Come #TakeASeat with The Armchair All-Americans

Almost each and every road trip across this great country has provided the setting for one near insurmountable struggle. Without fail, a passenger in the vehicle will ask to stop the entire momentum of the excursion in the name of bladder relief - a decision harmoniously opposed by everyone dreaming to reach their destination in a mildly timely manner.

Typically, after what feels like hours of incessant bickering and countless threats to stain the floor mats, the driver reluctantly pulls to the nearest rest stop. Then, some iteration of the phrase “If you aren’t back in 90 seconds, we’re leaving you,” is proclaimed by multiple other passengers.

That person then sprints to the nearest socially acceptable location to rid themselves of the rapidly increasing liquid slowly shutting down their kidneys. And for a few fleeting moments, experiences nothing but unmitigated physical and emotional bliss devoid of the qualms the open road has presented.

With relative certainty, I think I can pinpoint your current thought process: actively attempting to identify the specific incorrect decisions you have made in your life to bring yourself to this moment - at least two paragraphs into a poorly thought out urination analogy that does not appear to be over.

Here at Armchair, we are the online, intellectual embodiment of your friend experienced near-blinding vesicular relief - constantly annoying those in close proximity to us while needing to release something seemingly necessary to our survival.

Over the course of the last two years, our staff has been working tirelessly to produce what we feel is one of the most complete sports media publications on the web. If you look around and do not like what you see, then by all means, leave us at the rest stop. But if you have the chance to give us more than 90 seconds, we would love to explain a little bit about ourselves and how we got to this point as a company.

Armchair was born in the spring of 2015 at a few select schools throughout the SEC and has since expanded to over 200 locations across the country. Our unique three-pronged approach to the sports media industry attempts to shift the scope of coverage by localizing the collegiate sports climate on every campus and in every city. We have broadened our model to encapsulate professional sports coverage; ensuring news from host cities of MLB, NBA, NFL, and NHL teams is pinpointed towards to the local reader.

1. Content Creators: National publications have taken two approaches towards content creation. The first is by primarily covering only the most polarizing stories happening on campus, which makes sense because most of their writers are located in large cities, separated from the universities entirely. The second is through allowing contributors to write about any sport/team from any location across the world. This means you could write about Alabama football from Melbourne, Australia, without ever actually having set foot in Tuscaloosa. By only recruiting content creators located on campus and within the city that the team they are covering is located, we guarantee the most accurate, up to date information is being processed.
2. Audience: The ‘College Sports’ label has recently become synonymous with scantily clad teenagers on Spring Break and fraternity kids jumping off of roofs, doing irreparable damage to their ACLs and reputations. Each University and each city’s sports climate have something innately unique to offer year-round. At Armchair, we want to showcase that through content that would not abhor your mother.
3. Athletes: With a writer base comprised of several current and former collegiate and professional athletes, one thing has become apparent: there is an obvious generational gap between those detailing sports for a living and those competing in sports for a living. We find it odd that the primary documenters of the collegiate sports experience are middle aged/elderly men attempting to assimilate into a culture from which they are far removed and out of touch. We look to build connections in order to cater peer-to-peer content with collegiate and professional athletes. We understand that they are much more than a means to accrue clicks or drive advertising revenue - they are real people with interesting stories to tell. At Armchair, we seek to tell those stories by developing a deeper understanding about the nuanced struggles of the modern collegiate student athlete.

Content becomes more unique and open when we can convey that we are trying to learn and understand what these people are going through on a personal level. Armchair is not here to have anyone slip up so we can generate a story or fish for something at the cost of a reputation.

And the two words here that are like saying Voldemort at Hogwarts: CLICK. BAIT. A plethora of national networks rake in millions of dollars annually by cultivating massive headlines for stories that do not require one. In turn, they are bankrupting the sports media community of consistent, substantive content.

That’s why we’re here - to be different. Different is what it takes to begin to shift the scope of an oversaturated and seemingly outdated industry. Like Joe Maddon against a pull-heavy lefty, we want you, our audience, to help us put that shift into motion. Through proper branding, social media promotion, and unique, quality, & consistent content, you can help be a part of creating a giant in the sports media world.

Thank you for reading and we would love for you to #TakeASeat with us.

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