Big Mike’s parents have written a book…In a Heartbeat!

This time last year year no one would have guessed that a movie about a high school football player and his adoptive family would turn out to be one of the year’s biggest box office draws. That is what The Blind Side was taking in the mid nine figures worldwide. It also showed Sandra Bullock’s talents and rewarded her with movies highest honor…the coveted Oscar!

It also catapulted the real life Tuohy family into the national spotlight. They have now written a book about it. It is a Hollywood script that no one would believe is true that contains a no-nonsense southern belle from Memphis, TN Leigh Anne Tuohy (played by Bullock) her husband Sean Tuohy, and a down on his luck street kid named Michael Oher taken in by the Tuohy family. The family opened their home to Mike realizing he needed someone to look after him due to his mother’s drug addiction. Through love and direction, they were able to point Michael to success not only on the football field but in the class room as well!

Mike graduated High School and went on to star academically and in college football at Ole’ Miss. Upon graduation from the University of Mississippi, he was drafted #1 by the Baltimore Ravens and started as an offensive lineman where he anchored one of the best running games in the NFL!

After the success of “The Blind Side“, the Tuohys wanted to tell their side of the story about giving back. They say “if there is one meaning we want you to take from our family is; the person (or persons) that you just walked by could be the person who could change your life…so stop and turn around!” Sean Tuohy says that he remembers that expression “turn around” very well. Leigh Anne said it very forcefully to him when she first saw Michael on the street. He goes on to say that is the message that they want to convey to the readers of their book, turn around and introduce yourself and meet this person. It will change your perception of that person. It is more than writing a check or donating time or money to something. It is making that one on one contact. Leigh Anne goes on to say that IT IS great to write a check because that helps but some people will need time and attention from you and it is especially what kids need now a days.

Due to the entire country knowing their story, it has given them an opportunity to share their story in a much larger way. It obviously is not something that they ask for or even necessarily what they wanted but they feel that they were given this platform for a reason and therefore must share with the rest of the country what there message is. It is incredible the number of emails and letters that they get on a monthly basis. They are not letters asking for something, it’s people telling them how the Tuohys have inspired them to do something along the same lines.

Here is a recent interview with George Stephanopoulos.

Well, it looks like Michael and the Baltimore Raven’s have something to cheer about as they close another OTA camp.    Joe Flacco’s maturing, Ray Lewis seems to get better with age and the acquisition of Anquan Boldin (one of THE BEST wide receivers in football), along with the news that Ed Reed, and Michael Oher is returning to the “Blind Side” (left side of the offensive line),  they are about to make another run at the Super Bowl!   Raven fans are excited about 2010 and can’t wait for the season to start.

John Harbaugh believes that Joe Flacco is now, based on a 2 year track, as good as any quarterback who ever played.  He thinks that with the joining of all of the players from outside that are quality players like Boldin paired with Derek Mason and Todd Heap on the inside not to mention Ray Rice running like a man possessed, he is extremely excited!   Boldin fits us…he is a physical, tough after the catch receiver that will compliment the Raven’s style of play.

Harbaugh addresses acquiring Dante Stallworth.  He said that in speaking with Dante, he found an individual that all he wants is a chance to prove himself and to get back to playing football.  He wants to be the man that he always wanted to be and I am going to help him do that as much as I can.  That’s what you do in life.

He addressed the fact that this could be Ray Lewis’ final year.  Harbaugh said that he hoped not and that he laughingly said that he will try to talk him out of it if he can.  Ray and Ed Reed are the center of our defense and Terrel Suggs on the outside.

He addressed the fact that you need to reload mentally every year as you start a new season.  He stated that not only do you reload mentally for a new season, there are times that you need to reload mentally throughout a season as well.   He said that there were some close losses that can take your heart away but our guys have hearts of lions…strong courageous personalities.

Jamie Dukes, on air personality at the NFL Network, share his analysis of Michael Oher moving back to the blind side.   He said that the transition first and foremost is about in-versing your steps.  However, there is no doubt that Oher has the ability and talent to do so specifically in the Raven’s offensive schemes like play action off of the run.  Michael is very good at pass blocking although Jamie felt that there are things he can work on.  But the main reason why Mike can return to the left side is that the team runs the football and Big Mike likes to block to that second level…he prides himself in blocking everyone he comes across.  Michael Oher is a physical guy and will do well at left tackle.  In fact, Jamie says that he knows a lot has been said about Ray Lewis and his nastiness on the defensive side of ball, but Michael is as nasty on the offensive line!

