OT: Does anybody read Off Tackle Empire?

Submitted by Decatur Jack on

There's this piece and I feel like Brian or someone should write a response or something. I understand other fan bases hate us, but doesn't it seem weird to anyone else that we have such a huge fan base and yet almost no presence there?

Anyone feel like making a SB nation account and standing with the 4 Michigan fans who brave OTE territory?

Update: Actually I don't give a shit about the article itself. It just struck me as odd that there were all these other fan bases on there but ours. REPRESENT!

GoBlueInNYC

July 19th, 2013 at 2:11 PM ^

Is OTE a Big10 SB site? Or is it team specific?

As to why there are little to no Michigan fans there, it could be because we're all elsewhere. In order, I read: mgoblog, TouchTheBanner, and Maizenbrew. Beyond that, I don't read much else for Michigan content.

GoWings2008

July 19th, 2013 at 10:18 PM ^

And I can say this with 110% confidence, because I know him.  Personally.  He was at my house watching The Game in 2006.  We served together in the military.  I consider him a friend.  Except when he writes piece of shit articles like this.  

Make no mistake, his hatred for UM is nothing but typical for the very educated football fan.  Ted Glover is a very well educated football fan.  But he's still an osu fan.  That's his problem.  Whenever I read stuff regarding his hatred for Michigan, I feel in some way he's writing specifically to me.  

However, all that said, his hatred is pure.  Most of the time.  I think that he's hung his hat on this tenure of a coach that I think will be a mistake to the program, known as Urban Fucking Meyer.  I think he will, in the long run, damage osu as well as B!G football.  I will say to all of you the same thing I'll say to him the next time I see him...as well as punch him in the face (we live just a few miles from each other)... Time will tell, my friend.  Time well tell.

Wolfman

July 19th, 2013 at 10:33 PM ^

between the two schools. In the first Place we wouldn't have hired Jim "First I've heard of it Tressel," and if he's satisfied with the domination his team had over ours for a decade, than he's probably equally a USC or OU fan or any fan that endorses pros vs. student/athletes.  His team, oHio, will forever have asterisks beside their name for the Tress period, be it on paper or in everyone's mind with an iota of common decency.  BTW, the hatred and OSU pontidicated by this ne'er-do-well is the norm, not the exception for most of the fans backing that team. My prediction is UM resigns with some type of illness the first time we beat him back-to-back.     ^And nothing against you because we all have friends for reasons we can't explain, but he's an a middle-aged adolescent now, I guess, posing as some type of sports writer. Of these things I'm pretty sure. What I'm absolutely sure of, he's a fucking asshole of the highest order and this 60 year old will meet him in any parking lot located in any parking lot approximately half way between Muskegon, Mi and wherever the hell he lives.

EGD

July 19th, 2013 at 2:18 PM ^

I had never heard of that blog until now. 

I read his "Michigan, you suck and I hate you" piece from start to finish.  It wasn't very good.  I don't think it requires any kind of response. 

I think I will just go back to ignoring Off Tackle Empire.

Smidgens

July 19th, 2013 at 2:20 PM ^

Same. Another day, another angry Buckeye. I check out Maize n Brew every now and then, and Every Day Should Be Saturday can be funny, but for the most part I don't think SBNation blogs are particularly well-written.

Daniel

July 19th, 2013 at 2:25 PM ^

Here's what's going on:

Off Tackle Empire is a B1G blog, started by two friends, one of whom went to OSU, the other of whom went to Michigan. During the summer, they do a weekly preview of every B1G team. It follows a structure.

Monday: Basic Explanation of key facts about the team for the upcoming season.

Tuesday: Discussion of the Coaches

Wednesday: Potluck, which is essentially an ask-the-editors mailblog, essentially, with recipes interstrewn.

Thursday: Article about something related to the team at hand.

Friday (the best day, usually): Hate Day. A fan of another team (usually the biggest rival) comes on to spew vitriol about the team of the week. As the co-founder of the blog and resident OSU fan, Glover usually does the honors for Michigan. Today happened to be Friday of Michigan week. Hence, hate.

EGD

July 19th, 2013 at 2:32 PM ^

Well, given your explanation, maybe I'll take another look at their blog one of these days.  The Michigan hate piece though was very unimpressive.  It was an unoriginal screed chock full of cliched references and childish insults.  Maybe the author doesn't really hate Michigan as much as he claims to, because he couldn't summon the genuine venom when he needed it.

Decatur Jack

July 19th, 2013 at 2:58 PM ^

it's never Ohio State week on OTE.

Also, OTE was started by a Michigan alum? He must have vanished from the site.

Interesting that OTE comments say "F**k Michigan" even when it's the hate week of some other team. And now they're calling "F**k Michigan" a sign of unity?

It's a sad sight when the only people defending Michigan (and I use that term loosely) are not even fans. Seriously, you guys. Our fan base is frustratingly under-represented on that blog.

GoBlueInNYC

July 19th, 2013 at 2:28 PM ^

Hey, while we're on the subject of stuff, what's going on with Shutdown Fullback? Did they stop making those? And weren't they supposed to make another all Michigan one after UM fans won the EDSBS fundraiser?

