Oher says Blind Side isn't a true story

[onewoof]

"Football is what got me here and the movie, it wasn’t me. I always knew how to play football growing up. It was different personalities, stuff like that. Playing football is what got me to this point.”

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/beyond-blind-side-ravens-tackle-michael-oher-just-103543789--nfl.html

I've repeatedly told people that the UM booster adopt-a-first-rounder-sophomore family didn't "discover" him the way the movie portrayed. He was playing football and was known in the Memphis area at an early age.

 

[biguglyjoe]

I'm shocked and dismayed.

 

[FlabLoser]

"Football is what got me here and the movie, it wasn’t me. I always knew how to play football growing up. It was different personalities, stuff like that. Playing football is what got me to this point.”

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/beyond-blind-side-ravens-tackle-michael-oher-just-103543789--nfl.html

I've repeatedly told people that the UM booster adopt-a-first-rounder-sophomore family didn't "discover" him the way the movie portrayed. He was playing football and was known in the Memphis area at an early age.

Spot on. "Football is what got me to this point". He was adopted because he was a badass football player.

 

[Hanmudog]

Wait a minute, are you saying Sandra Bullock did not really teach him how to pancake block?

Next thing you know we will find out that Jerrell Powe wasn't really disabled.

 

[RockstarFromMars]

Guess I shouldn't push Mrs. Tuohy for OC then.**

 

[AlSwearengen]

You mean to tell me that "the blind side" actually is just more olemiss propaganda? 17 me!!

 

[maroonmania]

Yea, I've always wondered...

Spot on. "Football is what got me to this point". He was adopted because he was a badass football player.

how many non-athletic inner city Memphis kids the Touhy's adopted?

 

[UpTheMiddlex3Punt]

Next thing you're going to tell me is that Lance Armstrong was doping when he won all those Tours de France. Or Tiger Woods is cheating on that smoking hot Swedish model wife. Or Joe Paterno lets sexual abuse happen at Penn State and does nothing about it.

 

[mjh94]

i can't believe people actually had to read that article to find that out.

"Football is what got me here and the movie, it wasn’t me. I always knew how to play football growing up. It was different personalities, stuff like that. Playing football is what got me to this point.”

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/beyond-blind-side-ravens-tackle-michael-oher-just-103543789--nfl.html

I've repeatedly told people that the UM booster adopt-a-first-rounder-sophomore family didn't "discover" him the way the movie portrayed. He was playing football and was known in the Memphis area at an early age.

 

[UIUCDog]

But...but...but...the OM fans told us that his “parents” didn’t even know he was good at football when they adopted him!!11!1!

 

[patdog]

As usual, the truth is somewhere in the middle. Of course the Blind Side story (both book and movie) is ********. But to say the Touhy's adopted him because he was going to be an All-American for UM is also ********. Nobody could have possibly known how good he was going to be back then, and there was certainly no guarantee he would sign with UM to begin with. Not to mention they had a teenage daughter in the house.

 

[dudehead]

Once again proving to be one of the most lucid posters here.

As usual, the truth is somewhere in the middle. Of course the Blind Side story (both book and movie) is ********. But to say the Touhy's adopted him because he was going to be an All-American for UM is also ********. Nobody could have possibly known how good he was going to be back then, and there was certainly no guarantee he would sign with UM to begin with. Not to mention they had a teenage daughter in the house.

 

[Jgbishop]

I can't believe it's really not butter** same great taste now with even less calories!!!

 

[slickdawg]

I heard Oher talk about this on 60 minutes. Said something like "I knew how to play football before I met them"

 

[Hanmudog]

As usual, the truth is somewhere in the middle. Of course the Blind Side story (both book and movie) is ********. But to say the Touhy's adopted him because he was going to be an All-American for UM is also ********. Nobody could have possibly known how good he was going to be back then, and there was certainly no guarantee he would sign with UM to begin with. Not to mention they had a teenage daughter in the house.

I have no idea about the Oher timeline but according to Wikipedia, Oher was All State prior to living with the Tuohy's. Wikipedia could be full of crap for all I know.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Oher

 

[rabiddawg]

He was adopted because they knew he would be good enough to support himself with football and to steer him to Ole Miss. This BS about it being white guilt on the part of Sandra Bullock is just that, BS. If the kid couldn't ball they would have never let him in the house. And Bucky wouldn't have give a **** about him either.

 

[patdog]

Of course they knew he was a very good high school football player when they took him in. No question about it. But they couldn't have known how good he would turn out to be at the college level. I'm not saying him being a good football player wasn't a factor in them taking him in. Just that there was a lot more to it.

