In September 2025 Wellbeing finalised a small set of agreements with athletes who had been part of the programme over a number of years and who had agreed to be quoted, named, and shown publicly. The pool now consists of five people: Jimmy Graham, Cliff Avril, Jameis Winston, Garratt McNamara, and Doug Baldwin. Each of the five is named with their permission. Each has approved verbatim use of specific statements about their own experience with the programme. Wellbeing does not paraphrase.
The decision to formalise the pool, and to keep it at five rather than letting it grow into something more like an endorsement roster, is a deliberate one. Wellbeing’s patient relationships are private by default. The named-athlete pool exists for one reason: to give people considering the programme a real, accountable, identifiable set of voices to listen to rather than anonymised testimony. Five is what Wellbeing considers a credible number for that purpose. More would risk turning the pool into something it is not.
Each of the five came to the programme as a patient and stayed through years of observed experience before agreeing to be publicly associated with the work. He has remained the most publicly visible of the five since. Cliff Avril, the Super Bowl XLVIII champion defensive end whose career was ended by a neck injury in 2017, came to the programme in active recovery and joined the public pool over the following years on his own timeline.
Jameis Winston, the Heisman Trophy winning quarterback whose career has spanned the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the New Orleans Saints and onward, came to the programme during a complex period in his career and remained part of it through the years since. His decision to be named publicly came on his own timeline. Garratt McNamara, the big-wave surfer who holds the world record for the largest wave ever surfed, came to the programme through a different route than the football players in the pool. His work demands a body that recovers between high-impact events of a different kind, and his patient profile reflects that. He has been named in Wellbeing’s communication since the mid-2020s.
Doug Baldwin, the two-time Pro Bowl wide receiver whose entire career was spent with the Seattle Seahawks, was the most recent addition to the public pool. Baldwin was profiled in Wellbeing’s Newsletter Issue 2 in January 2019 and has been intermittently visible in our communication since. His agreement to be part of the formal named pool came in 2025.
Each of the five has agreed to verbatim use of specific statements. Those statements are drawn from material the athletes have prepared themselves, recorded themselves, or specifically approved. Wellbeing does not paraphrase. Quotes used in pitch materials, on the website, or in press conversations come directly from the approved bank.
Beyond the named five, Wellbeing has worked with many other elite athletes across the years. Most of those relationships remain private at the athletes’ preference. Wellbeing’s standing position is that public communication is the patient’s choice and the patient’s timing. Athletes who choose to remain private remain private indefinitely. Athletes who choose to be named are named carefully, on agreed terms, and with verbatim use only.
The decision to formalise the public pool in September 2025 was not driven by external considerations. It was driven by Wellbeing’s own internal decision to be clearer with prospective patients and partners about who has actually agreed to speak publicly about the work. Before September 2025 Wellbeing had referenced individual named athletes in various pieces of communication. After September 2025 the public pool is explicit, stable, and small. That clarity is what Wellbeing considers fair to the athletes who are named, to the athletes who choose to remain private, and to the people considering the programme who want to know who has actually spoken on the record.