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Still, the Briarcrest football coach was interested in Oher, not just as a prospect for the team but as a redemption story. This was a kid who’d never been given half a chance, he told the school president and principal, making the case for a very large exception to their typical admissions process. The principal, Steve Simpson, felt stirrings of sympathy and issued Oher a challenge: If he could get his grades up in another private school, he could enter the far more prestigious Briarcrest the next semester. Soon after Sean first met Oher, he set up a standing cafeteria account for him so that he’d be able to eat lunch every day. Eventually, on Thanksgiving weekend, the family crossed paths with Oher, who was walking alone in the rain, wearing his only pair of shorts and going nowhere in particular. They took him in for the weekend, an arrangement that soon became permanent. Tuohy family on the field at Ole Miss, where Michael and Collins attended. Why did Michael Oher choose to go to The University of Mississippi (Ole Miss)? No. "I've always had that fire and passion in me on the field," says Michael. "You can't put aggression into a person. It's impossible. Either you have that toughness and aggression or you don't." - 20/20 After some early awkwardness, Oher became a full-fledged member of the Tuohy family. In the movie, one scene shows Oher accepting Sean and Leigh Anne’s offer to become his legal guardians. Both The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times have described the real-life relationship as a legal guardianship in past reporting, though Oher and the Tuohys have publicly called it an adoption. That changed this year when Oher discovered paperwork he signed didn’t make the Tuohys his adoptive parents but rather his conservators, according to an August 2023 lawsuit Oher filed in Tennessee. Sean told The Daily Memphian that he and Leigh Anne were advised they couldn’t adopt someone over the age of 18.
The Blind Side (film) - Wikipedia The Blind Side (film) - Wikipedia
The character in the movie who refers to himself as Tony Hamilton is based on Tony Henderson (aka Big Tony), who in real life runs an athletic program that mentors teens in his neighborhood. Recognizing Michael's unstable home life, Tony took Michael in. "He was a good kid," Tony recalls. "He was real quiet and especially stayed to himself." Like in The Blind Side movie, Tony took his teenage son Steven to be enrolled in Briarcrest Christian School, and he brought Michael along with them ( 20/20). In real life, Tony worked across town as a mechanic, as stated in the movie ( Evolution of a Game).Sports – Football Movies at the Box Office". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on June 5, 2011 . Retrieved January 23, 2011.
The Blind Side by Michael Lewis Plot Summary | LitCharts
Oher was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in the first-round of the 2009 draft, and he won a Super Bowl with the team in February 2013 in New Orleans, where Sean Tuohy and Blind Side author Lewis are from. He also played for the Carolina Panthers and Tennessee Titans. No. As Michael Lewis states in his book, when racist fans were taunting him, the real Michael Oher flipped them the bird. The football part of this book was tolerable, even good, and it made me appreciate the offensive line and football strategy from a different perspective. However, that’s wrapped up in an ambiguous story that seems to imply that rich white people adopting a kid from the inner city and guiding him into their alma mater is funny and charming. DiAngelo, Robin (2018). White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism. Beacon Press. pp.95–98. ISBN 978-0807047415.
A little light on the human side of the story and heavy on the football- which I found a bit difficult to follow! It was still a powerful story, but I definitely preferred the movie.
The Blind Side by Michael Lewis | Goodreads
a b Oher, Michael (2012). I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness, to The Blind Side, and Beyond. Avery. ISBN 978-1592406388.The Blind Side is in large part a biography of offensive lineman Michael Oher, and it uses his story as an example of the effects a changing game can have on an individual. In this book you get a heartwarming story in the forefront, while also learning about the intricacies of the football offensive line. This meant that the next time I tried watching football I had something specific I wanted to observe (seeing the things I had read about actually in action), which drew me in and allowed me to finally start following the game. Some things in [the movie] are the truth, some things are not. People have got to do things to sell it. But everything is good, though. -Michael Oher (The Baltimore Sun, November 16, 2009) When he was 15-years-old Michael was 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighed 350 pounds ( 20/20). In 2010 as a member of the Baltimore Ravens NFL team, Michael Oher was listed at 6-4 with a weight of 309 pounds ( BaltimoreRavens.com). His onscreen counterpart in The Blind Side movie, Quinton Aaron, is 6-8 and weighs 472 pounds ( 20/20).
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