By Daniel (Tuck) Stapor
Currently, some of the main soccer blogs on the internet focus on providing their readers with knowledge on specific teams, leagues, or even players. Other blogs will center their posts on the top matches of the week or specific championship league standings and matches. Regardless of the intended focus, the majority of these internet blogs are similar in that they create their content in a serious manner. Off the Post is very different from the standard blog. Off the Post publishes stories that are written in a comical sense. This blog finds humor in the sport of soccer all around the world, and even attempts to poke fun at the world’s most popular game, in a respectful way of course.
Rob Parker, a former assistant coach in England, created the blog in September of 2008. Parker makes sure to include all of the relevant soccer news stories that occur around the world, except he tends to look at the story from a different angle in order to express the humor of the situation. Because of the type of content that is included, it’s fairly clear as to why Parker decided to name the blog “Off the Post” due to the perfect imagery of a player solidly striking a shot off of the crossbar. The posts typically present stories that accentuate miscues on the field of play, questionable choices of words during press conferences, and even funny coincidences that seem to occur to some of the world’s most famous players of the game. For example, Parker recently posted a story that shows Chelsea’s manager Jose Mourinho relate his team of players to eggs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WiX9v2VXKE4
Did this particular part of the press conference summarize the rest of Mourinho’s comments? No. Did this segment reveal certain strategies and tactics to combat potential problems Chelsea could face in their upcoming game? No. But was this video obscure and entertaining? Yes, which is the main focus for this entire blog. This video shows a different perspective of the world of soccer, one that fans of the game can laugh about. Only a soccer coach could describe his players as “beautiful, young eggs” and think that it was a logical response. Luckily for soccer fans around the world, Off the Post did not let these comments (or other obscure phrases for that matter) slide in an effort to lighten up the somber mood that has been related to soccer.
Parker has no restrictions on the type of content that can be presented on the blog (although he does favor topics from the English Premier League). The only requirement for his stories is that there has to be video footage of the event. This leniency allows Parker to post several times throughout the day as well as publish stories that are not necessarily about players’ mistakes, but rather stories that remove the seriousness from the sport and express the more fun side of soccer. For example, Parker posted a video clip of three of the Tottenham Spurs’ best players competing in a skills competition.
The video shows much more than just a competition between teammates though; it shows the three players fooling around with each other and having a good time. Although the common belief is that soccer players strictly play the game in order to achieve success and treat the sport as a business, this post, along with many others from this blog, illustrates the players’ playful attitude towards the sport. The footage proves that these three men genuinely love the game of soccer
Even though the majority of the content on this blog may appear to demean and embarrass the game of soccer, Off the Post is actually one of the most popular soccer blogs on the internet based on the number of unique monthly visits and google searches. In my opinion, Off the Post is extremely relatable to Sportcenter’s Not Top Ten as well as Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update, both of which are famous and popular because of their satirical content. The blog is similar to the Not Top Ten list, as it showcases top soccer figures from around the world making mistakes, and it’s similar to Weekend Update as it explains soccer news in a humorous, irreverent manner. Apparently, passionate soccer fans as well as novice learners appreciate the light heartedness style of the blog. Off the Post does not attack or humiliate the sport of soccer, but rather illustrates the imperfect nature of soccer which reminds fans everywhere just how fun the game truly is when it is looked upon in a lighter, less serious manner.
Here’s the link to Off the Post: http://www.offthepost.info/
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