568.6K
Followers
4,150
Following
12.0K
Posts
N/A
Reels
7
Highlights
12/0
Photos/Videos in last 12
Bio
The voice of the game. ⚽ → @playerstribunefootball
Links
playerstribu.ne/stories-
Avg likes
-
Avg comments
-
Engagement
0.1/wk
Posting
Likes and comments are still being collected for this account. Check back shortly.
Recent posts
Throughout the past decade, thousands of athletes have turned to The Players’ Tribune to share their stories ranging from falling in love to saying goodbye to the game, painful setbacks to incredible triumphs, mental health, social justice and so much more. In celebration of our 10 year anniversary, we have created our first physical collection of athlete stories — in collaboration with @assouline.
This is 𝗜’𝘃𝗲 𝗚𝗼𝘁 𝗔 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗧𝗲𝗹𝗹.
Beginning today, the book will be available for preorder online at assouline.com (link can also be found in our bio). It will be available for in-store purchase and online at Assouline globally on October 10, 2024.
12 Sep 2024
@alexiaputellas in 2022: “I used to overhear things like ‘This girl has something.… She’s special.’ But I didn’t really pay attention. I just wanted to play. And I played whenever, wherever I could. If my parents were getting a coffee in the plaza, I would grab my ball and do shooting practice against the wall of the town hall and return to them sweating, begging for some water. I played in the street so much that I would get these big bruises all over my legs, and eventually my mum was like, ‘Right, we need to sign you up for a club for the sake of your legs!’ (It didn’t work, though. I still played on the street and the bruises continued. Haha!)
My football career started with a white lie. My family took me to Sabadell, where a family friend was already in the team, but the minimum age was eight and I was only seven, so they had to ‘cheat’ a little to get me in. I remember my family used to take it in turns to do the half-an-hour trip to training after work. When it was my aunt’s turn, she would stick a helmet on me and I would go on the back of her massive six-cylinder motorbike. I was playing with girls who were like 11 or 12 and I would come home complaining to my parents that I couldn’t kick the ball as hard as them, but I loved it anyway.
When I was a student, I still couldn’t get enough. I was studying at uni in the morning and training in the evening, but in my head I was already a pro. Back then, if I could’ve trained 24 hours a day, I would’ve done it....
Football has no gender. As a kid in Mollet, I was the only girl playing with the boys in the plaza or at the park, but there was never any problem. I never got told I couldn’t play, there were no insults. Nobody raised an eyebrow when this girl said she wanted to be a footballer. I know I’m lucky for the family I have and friends that I grew up with, but my experience is what it should be like for every young girl. The new generation needs to normalise this. Football belongs to everyone.” (Quote continued in comments, full story available at the link in bio)
07 Nov 2026
Ayo Dosunmu (@ayodos_11) was channeling his inner Kobe Bryant during his childhood: “Boom, we’re off and running. Chicago. Set the scene.
South Side. Bronzeville. I’m 8 years old. Summer time. Living room. We’re watching the White Sox game, because we’re a Sox family, because we were raised right. It’s me, my dad and my older brother. We’re chilling.
No, we’re not chilling. Forget whatever you thought.
See … key piece of information … My dad came here from Nigeria when he was 7. He was all about that work. He’s the type of guy who’s mad he can’t work in his sleep. So every time the TV cut to a commercial break, boom, on the millisecond, we had to jump up off the couch and do a set. Pushups, crunches, squats, whatever. The whole two minutes. The manager would walk out to the mound to change the pitcher and me and my brother would look at each other like, ‘No, come on. He’s good. He’s still got some juice in the tank, man.’
He’s waving to the bullpen.
Boom, Geico commercial.
‘Alright, wall sits, let’s go. You don’t work, you don’t eat. Dinner is for winners.’
For the purposes of this story, I’m doing the dialogue, but really my dad wouldn’t even have to say anything. He’d just give us the look.
Picture an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old squatting against the wall, legs shaking like crazy, holding a 15-pound kitchen chair above their heads, just trying to hang on until they cut back from commercials.
By the 7th inning, we were cooked. Doing those two-inch pushups where you can’t even bring your knees up off the floor.
I actually loved it. I thought I was Kobe. I kept telling my dad, ‘Whatever Kobe is doing, I wanna do that. What else does he do?’
