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On page 45 of I’ve Got a Story to Tell, the new book from Derek Jeter’s The Players’ Tribune and Assouline, there’s a short story penned by Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese soccer star. For all of the adulation around Ronaldo—he’s the most-followed person on Instagram, with an audience of 638 million—his words are notably human.
Titled “My First Fans,” it recalls his humble beginnings: “I was only playing in the streets of Madeira with my friends. We didn’t have goals or anything, and had to stop the game whenever the cars would drive by.” As he began to play professionally, initially only his father cared about his soccer. His mother and sisters showed little interest, barely acknowledging when he scored.
But: “Then one day—I will never forget this image—I was warming up and looked over and I saw my mom and sisters sitting together on the bleachers. They looked…how do I say this? They looked cozy. They were kind of huddled close together, and they were not clapping or yelling, they were just waving to me, like I was in a parade or something. They definitely looked like they had never been to a football match before. But they were there. That’s all I cared about.”
It’s one of dozens and dozens of stories in the book, reflecting the reach of The Players’ Tribune, a sports content platform Jeter launched 10 years ago for “direct-to-athlete” narratives, where athletes can, he notes, “share their own stories in their own way, on their own time.”
“What I’ve always understood is that athletes are not two-dimensional,” Jeter tells me on a Zoom call from Miami. “They had and have other interests and other beliefs and things they want to share and talk about, but they just weren’t asked those questions. It’s not just what you did on the field, what you did on the court—fans want to know who you are as a human being. I think we recognized that a long time ago.”
I’ve Got a Story to Tell is a celebration of his sentiment, and the point and purpose of The Players’ Tribune. Additional names and accounts include basketball legend Stephen Curry on the power of a supportive mom; football legend Tom Brady discussing how strange it was for a Californian boy to adjust to life in New England; tennis star Iga Świątek dreaming of making more friends (however fearsome on the court, she’s a famous introvert); famed NCAA basketball coach Dawn Staley on the sport’s lack of Black coaches; and skier Mikaela Shiffrin on the death of her father.
For Jeter, one especially resonant story is Kevin Love’s, which The Players’ Tribune first published in 2014. The basketball player, currently on the Miami Heat, “was probably one of the first athletes to be vocal about mental health. [His story] actually crashed our site, because so many people had comments and questions,” Jeter says. “I think there was this belief that athletes were larger than life, but didn’t have to deal with mental health. I think it was taboo at the time and I give Kevin a lot of credit for being vocal about it.” Love’s contribution, called “Everyone Is Going Through Something,” was so popular that The Players’ Tribune created a separate inbox for readers’ responses.
There are windows of insight into Jeter’s professional life, too, such as an early photo in which he’s packing up his stuff at Yankee Stadium. (The New York Yankees are the only franchise for which he played.) “That is the only time in my career that I’ve emptied out a locker,” he says.
Jeter also includes one of his own stories–a short and sweet homage to the pitcher Mariano Rivera. “I’ve just always been interested in what’s behind the scenes,” Jeter notes. “When I meet someone who’s had success in any walk of life, one of the things I always like to ask them is how they overcame their biggest struggle. Some people think they woke up with that success, and they don’t understand that it’s a long process, and that you go through a lot of bumps in the road along the way. It’s about how people got to the places they are today.”
Pre-sale for I’ve Got a Story to Tell starts September 12 at assouline.com.
