We've raised $28MM in our latest funding round. Learn more about our rise and how it will help us continue to create safer environments in youth sport.
INTRODUCTION
Player’s Health’s mission is to help youth athletes set and reach their goals by making sports a better, safer, and more secure place. We achieve our mission by offering sports organizations the best risk management solutions, comprehensive insurance coverage, policy options, faster claims experiences, and a variety of products and services to address their specific needs.
To do this, we recognize you must trust us with your personal information. Maintaining your trust is one
of Player’s Health’s top priorities, and as a result, we abide by the following principles to protect your privacy:
This Privacy Policy applies to all the data, including previously-collected data, from visitors of playershealth.com as well as to users (“Users”) of the online services, mobile services, software, and other services that we provide or otherwise make available on playershealth.com (collectively, “the Service”).
By using the Service, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy and our Terms of use. Revisions to the Privacy Policy
The amount of information we collect depends on which features of the Service you use. Player’s Health needs personal information about your organization, your athletes, coaches and any stakeholder as applicable to provide the Service, and your providing the information to us constitutes your consent to our processing of this information. Additionally, because we provide a wide range of Risk Management and benefits management features, we may collect information about you from your sports organization, rather than directly from you. By submitting information to us, you represent and warrant that you have permission and the authority to do so and that any permission has been granted in accordance with applicable law.
More specifically, we may collect the following categories of personal information about you:
Player’s Health uses the information it collects about you as set forth below:
You may contact us by mail at:
Privacy Policy Issues
Player’s Health Privacy Officer
718 Washington Ave Suite 401
Minneapolis, Mn 55401
You may also reach us by email here or by submitting a support ticket.
There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think about sports and how it has shaped my life. Without sports, I’m not sure where I would be, but I can guess I would have either ended up in the military, jail, or prison. Growing up in the south side of Chicago, sports were a safe space for me. A place where I found acceptance, confidence, success, and so much more. Safety means a lot to me because it was a luxury for me growing up. I know what it feels like to feel afraid everyday of your life for years wondering what or who would hurt you. It is because of this that I have committed my life to a mission. A mission that guides me every day to take action and be accountable to the world. My mission is simple, but not easy. As a man, father, husband, Christian, and leader, I co-create a world of LOVE, ACCEPTANCE, and SAFETY for all through fearless and courageous leadership.
In this chapter of my life, I am focusing my mission on sports.
The impact that sports has on us as a people is unexplainable. For some, it’s a religion. For others, the thought of their favorite sports has the emotional weight to bring them to tears of joy or sorrow. This always leads me to think about both the gold and the shadow of sports. Let me explain. Everything has a gold side and a shadow side, or in other words, a positive and a negative. The gold of sports is all the fun experiences and gifts that they provide us. The shadow of sports is the opposite. The times where we learn our teams or organizations have failed us. The part of sports that we want to hide and repress.
In recent years, the shadow side of sports has been brought into the light, with more and more cases of abuse and misconduct happening all over the world. Unfortunately, we have a number of incidents to point to as examples. Two of the more recent incidents have come out of the National Women’s Soccer League and the Chicago Blackhawks organization. These cases are examples that are all too familiar. Both of these organizations are under scrutiny from athletes for turning a blind eye to physical, sexual, emotional, and verbal abuse. This is the shadow of sports. I am sick and tired of seeing these articles week in and week out. It has to stop, but the only way to do that is to hold everybody accountable for protecting each other.
I hope we get to a point one day where there is never a second thought to report an incident of sexual abuse, assault, or harassment of anyone, at any age. Another hope is that the protocols for reporting and the processes for investigating a report are carried out regardless of who the respondent is. My hope is that the awareness work that has been done in this space is allowing the claimants in recent stories like the one from the NWSL and the NHL to bravely come forward and retell their stories. I’m optimistic that the work we have all done is simultaneously helping to curb these inappropriate behaviors from occurring. But, I also believe we have a societal issue around protecting adults and prioritizing winning at all costs.
The hardest thing for me to wrap my head around is how someone can hear of Kyle Beach’s story and go to sleep at night believing the Chicago Blackhawks organization was justified in not investigating his assault because they were too busy with the Stanley Cup playoff race. They had a good team and the decision was to choose winning, and no, I am not naive. I realize that there is a lot of money at stake in these NHL organizations and many livelihoods at stake based on the success of a season. But prioritizing a Stanley Cup over an athlete being sexually assaulted? That is the shadow of sports.
I undoubtedly know that Kyle Beach’s life was forever changed based on not only the abuse itself, but the dismissal he faced after bravely choosing to report it. There are bad people in this world and they will do bad things. I am unsure if we can change that. I am sure, however, that we can change the culture around disclosing abuse incidents and take all reports of misconduct seriously to ensure they are managed properly. There is a difference between those two things, in theory, but in the cases of NWSL and the NHL, it appears that the management of the reports, and the reports themselves, were both mishandled and not treated as seriously as they were.”
Players Health’s mission goes hand-in-hand with my own. We are creating the safest environment possible for an athlete to play the sports they love. This drives everything we do and represents the true gold of sports. It’s clear that a change is needed, so we are stepping up to be a part of the solution. I will never say Players Health is the end-all be-all, but we are able to bring a level of expertise and clarity that is missing within the management of the organizations that are struggling with these issues today.
It is Martin Luther King that said, ”the time is always right to do what is right”.
So what does change look like? It looks like clear policies, protocols, roles, and responsibilities for how an organization deals with incidents when they happen. Organizations need to have open communication and pathways to report incidents, so victims feel empowered to come forward without any fear of retaliation. It’s crucial to use a third party to investigate the incidents that are reported and a clear disciplinary matrix for code of conduct issues. A culture that sees their athletes and employees as people, instead of a means to generate review or a cog in a wheel, is far more valuable than we often think. All of this change may sound like a lot. But, it gives us the important chance to safely and comfortably enjoy sports for all the reasons we truly love them: the gold.
We love sports and the gold they bring us, and I know change is hard. But if we don’t change now, the shadows will take over and cause irreversible trauma to those who are left unprotected. That’s why I pray for humility, transparency, boldness, and courage for all of the leaders that have a hand in making an impact on how their organization combats these issues. It is no small feat to stand up to abuse in sports, which is why Players Health has committed its total existence to create the safest environment possible for an athlete to play the sports they love. We are here when you need us.
Blessings,
Tyrre