‘Kobe drinks protein shakes.’
Alright, boom, I’m coming to elementary school with the shaker bottle and my Flintstones Vitamins.
‘What else can I do?’
‘Well….. It’s healthier with just water.’
Alright, boom, I’m drinking the whey with the water. No fruit, bro. No banana. No milk. Sicko mode.” (Link in bio)
06 Nov 2026
“It’s crazy but I actually cried tears of joy when I signed my extension this summer.”
@timberwolves guard Ayo Dosunmu (@ayodos_11) goes deep on loss, family, and Minnesota. (Link in bio) • 📸: @apnews, @_jordan_johnson, @david_sherman
05 Nov 2026
“I truly believe this season was only just a glimpse of what’s to come.”
@tristandpeters knows this is only the beginning for the @whitesox. (Link in bio) • 📸: @geoffstellfox, @zoedavisphoto
04 Nov 2026
Connor McDavid (@mcdavid97): “I had one thought when I became captain of the Oilers.
Obviously, when you’re given the C at 19, there's a million things that go through your mind. You start wondering if you can grow a beard. You start thinking about your suits. But the one thing I kept thinking was....
Man, I really gotta move out of my parents’ house now.
I'm supposed to be the leader of a room with all these grown men who have two or three kids. How are they supposed to listen to me when I get back home at night and my mom is like, ‘Hey. Tough game. I washed your sheets.’
I wanted to be the captain of the Edmonton Oilers. I wanted that pressure. No doubt. But I’d be lying if I said it came naturally to me, or that the weight of it wasn’t heavy.
I remember when things weren’t going our way, and I’d look around the room and think, Geez, we sucked tonight. Somebody has to step up and say something. And a room full of guys would turn their heads, and it would kind of hit me…. Oh, they’re looking at me.
Now, almost 10 years later, I think about that kid a lot, and how every challenge, every tough night, was a chance to be better than the day before.
Back then, I was lucky we had some great veterans in the room who made life easy on me. Hendricks, Letestu, Sekera. I’m so thankful to those guys. But as I’ve gotten older, and we've had some deep playoff runs, wearing the C means something entirely different now. It’s not enough to put up points or represent the community well. All I want to do is win. It’s all we think about in our room. It’s all we talk about in the offseason. It’s why I get up every morning. It’s why I’ve stayed in Edmonton for more than a decade.” (Link in bio)
03 Nov 2026
In 2016, the Chicago @cubs won the World Series. @dexterfowler remembered it all — including the rain delay that pushed extra innings into the wee hours of the next morning: “As we came off the field and walked back through the tunnel, some guys were mad, other guys were sad, some guys were waaaaay too pumped....
Of course, as you know, after we went up the tunnel, J-Hey called a meeting. He brought us together as a team, and he was just real with it.
He saw that there were a lot of emotions swirling for us, and he said what needed to be said: We’ve come too far to let it slip away like this. We’re the better team. So let’s turn up and just go out and play like we know how....
We couldn’t get out of that clubhouse and onto the field fast enough.
The one thing I’ll always remember about when we got that final out was that it actually seemed like it was happening in slo-mo for me.
I remember seeing Martinez hit the ball, and watching KB go to throw it to Riz.
The field was wet, and I just see KB’s foot sliiiiiiide out in super slo-mo.
So then he throws it, and my eyes just follow the ball. I don’t even see Riz, I’m just watching that ball like my life depended on it.
And then I see Riz go up high — up on his tippytoe — and grab the ball.
And then … wow. Just WOW!
Did this really happen. Is it really over? Was what I just saw a dream?
Was this whole night, this entire game … a dream?
No lie, I actually had to blink twice, to make sure it was all real.
I think I was the last one in on the infield celebrating, because I needed a few seconds.
I’m getting chills all over again just thinking about it.” (Link in bio)
02 Nov 2026
The University of Wisconsin has helped shape Jonathan Taylor (@jayt23) into who he is today: “Back when I was doing visits in my senior year of high school, my parents and I were trying to make sure to find the right school that would give me the best chance to be as well-rounded a person as possible when I left. We drove up and down the East Coast looking at schools. There were lots of great programs with opportunities to get a good education, and I felt confident about all of them.
