this content, sports organizations and athletic departments have taken the necessary steps to limit the mass media to have full access to their teams. For example, the NFL had limited the mass media to only being allowed to use 45 seconds worth of game footage, but that has now been moved to 90 seconds. The soccer club Manchester United has even threatened to start charging interview fees for its manager and players. Just like the sports organizations realized the value of their content, individual athletes are seeing that value as well.

Russell Wilson was the first “Senior Editor” to contribute to The Players’ Tribune with his article Let’s Talk About It, which examined his childhood days of being a bully to other children and how that tied into domestic violence. This was a first-perspective look into the mind of a professional athlete on a subject that he probably would not have talked about with the mass media or the Seattle Seahawks. This is unique content at its best. Exclusive, unfiltered, all access content coming from the mind of a professional athlete.

Athletes have known long before The Players’ Tribune that their content was valuable. Just look at an athletes Twitter, Instagram, or Vine and you will get to see a glimpse into the lives of your favorite athletes’. While that type of social media content is unique, it still does not allow us to peel away that first layer and see what lies beneath. Platforms like The Players’ Tribune could have a huge impact on sports media if athletes decide to reveal opinions, viewpoints, and stories on their own platform, rather than through sports organizations and the mass media.

Imagine. Kobe Bryant returns to the court on October 28th for the Los Angeles Lakers for the first time in almost a year. In a 1 point win over the Houston Rockets, Kobe pours in 47 points and a game winning fadeaway baseline jumper. Following the game, Kobe answers interview questions with shorts answers for about five minutes. The mass media and sports organizations, who thought they were about to have a field day with this content, have little to nothing besides stats and game footage. Instead, Kobe goes home and does an on camera post-game video blog where he talks about the game, the teams game plan, his post-game meal, current events, his kids come sit on his lap, there’s a great view of his office, and this is all posted to a platform such as The Players’ Tribune.

This is not to say this is what players will do because they are required by contract to participate in post game interviews, but a scenario like this might not be as far fetched as what we think. It will be interesting to see how fans respond to platforms such as The Players’ Tribune, but more importantly, it will be interesting to see what kind of unique content these athletes provide.