A girl I grew up with and her husband took in one of their son's high school teammates a couple of years ago. I'm sure him being a good high school football player was probably part of it, but really it was because they saw a kid that needed help and they helped him. By all accounts he is a good kid and they do love him. But it was a real struggle taking in a 16/17-year old who had never had any rules in his entire life that he had to live under.

 

[thunderclap]

Everybody not associated with OM say No duh.

 

[BiscuitEater]

Gonna ...

But to say the Touhy's adopted him because he was going to be an All-American for UM is also ********. Nobody could have possibly known how good he was going to be back then, and there was certainly no guarantee he would sign with UM to begin with.

have to disagree. In '03 Oher had already been named the 'lineman of the year" in Tennessee, made first team all state and had been a 5 star by a couple of recruiting services. Even thoough he was not even a senior, he was already the #3 rated HS lineman in the country.


all this happened well before the Touhy's entered the picture. Have you ever met either of the Touhys? You would understand more if you had.

 

[maroonmania]

Its just very amusing to me in the movie how they go WAY out of their way...

Of course they knew he was a very good high school football player when they took him in. No question about it. But they couldn't have known how good he would turn out to be at the college level. I'm not saying him being a good football player wasn't a factor in them taking him in. Just that there was a lot more to it.A girl I grew up with and her husband took in one of their son's high school teammates a couple of years ago. I'm sure him being a good high school football player was probably part of it, but really it was because they saw a kid that needed help and they helped him. By all accounts he is a good kid and they do love him. But it was a real struggle taking in a 16/17-year old who had never had any rules in his entire life that he had to live under.

to portray Oher as if he didn't know anything about how to play football when they took him in. Seemed like they worked a little TOO hard IMO to make sure people didn't think his athletic ability had anything to do with why he was given special attention. Enough so that, in the movie, they totally changed the timeline of when his football prowess showed itself.

 

[Rutherford B. Hayes]

Agreed, but that could apply to any player. No 3rd chair tuba player got adopted

Of course they knew he was a very good high school football player when they took him in. No question about it. But they couldn't have known how good he would turn out to be at the college level.

You better believe that the Touhys had a pretty good idea that Oher would be very, very good. Tom Lemming sure thought so. Absolute lock? No, but that is because there is no absolute lock.

Again, the Touhys haven't been adopting 3rd chair tuba players.

 

[gptdawg]

I think I heard Diane Sawyer say last night that Patrick Willis was also adopted by a white family. What's up with that?

 

[KurtRambis4]

It's

a Hollywood product. What did you expect it to be, 100% the truth? Seriously. Hollywood is a perpetual fantasy zone.

I always laugh when I see actors/actresses voice their opinions on real world events.

 

[patdog]

Again, I'm sure him being a good football player had something to do with the Touhy's deciding to take him in. I'm just saying it's just as much ******** to claim they did it as a recruiting ploy as it is to say they just took in some poor homeless boy who later turned out to be a star football player.

 

[lasher8]

Again, I'm sure him being a good football player had something to do with the Touhy's deciding to take him in. I'm just saying it's just as much ******** to claim they did it as a recruiting ploy as it is to say they just took in some poor homeless boy who later turned out to be a star football player.

Do you think they would have taken him in if he hadn't been a football player??

 

[patdog]

And none of that means he would be an All-American at any college.

 

[Hanmudog]

a Hollywood product. What did you expect it to be, 100% the truth? Seriously. Hollywood is a perpetual fantasy zone.

I always laugh when I see actors/actresses voice their opinions on real world events.

The problem is that many people have taken it as the God's honest truth. I think the movie would have been better served changing the names and places and just saying it was based on a true story rather than rewriting history.

 

[WestDawg]

"Football is what got me here and the movie, it wasn’t me. I always knew how to play football growing up. It was different personalities, stuff like that. Playing football is what got me to this point.”

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/beyond-blind-side-ravens-tackle-michael-oher-just-103543789--nfl.html

I've repeatedly told people that the UM booster adopt-a-first-rounder-sophomore family didn't "discover" him the way the movie portrayed. He was playing football and was known in the Memphis area at an early age.

I was a high school FB COACH in Memphis for a while. And I can say with absolute certainty that Oher was well known in Memphis. The reason he was not a national recruit until the Touhys came along was his grade issue. Every HS coach in that town knew who he was. But in comes the great saving grace o the Touhy family. That movie still grinds lots of coaches and ppl in that town that really know Oher. Funny how he "chose" Ole Miss, his coach got a job at OM, and it is all in the up an up.