But when I made the trip to Madison, something just felt … different about that place.
I remember getting on campus, and I’m with my parents, and we saw Corey Clement (@yeroc_).
I’m whispering in my dad’s ear like, ‘Yo … that guy right there … he’s the dude.’
Corey is a South Jersey legend.
He’s from Glassboro, about 30 minutes from where I grew up in Salem. When he was a senior in high school, I was in eighth grade. Whenever Clement was playing us, or close by, I’d head over to watch the game with some friends. Corey was breaking all sorts of records and just running all over teams.
There aren’t a lot of guys from my part of South Jersey who make it to a D-I program. So to see this guy, who was almost like a real life superhero to me, and then to see how he was talking about the program and the success he was having there, it was huge for me. Like just to be able to think, I could follow the same path as Corey freakin’ Clement.
I talked to him for a while. Then we toured the facility a bit and we made it to the ‘running back room.’ A place where the backs all meet to go over tape and discuss the next opponent.
On the wall, there are the names of every Badger back who had been an All-America, and the ones who had made it to the NFL. I just looked at it in awe. Some of the names on there just blew my mind.
Montee Ball.
Melvin Gordon.
Alan Ameche.
Ron Dayne.
That’s history.
They gotta be doing something right here.” (Quote continued in comments, full story available at the link in bio)
01 Nov 2026
The @valkyries are @wnba champions! 💍
Tiffany Hayes (@tiphayes3) heard all the noise.... She didn’t listen: “I can hear the doubters already: Your team has only been around for two years! What are you talking about championship parades for? Slow your roll!
But … this isn’t just any old town. This is The Bay!
We’re not afraid to dream big in the Bay Area. It’s kinda what we do, actually.
We’re just built different out here!
Yes, I said we! Thanks for embracing a vet!” (Link in bio)
31 Oct 2026
For Matthew McConaughey (@officiallymcconaughey), there’s nothing quite like @texasfootball: “Someone asked me the other day, ‘McConaughey, what’s UT football mean to you?’
I thought of little orange dots.
It was 2013. I’m up in Iceland working on Interstellar. Remember those scenes on the ice planet? Dr. Mann? Even if you’ve never seen the movie, you’ve seen the poster. Middle of nowhere. Engulfed by glaciers and frozen fjords. It was a dark 1 o’clock in the morning, with only the dim twilight of a setting harvest moon. Vast. Astonishing. Otherworldly. Like I was actually on another planet.
There I was, making an epic movie with Christopher Nolan and Anne Hathaway and Matt Damon. Life was perfect. What else could I want?
The game. I needed to watch the game.
We were playing Ole Miss.
The whole week, the teamsters were telling me, ‘Ah, don't worry McConaughey, we got it all figured out. We'll make sure the TV in your trailer has the game on.’
I said, ‘In the middle of nowhere in Iceland?’
‘We got it sorted, McConaughey,’ they said.
This particular workday was a ‘night shoot,’ meaning the set up for the big shot after lunch would give me plenty of time to tune into my 1 a.m. Longhorn kickoff. Perfect.
…Except nobody could figure out how to get the game on. As I suspected, reception ain’t so good on the surface of Mars. Shit. What am I gonna do?
There was this one spot though, this one spot a few hundred yards away from basecamp in the middle of the frozen tundra, where folks said they’d hike out to just to coax a single bar onto their phone.
Still in my spacesuit, I grabbed a wobbly three-and-a-half-legged plastic chair and marched to the one bar pop-up spot. I held my phone to the sky, got that beautiful bar, and tapped into the ESPN drive chart. For the next three-and-a-half hours, I sat in that three-and-a-half-legged chair under the black heavens and watched little orange and blue dots ping across my screen.” (Quote continued in comments, full story available at the link in bio)
31 Oct 2026
Last year, @yaxellendeborg wrote about what his mom means to him: “I’d known for a while that she hadn’t been feeling well. Each time we’d talk, she’d mention feeling run down, or how she had a cold. At first, I thought nothing of it. But then she’d be going to the hospital to get checked out. Every time I’d ask about it, she’d tell me not to worry, or just change the subject.
Then one night my phone rings. I see that it’s Mom. I answer … and it’s one of those things where, immediately, I knew something was up. From her very first words, I knew it was something bad.
