Tom Brady, Michael Strahan, and media entrepreneur Gotham Chopra are teaming up to create what they hope will be a disruptive sports startup company.
The platform is called Religion Of Sports and it aims to tell intimate, behind the scenes stories about athletes’ rise to greatness. They haven’t quite disclosed what kind of platform the startup will be on, but the sports media space is already pretty crowded.
Tech Crunch explains, “Called The Religion of Sports, the new startup, which is seeking around $3 million in outside capital, is neither The Players’ Tribune, Derek Jeter’s media platform for athletes to tell their own stories, nor TraceMe, Russell Wilson’s access-focused app for athletes and celebrities.”
Michael Strahan says he hopes the content will be “different and inspiring.”
The three already have a bit of an advantage in the area. In 2016, Chopra produced a docuseries called “Religion Of Sports” with the help of Strahan and Brady. The series explores the historical underpinnings of and deeper meaning behind athletics, and seeks to explain why people get so hooked on them today.
And as the show gained popularity, the three realized they could turn the show into a bigger concept that told stories on a more modern medium. In a way, the company could seek to outdo conventional sports channels like ESPN.
“I think a lot of people feel that traditional networks and other media outlets are a dying breed and they are going down because you have all of these new mediums out today,” Michael Strahan told Tech Crunch. “Networks, brands and other franchises have already diversified themselves to adapt to the way information is given out now today. I think these companies are smart and run by smart individuals who understand that things are changing but there are certain aspects that possibly won’t change and they are going to hold on to those as well.”
And as ESPN grows increasingly political and its popularity continues to slip, more startups will seek to fill the void. People aren’t tired of sports, they might just be ready to get them from a different medium.
Follow Jena on Twitter.