I had the opportunity on Friday to interview former Carolina Panthers WR Armanti Edwards to talk about his life, college and pro career, and a business venture called Fancom.fans which seeks to revolutionize the way fans interact with their teams and favorite former athletes. The site will launch on September 30th, and Armanti is going to be the first team representative for the Carolina Panthers.

Interview with Armanti Edwards

Armanti on Fancom.fans ...

Tell me about fancom.fans, what it is, and what the mission is.

Fancom.fans is an online football community where we ask former players to lead the debates and discussions with regular fans. The key points are that there won’t be any profanity, bullying, stuff like that being posted. Conversation will be fairly clean, I don’t know too much about how it will be organized, but the fans won’t have to seek out the individual players, they can just find their team and hop in the conversation that way.

Each NFL team will have 3 reps correct?

Yes, the goal is 3 reps per team, for 96 total.

And you’ll be a rep for the Panthers? Who are the other reps for Carolina?

Yes, I’m a rep for the Panthers, and currently I am the only one.

I assume others will sign up and you won’t be alone very long once the site launches. Will the interactions be more like what we are used to on Twitter? Or more like a message board?

The interactions will not have a character limit. You’ll have as much space as you want for whatever you’d like to say.

What are the benefits or incentives for the athletes to get involved?

Athletes will get a 50% share of ownership in the company, so whatever profits the website brings in, the athletes will make some money off of it.

Are there any plans in the future to expand Fancom.fans to other sports?

There is no plan to expand to other sports right now. The main goal is to stick with the NFL and hope it kicks off the way we want it to. I’m sure the main guys who created it will have other plans in the future.

It sounds like an interesting idea to me, and if it can really keep sports discussions productive I think a lot of fans and athletes will be interested in using it. It said on the site there will be incentive to provide productive discussion, and it will rank people based on the communication fans have with the athletes. Any insight on that?

I don’t have much insight on it, but the platform has been used for awhile in Canada, and it is a proven system that has done well. The same people who created that platform are running this one. Those guys have a pretty good way of keeping the profanity and bullying down.

That will be nice to see when it comes around. I’m looking forward to signing up and seeing what it is like when it launches on September 30th. Let’s switch gears a bit and talk about your career in football...

Armanti on his career at Appalchian State...

Everyone always talks to you about the victory at the Big House (Appalachian State’s 2007 34-32 win at Michigan), and its hard to believe it has been 10 years, but I have always wondered… is that really the most hostile environment you’ve played football in? What about the 2009 semi-final game in Montana during a blizzard?”

Definitely. That was the coldest game that I’ve played in. That game ended up at zero degrees, I’d never played in a game that cold. The way that stadium was built, everything was compacted in, and the game was so close throughout and the stands looked sold out… you literally couldn’t speak to the guy next to you. It was getting rough.

Two weeks ago when they did the anniversary for the Michigan game, ESPN interviewed a bunch of guys from that game, and they were interviewing Coco Hillary, and he said “I wasn’t supposed to be on the field when I caught that pass that setup that field goal!” but it sure did work out didn’t it?

Man, I’m sure glad he was on the field!

Obviously you had the two FCS national titles, two Walter Payton awards, the Southern Conference titles, all the records you set… but what was your proudest moment in college?

Well definitely when you’re speaking about football it has to be the national titles. I never had been a part of a team in high school, or before high school, that finished on top out right and won a championship. I had the great pleasure of being on two of those teams (at ASU). But one of my proudest moments is just having some guys that I still have great contact with that I consider my brothers and I think that will go on forever.

Do you think about, or have you had any discussion about returning to App to coach someday?

No, I do not see coaching in my near or far future. It’s just not an avenue I want to go down. At my age, I just don’t see coaching as something I want to be doing.

Armanti on his career with the Panthers...

Having gone to high school in South Carolina, college at App State, and played most of your NFL career for the Carolina Panthers, are you still a fan of the Panthers?

It’s kind of hard to be fans of any team once you’ve actually played in the NFL. I don’t know how quite to explain it, but once you’ve played, and have made relationships with a few guys, and now, you know, it’s a business. Before you’re in the NFL, you don’t realize how much of a business it is. As fans you’re trying to follow a favorite team or a group of guys you enjoy watching, but once you’re in it and you actually have relationships with a lot of the guys it just goes more into trying to follow them… whatever team they are on.

Who are some of those guys for you, that you enjoy watching play?

There’s a lot of guys I like watching. I like watching Tom Brady. A lot of guys on the Panthers still, Thomas Davis, Luke Kuechly, Cam… it’s a long list. I just like watching great football.

