A month after we launched The Players' Tribune, literally a month after Derek Jeter's final game, Jason Collins published his retirement piece, "I'm Out," on the platform.
Jason trusted us with an important chapter of his life, and I'll never forget the responsibility we all felt to get it right. Not to sensationalize it. Not to overproduce it. Just to create space for honesty and truth.
I’ve been thinking about him a lot since learning of his passing at age 47.
Jason had already courageously come out publicly about six months earlier in Sports Illustrated. But this piece felt different. It was personal. Fully in his own voice. And looking back now, I didn't realize until this week just how early it was in the life of The Players' Tribune, and how much it represented exactly why we started it in the first place.
At that time, there still weren't many places for athletes to share deeply personal stories with care, nuance, and humanity. Most athletes were subjects in other people's stories, but not truly heard. Our goal of The Players' Tribune was to help change that, to pair athletes with great storytellers so they could tell the stories only they could tell.
It feels deeply meaningful, looking back, that he was one of the first athletes to fully embrace what athlete-driven storytelling could be.
His story helped shape the soul of what we were building then. And what we're building now at Storied Sports.
I’ll remember him for his courage, his timing and voice. And about how powerful it can be when someone finally gets to tell their truth in their own words.
