Michael Oher Plays for the Ravens - chelle
Precious, Up In The Air and An Education were novels before they hit the silver screen. The Blind Side tells Michael Oher's story.
The Blind Side: Evolution of the Game, written by best selling author Michael Lewis, relates the true story of Michael Oher, one of thirteen children of a crack addicted mother who abandoned him to the foster care system that failed him. By the time he was sixteen he was homeless on the streets of Memphis, Tennessee. But with the help of a white family who adopted him, Oher graduated from high school and college and went on to be a first round NFL draft pick.
Michael Lewis: Author of The Blind Side: Evolution of the Game
In a 2009 interview in “Vanity Fair Magazine,” Michael Lewis talks about The Blind Side; how he found the story and what the book means to him.
- The author grew up with Sean Tuohy, Michael Oher’s adoptive father, and contacted him about an article he was writing about their high school baseball coach. In the interview, Lewis recalls Tuoy taking him home where he met Michael Oher for the first time. This was prior to the six foot five, three hundred and fifty pound sixteen year old being discovered and courted by college football coaches.
- Later, Lewis and his wife, Tabitha, had dinner with Oher who related more of his story to them. Even then, Lewis couldn’t picture writing a book about him. But on the ride home from the restaurant Tabitha told her husband he shouldn’t be working on anything else.
- When it was released in 2006, the book was controversial. Lewis feels this is because it has, as he puts it, “a fairy tale quality.” He conjectures that some reviewers felt he manipulated the facts to suit the tale.
- Lewis sees the story as one of how humans measure a person’s value. Through a series of almost unbelievable circumstances, Michael Oher went from the streets to becoming an NFL first round draft pick, to playing left tackle for the Baltimore Ravens, (the left tackle protects the quarterback’s blind side). Without that series of improbable happenings, he would never have been known, his value would have been missed and, to quote Lewis, “if his value can be missed, whose can’t?”
The Blind Side Movie
The Blind Side has been nominated for two Oscars:
- Best Picture: The Blind Side joins other nominees, Avatar, District 9, An Education, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Precious, A Serious Man, Up, and Up In The Air. Three of them, An Education, Precious and Up In The Air, were books first.
- Best Actress: Sandra Bullock has been nominated for her performance as Leigh Anne Tuohy, Michael Oher’s adoptive mother.
Copyright Jan Czech. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.
