Under The Helmet: Kerby Joseph
The 7th Annual Awards
- Best Athlete Storytelling
- Best Documentary: Long-Form
ABOUT THIS ENTRY
Detroit Lions safety Kerby Joseph returns home to Orlando, Florida to spend time with family and reflect on his football journey. In this edition of Under the Helmet, we get a behind-the-scenes look into Kerby's life through his own eyes as well as those of his family, mentors and high school coach.
How does this represent "Excellence in Engagement"?
The performance of Under The Helmet: Kerby Joseph completely re-set our goals and baseline for this series. With a captive audience and momentum from Under The Helmet: Kerby Joseph, three week later we released another episode in the series, Under The Helmet: Alex Anzalone. Under The Helmet: Alex Anzalone went on to outperform Under The Helmet: Kerby Joseph with a 110% increase in views and reaching over 2.1 million impressions year to date.
This has proven there is a strong appetite from our audience for more content like this and demonstrates their desire to connect with our players on a personal level. They want to get to know them as more than just a football player or number on a jersey. This feature has inspired us to continue to produce episodes for this series as well as develop other types of storytelling content.
Objective
The objective and purpose of our Under The Helmet series has always been to tell the human interest stories of our players and give our fans a glimpse of who they are off the football field.
Our priority is for the athlete to tell their own story through their own words; for this series to be successful, it needs to be authentic.
Strategy & Execution
Most players are only seen on gameday with a numbered uniform and helmet, so we strive to connect our players to our fanbase through their own words by providing real, personal, behind-the-scenes moments.
The first phase involved communicating with the player to identify the story that they want to tell. Afterward, we conducted an in-depth interview in our studio. We then traveled to their hometown and captured content within their life/environment for a day to capture authentic behind-the-scenes moments. Lastly, we then move into the post-production phase and bring the story to life.
Organizations
- Detroit Lions
Links
Featured
- Kerby Joseph
Credits
Ryan McPhail
Senior Producer
Detroit Lions
Erin Gibson
Producer
Detroit Lions
Maxwell Hahn
Senior Producer
Detroit Lions
Celebrate in NYC
Join us for the 7th Annual Hashtag Sports Awards™ on the evening of June 24, 2025 as we celebrate finalists and reveal the winners of this year's awards live during the show.