As a guy who was maybe not as big as Cam Newton, but did a lot of the things Cam Newton did, making plays with your legs and arm back in college, what do you think of him? I know you guys played together for a short time, what do you think of the way he plays?

Man, his numbers speak for themselves. Obviously our record didn’t, you know in the NFL you have 2 or 3 missed assignments in a game, and that can swirl a game and you can come out on the losing end. But you know, he broke the rookie passing record, and every year he seems to get better. And of course him being that big, and to run the way he does, that’s a special talent.

Back in 2010, Marty Hurney drafted you into the Carolina Panthers, what was your conversation with him like before he drafted you? Did he call you before that happened?

I did talk to him on draft day. It wasn’t anything noted or special. I would say he just notified me a few picks ahead that they were gonna take me when that pick rolled around, and he was looking forward to getting me there and working with me.

You know he is back as the Panthers GM. Any thoughts on that?

Yes, I love it. I think it’s a great move. Any true fan of the Panthers realizes, you know, that all those guys that are being successful, he actually drafted them. So the Cam Newtons, Luke Kuechly, Thomas Davis… you know. That’s Marty Hurney. He brought that team together.

They are calling him “interim” general manager. Do you think he will stick after this year?

I hope so. You just never know how football goes. It’s a business. If the Panthers come out winning and have a successful season, like 2015, of course he’s gonna stay.

Your first year with the team, the Panthers didn’t do that well. They went through a ton of different QBs and free agents, you were already making your transition to wide receiver… but, man, I remember being at a game, at App, against Wofford… and I watched you drop, I can’t even describe it, an absolute dime, 65 yards in the air, right into Brian Quick’s breadbasket. You hit him in stride, he walked in for a touchdown. Was there any talk about you being the fulltime QB during that season in Carolina?

Haha, no, not at all. They drafted me as a return specialist, receiver, and that was the only talk going on there.

NOTE: The aforementioned “dime” is visible at 2:53 in this Youtube video (and another at 4:06... in fact, just watch the whole thing. App dropped 70 on Wofford that day):

We were all hoping to see it again, us App fans, we all had a tear in our eyes. Watching everything… we were like c’mon man, just let Armanti get out there and wing a few passes, it’ll be great. But how did learning to play WR with the Panthers prepare you for what right now is a pretty successful career in the CFL with first the Saskatchewan Rough Riders and now the Toronto Argonauts?

Well my first two years there, it was pretty rough. Still trying to transition, and you know, at that time, I wasn’t getting much, like, fundamental wide receiver talk that some guys, a lot of guys, would have learned in high school and in college. It was more like, needing to learn, how to get off of press coverage or anything like that. Learning Proper footwork and cutting or getting out of my break. And I didn’t really understand any of that until Ricky Proehl came in for my last two years. He was the first coach that was actually being patient, teaching me the receiver fundamentals, and that’s when I started to actually get better, get more comfortable, and understand how to play the position.

Armanti on his current CFL career and the future...

You’re having a great season for Toronto this year, currently sitting at 52 catches, 636 yards, and three touchdowns. I’ve watched some highlights, it seems the position is more natural to you now, how would you describe how you feel now versus how you did with the Panthers?

Definitely. It is definitely more natural. I’m not out there thinking, instead I can just go run my routes, and based off what I see out there, I know how to really get open naturally. Instead of trying to think about it, because if you’re out there running and thinking then you are going to play extremely slow and not up to your capability.

Well right now you’re playing great football, and I’m sure youre going to have a lot more years of that ahead. Hopefully win some CFL championships with the Argonauts or wherever. Add a few more rings to the ring box. Have you though a bit after what comes next after football?

Yes. I’ve definitely been trying to work on that for the past years, you have to think about that obviously when you are bouncing from team to team in the NFL, and you have a wife and kids to think about and take care of, so I’ve been trying to put that in place the past few years.

Have you moved your family to Toronto with you?

Yes, they came with me for the first time this year. Everywhere I’ve been outside the Panthers they just stayed at home. So we wanted to try it different and see which way we like it, so I brought everybody this time.

Final Thoughts

Armanti is still the humble and well spoken guy that fans who have followed his career have always known. His time traveling the NFL and Canada hasn’t shaken his southern accent, and it certainly hasn’t rattled his resolve. He’s having a career year for the Toronto Argonauts, and has developed into one heck of a wide receiver. Approaching 30, it is probably too late for an NFL comeback, but it looks like his days representing the Panthers aren’t quite over... look for him on Fancom.fans after September 30th if you want to learn more.