She kept telling me she loves me. Over and over. And that she cares about me more than anything. And is proud of me. That she never wants me to let anyone dim my light. I can still hear her saying all that stuff in my head. I swear she told me she loved me four or five times in that first 30 seconds alone.
I was terrified about what was coming. At one point, I couldn’t take it anymore, and I was basically like, ‘Mom! Mom? Stop! What happened? What’s going on?’
I was so scared. Trying to predict what she was about to tell me. But even as scared as I was, I didn’t expect to hear the word ‘cancer.’
My heart sank as soon as she said it.
And, I hate to admit it, but, if I’m being real, what I thought was … It’s all over.
She said she had kept it from me, and didn’t want to say anything, because she knew how important this season was for me, and she didn’t want to mess it up. Didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize my future. It was so sad, man. But it says so much. She finds out she has cancer, and … she’s thinking about me.
I broke down crying immediately.
These days, my mom isn’t able to make it out to our games as often as she used to. It’s been a long, hard process. As I’m sitting here writing this, she’s finished up her ninth session of chemo. Three more to go.
She’s the strongest person I’ve ever known. So I know she’s going to be OK.” (Quote continued in comments, full story available at the link in bio)
30 Oct 2026
From growing up as a @philadelphiaflyers fan to wearing the Orange & Black, Porter Martone (@portermartone94) feels like he belongs in Philly: “In my bedroom back home in Peterborough, I’ve got these sticks up on my wall. They have little pegs attached to them. Every time I won a medal at a junior hockey tournament I’d hang them from there, and I’d fall asleep looking at them. Since I was four, all I’ve ever wanted was to keep filling up those pegs. When one of my teams would win something I’d think, Yeah, that’ll look just right on my wall.
I get that same kind of energy from everybody in Philly. I felt it as soon as I got here. You guys are the kind of people who hang stuff up on your walls, right? The game room or the basement or wherever. Trophies everywhere. Newspapers framed everywhere. This is just a city of winners. I love it. People who hate to lose, who feel sick to their stomach when they lose. Those are my people. I felt all of that when I joined the team last spring before the playoffs started.
It was crazy because like 12 hours after my season ended with Michigan State, everything happened. All of a sudden I’m talking to my agent. Then I’m signing my contract. Then I’m on a flight. Then I’m pulling on a Flyers jersey and I’m catching myself staring at Ovi during warmups. Then I’m flipping a puck over the glass, in like my third shift ever. Then I’m sitting in the penalty box.
What just happened….?
It felt like yesterday I was watching Hockey Night in Canada with my dad in our living room. My dad is my hero. He was drafted in ’96 by the Sabres but never quite made it to the NHL. He was a great player. But I mostly remember him as the architect of our beautiful rink out on the pond behind our house. That was the place. The place. Man, I think, if I have an ODR and a puck, I can be happy for a long, long time. Our pond was like a gathering spot for everyone in the neighbourhood. Boxing Day was a special time on our street. A bunch of families would come over to our place.” (Quote continued in comments, full story available at the link in bio)
28 Oct 2026
Follower tracking
We have started recording @playerstribune, but only 1 observation so far — not enough to show a trend yet. Track it weekly →
Download @playerstribune's data
Everything below is derived from this account, priced on the counts shown. Delivered as CSV by emailed link.
You only pay for rows we deliver. Counts are the maximum available today; if an export comes back smaller, the difference is refunded automatically. Counts as last collected 5 hours, 41 minutes ago.
Tracking
What we have recorded about @playerstribune over time, and ongoing alerts.
Other reports
Not downloads of this account: they take their own inputs.
Similar accounts
Accounts we track that share hashtags, mentions or bio topics with @playerstribune.
@e40
2.6M followers
Also mentions @yaxellendeborg
@mikesoroka_
77.6K followers
Also mentions @whitesox
@thehalocline
163.0K followers
Also mentions @cubs
@nba
87.9M followers
Also mentions @timberwolves
@nike
290.8M followers
Also mentions @alexiaputellas
@andrewbenintendi16
216.0K followers
Also mentions @whitesox
@kohl
9,589 followers
Also mentions @cubs
@currybrand
117.0K followers
Also mentions @valkyries