ChiBlueBoy

July 19th, 2013 at 2:39 PM ^

Someone forgot his pills, I guess. This sort of thing (setting aside for the moment the writer's slack-jawed homophobia and disdain for the diabled and impoverished, because, yeah, where do you even start) actually makes me happy. That level of defensiveness only comes from deep insecurity. Given Hoke's recuiting and coaching staff, and the inherent advantages of being a top-tier academic institution, Ohio has every reason to be feeling less secure these days. (Also leaving aside Urb's history of regular traveling and the shaky nature of last year's record.)

While I won't go into all that's wrong with that article (or the writer's worldview) for lack of 1s and 0s, I'm not sure that it's the best strategy for OSU supporters to start looking at pictures of each school's fanbase.

Real Tackles Wear 77

July 19th, 2013 at 3:11 PM ^

U mad, OTE writer? I thoroughly enjoy how he spends half the piece explaining why UMs wins under Hoke mean nothing, while saying nothing of how his team beat up on even worse RR squads

BoilerBlue

July 19th, 2013 at 3:18 PM ^

I actually do make my way over there occasionally. I mainly like to get mainstream opinions from other fan bases. That being said, I never comment and only ever find myself there when traffic on MGoBlog, 247, and TTB are all slow. Some of the posters over there are insightful, and some are just plain idiotic. I have noticed the lack of Michigan presence before. Graham (one of the creators) and Brian (not our Brian) are supposedly their Michigan contributors, but neither knows as much about the team as anyone regularly reading this site. Nobody bothers to put the hordes of idiot Spartan fans over there in their place when they start to spew trash about Hoke negatively recruiting, et cetera. I always feel like I've been slumming when I get done over here and always come back here to wash off the dumb.

eth2

July 19th, 2013 at 3:43 PM ^

What if someone running a sad, under-trafficked blog decided to post something on the most popular college sports team blog in the world to try and get more visitors?

Decatur Jack

July 19th, 2013 at 6:16 PM ^

I know you're making a funny, but just so you know, that's not the case. OTE gets 200+ comments a post, which is pretty much the opposite of "under-trafficked." Granted, many of these comments are brainless, pointless "F Michigan" comments done by the same seven people over and over again, but it's still way more than what we've got going on on Maize n' Brew in terms of comment numbers.

oldblu

July 19th, 2013 at 4:25 PM ^

I go there from time to time. It’s not as bad as today would indicate. Graham (one of the founders, I think) and Brian (different Brian) have written some good stuff (http://www.offtackleempire.com/michigan), but most notable about the site is that is frequented by deranged Spartan fans. Pretty funny, how whacked these guys are, really. Or, should I say, it used to be frequented by primarily conspiracy-driven Spartan fans. For some reason former ESPN readers/commentors recently emigrated to OTE en masse. Not sure why. Primarily a Big Ten site. Articles/posts are often worth reading (even some non-Michigan ones), comments definitely not. Perhaps so little Michigan representation among commentors because of the level of people commenting - why bother? And how (or why) would you respond to something as insightful as “F Michigan”, anyway?

Don

July 19th, 2013 at 6:52 PM ^

"Hey, why don't you ever go to that political website that's populated by complete freaking morons espousing views you loathe and post comments just so your side is represented?"

oldblu

July 19th, 2013 at 9:02 PM ^

What can you say, the result of a Michigan State education. An idea, instead of formulating a response/comment as some have proposed, why doesn't someone here offer a similar "hate piece" come OSU week (if it hasn't passed). Maybe Graham/Glover would be willing to post it?

jdib

July 19th, 2013 at 10:07 PM ^

I initially just focused on the breadth of the article and as I continued to read, I started wondering if this was written by a shut-in 18 year old.  Much to my dismay, I scrolled up and noted that a middle aged man wrote this article.

 

Maybe it's just me but it's somewhat troubling to read that much hate coming from someone who came off sounding like they were a teenager.  Yikes.

Medic

July 20th, 2013 at 12:14 AM ^

Unworthy. If anyone were to respond to the tripe he posted I would simply hope they just send him The Other Brian's absolutely fantastic breakdown of Tressel and his real legacy to OSU.

http://genuinelysarcastic.blogspot.com/2011/05/dotting-lie.html

That is OSU in a nutshell and the culture they, as a collective fanbase, embody. Win at all costs, sell your soul, nothing is out of bounds as long as you beat Michigan.

Their current coach was the perfect hire, given his track record of developing young men.

ChopBlock

July 20th, 2013 at 12:31 AM ^

although you're doing a good job of replenishing your roster with talent after RichRod, you won't be able to close the gap that OSU built up.

I would point out that NCAA eligibility rules make 5-year complete roster turnover necessary. Of course, since when does Ohio care about NCAA eligibility rules?

DonAZ

July 20th, 2013 at 2:26 PM ^

I tend to read a lot of internet content across a wide spectrum of topics.

I've read articles that are supremely well-crafted, articles that are utter crap, and an ocean of stuff in between.

That linked article falls on the lower-end of the "in between" range.  It has at least a degree of structure to it.  There are words strung together to form sentences, and sentences that form paragraphs, which then form the article.  It's been less than five minutes since I read it, and already my mind is discarding the memory in favor of other things.

Do you get my drift?  The article falls squarely in the worst category of all: forgettable.

Tater

July 20th, 2013 at 3:39 PM ^

The writing was terrible.  If it rhymed, it still wouldn't qualify as appropriate for the walls of seedy public restrooms.