New FSM Feature: PlayersTV – By Athletes For The Fans
FSM Founder TQ digs into the new PlayersTV channel and its plans for athlete-created content.
I don’t know how many people have made the jump from recording artist to sports media. I’d venture to say that it hasn’t been many. After years and years of making music as my primary activity, the last four years of my life have been devoted to my second love: sports.
If I’m being totally honest, my childhood dreams weren’t based around the stage or the studio. I sang in church, and I was pretty good at it. I stayed in trouble, and I was always grounded, so I was able to spend a lot of time writing. This was kind of the defacto fallback for me. My dream was to be a USC Trojan and Los Angeles Raider defensive back. Man, I loved the game of football above all else. Nothing got me going like watching Marcus Allen and Ronnie Lott on Sundays and on Saturdays before that. The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was the greatest place on earth for me growing up.
Attending the football powerhouse that is Junipero Serra High School in Gardena, CA, showed me some valuable things. Above all, it showed me pretty quickly that my dream was never gonna happen… at least not that dream. I knew I’d never lose my love of sports. All the Raiders, Dodgers, Lakers, and USC games I attended with my dad would leave a lasting effect on me, even though I would never touch those fields… or so I thought. Life never turns out the way you think it will.
Enter God’s plan.
I met a woman named Dr. Theresa Price, who explained music publishing to me. I never looked back. Twenty years later and I’ve written for some of the biggest artists in the world and even had some success with my own records. That journey took me around this planet and showed me the power of my God-given gift. It also showed me the power of public consumption of that gift, which can also be a curse.
As a successful artist, I saw that the media always controlled the narrative. That bothered me. Most of my success was in Europe; at the time, it was a tabloid-driven entertainment industry. People could literally write whatever they wanted about you, and you just had to deal with it. I was new to this shit and immediately started building my relationships with the blocks. I befriended the DJs, the independent media outlets, and street teams that could quickly refute any bullshit mainstream media was putting out for views. Mind you, there was no social media, and the internet was nowhere close to what it is today.
Looking back at it, the media viewed us artists as less than human. Nobody cared if I was having a bad day. Nobody cared when my Mama Ethel died. I had a show; had I not performed, I could kiss it all goodbye. Nobody cared when my kid was struggling, and I had to get off the road in the middle of a tour and be a father. I thought, “Hey, I’m living my dream. Nobody has to care, really. Just figure it out,” which I did. However successful or unsuccessful, my conclusion is my kid is 21 and living his best life.
Fast forward.
I’m the president of Las Vegas’ #1 independent sports network, Franchise Sports Media. Being on this side of the aisle has taken my mind back to those early days as an artist. Our job as journalists is to bring the sports news to the fastest-growing sports city in the world and do it from the fans’ perspective. But the press box stinks sometimes.
I remember the mundane clickbait redundant questions I used to get while doing interviews for hours. Players bust their asses for wins, and when it doesn’t work out, they have to prepare for our bullshit almost immediately. I know it’s my job, but sometimes I feel like a hypocrite. These are real men and women, mostly of color. They have families. They have the same everyday life issues as all of us. Most times, there’s a complete disregard for their personal feelings.
We create the narrative. Social Media, which wasn’t around when I was in front of the camera, amplifies that narrative to the 10th power. That amplification drowns out the truth even when the athlete refutes that narrative from his or her mouth. Then we get upset when this affects their mental health, and their performance drops. They don’t want to talk to us. When they do, it’s with reluctance, and that makes it difficult for us, as the media, to do our jobs effectively.
I’ve been having a tug of war with this subject since we started this company. It’s one of the reasons we dug so deep into high school sports. There, we have a platform that allows young players the opportunity to ready themselves for what’s next…
If I had it my way, what’s next would be PlayersTV.
Trish, Janericka, and I had the opportunity to attend an event with a company whose purpose is for athletes to control their own narrative. PlayersTV was created by players for fans. It’s an outlet for professional athletes to show who they are and what they’re into. Ball is one part. But what about all the other things that make them human? They now have a platform to show those other sides. Russell Wilson, Chris Paul, Kyrie Irving, Carmelo Anthony, Deondre Jordan, and Vernon Davis are just some of the names who have partnered with this platform to bring their own curated content based on the things outside of sports they are most interested in.
PlayersTV was founded by Collin Castellaw and Deron Guidrey, who previously worked together at Pregame Media, a digital agency that helped athletes and sports influencers monetize and scale their brands. “Through PlayersTV, we’ve created a distribution ecosystem that brings fans and athletes together in one place, making it easier for fans to access the content they desire and easier for athletes to reach their fans and also better monetize their content. I’m excited to have world-class athletes join us as shareholders, investors, and partners on this journey,” says Guidry.
This is not a production company. This is a channel. Fans can now watch off-the-field content created by and starring the athletes they love. “Back Court” with Dwayne Wade, “License to Lillard” by Dame Lillard, “Remaking America” with CJ McCollum, and “Cooking Clean” with Deondre Jordan are just a few of the outstanding shows on this platform, and they just announced a new partnership with Amazon for the network as a part of Prime Video.
Attending this event eased an uncomfortable space that my job as a sports media member has created. I understand the pressure these athletes face daily, and I’ve never wanted to add to it. I also realize that I owe it to our viewers to bring them the sports news. It’s a fine line, but PlayersTV will make this line easier to navigate.
I encourage all Franchise Sports Media users and TQ fans to read about PlayersTV by clicking the PLAYERSTV button in our main menu under the MEDIA tab and tuning in to their great programming on Vizio, LG, Hisense, Roku, and Samsung TVs out of the box. The platform is also available for streaming on YouTube TV, Local Now, Rakuten TV, Philo, and in August, Amazon Prime Video.
Franchise Sports Media would like to thank PlayersTV for inviting us to the event during NBACON 2023. We enjoyed the panel, learned a lot, and will continue to support the platform in any way we can.
-TQ – Franchise Sports Media
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PHOTO GALLERY
Photography by TQ and Trisha LaCoste for Franchise Sports Media
