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Being a high-profile professional athlete means living under constant scrutiny, with a billion-dollar industry built around analyzing your every move. From tabloids to talk shows to tweets, sports content is almost impossible to escape.
Have a bad game? Certain media members are licking their lips. A playoff dud? You’ll be dodging bar TVs playing ESPN for a week. But what happens when you give athletes the tools to level the playing field? What happens when they get to respond?
That’s the question Brandon Harris wants to answer with Playmaker.
Rewriting the playbook
Founded in 2018, Playmaker has grown into a globally recognized sports media enterprise, featuring video podcasts — or, as Harris calls them, shows — with top-tier athletes like Angel Reese and Shaquille O’Neal. Harris founded Playmaker after growing disillusioned with his role in sports marketing.
“I was on the buying side, and I always saw people on the other side having way more fun,” he says. “I was tired of just getting people to buy merch. I wanted to build things that fans could enjoy.”
For Harris, that meant creating distribution channels focused on sports storytelling directly from the athletes.
Once Harris defined his content strategy, his next priority was setting Playmaker apart from the competition. He did this by emphasizing video, unlike major players in the space who focused on audio.
“Our pitch was simple,” Harris says. “We understand the landscape, know how to engage on social, build communities, and create engaging video.”
Since launching Playmaker, Harris and his team have produced tens — if not hundreds — of thousands of pieces of “graphic content,” including three- to six-minute breakout videos. He makes an effort to consume as much feedback as possible, estimating he’s read millions of comments.
“I used to call myself the common man barometer,” Harris says. “I’ve read enough and posted enough that I think I understand most sports fans.”
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One reason an athlete might hesitate is the risk of becoming a viral meme after a bad game or seeing major sports outlets report stats like, “Player X has recorded more podcast episodes this season than games played” while recovering from an injury. Whether it’s jealousy, insecurity, or loyalty to a rival team, some sports fans – and even traditional media – tend to react negatively to athlete-hosted shows, often for reasons that have little to do with the actual content.
“I think it’s ridiculous,” Harris says. “It feels like a ‘shut up and dribble’ mindset. People applaud athletes for building businesses, and that’s exactly what this is. They’re spending an hour or two a week on it—if that’s taking away from their practice, then there are bigger issues at play.”
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