Michael has decided to write his own book!  I have always thought that I would love to hear Michael’s perspective on his life.  Now we get a chance to hear from him!

From the earliest information that I have read, he is calling it “I Beat the Odds” and will be released in February of 2011.

I also read where Sean and Leigh Ann Tuohy are also writing their own book but no specifics as of what it is titled and when it will be sold.

I am really anxious to hear what Michael has to say.  His life has been one of unbelievable pain (emotional and physical), suffering, rejection, sadness, disappointment and poverty.  With the odds against him of ever living in a loving and caring environment, it happened to him through the love and caring of the Tuohy’s.

BUT, I have always felt that the larger story here was how a young man, without any support system around him, got to where he is today.  He had to have something burning [at least an ember! ] that gave him the will to not only survive but to thrive!  Now I understand that the Tuohy family and Micheal synergistically working together caused the outcomes to happen, but there still had to be that something… that “it” inside of Michael for him to get to where he is today.

I will anxiously await his point of view!

Bob Costas on “Football Night in America” ran an interview he had done prior to the Baltimore Raven’s game that night. He interviewed Michael Oher and some of his team mates. He sets up the interview piece by stating that Leigh Anne Tuohy is still very much in the picture regarding her mother duties with Big Mike….

Joe Flacco (Quarterback for Baltimore Raven’s and Michael’s teammate with a huge grin on his face!):   The first time I met her (Michael’s mom Leigh Anne Tuohy) was we were in an elevator in San Diego. She goes to me, “Hi…I’m Michael Oher’s mom. You need to get rid of the ball faster!” (Flacco and Costas are laughing) I go, What are you talking about? I went to Mike and said, Mike…your mom just came up to me and said, “You need to get rid of the ball faster!” He’s like, “Oh my gosh…she said that to you?” So he goes to his mom and told her, “Mom, you can’t be saying this…” (Flacco continues) whatever… just joking you know..not too serious but I liked it…. it was funny. After the game, she comes in and says, “Alright…where is the tattle-tale….where is he?…where’s he at?…where is that big guy at?” (his voice trails off)

Bob Costas (back to live action showing Michael Oher warming up on the field): And there is Michael Oher who in his rookie season is a member of Peter King’s (Sports Illustrated writer and NBC sports consultant) mid-season’s All-Pro team selected for Sports Illustrated. Yesterday, I spoke to Oher about emerging as a force on the Raven’s line so quickly….

Costas (to a seated Michael Oher): Your teammate the linebacker Jarret Johnson said this, “It’s good to have a bully on that side (offensive) of the ball…it’s good to have someone with a nasty streak!”. You know, most rookies, even if they have that nasty streak it takes a little while to come out. You have asserted yourself almost out of the box.

Michael: I love the game of football. I have been a fan since I was 10 years old…watching the game. It is so emotional and I love to compete week after week with the best. I want to be the best myself so in order to be the best you have to dominate the best.

Costas: You played some basketball in your time and I know that you are a big admirer of Micheal Jordan and I heard what you said about Michael and this is a well known aspect of his competitive personality. Once he walked on the court…no friends. Is that how you feel on the field?

Michael: It has to be that way. They are trying to beat you on their play to knock your head off so once you step on that field I can’t be your friend anymore.

[Cut away from the shot of a seated Michael and a video clip comes up showing Dwight Freeney, Defensive End for the Indianapolis Colts. An announcer can be heard in the background praising Freeney for sacking the quarterback on that particular play.]

Costas: Towards that end of the book “The Blind Side” author Michael Lewis is talking to Freeney (Michael Oher is laughing now… anticipating the comment) and he says that you had envisioned playing against Freeney some day….you are a student of the game and you followed it…and Freeney’s parting comment to Lewis was after he asked him (Lewis) “What’s his name again? Well you tell Mr. Oher that I will be waiting for him.” Well last week that meeting happened. How did it go?

Michael (huge grin!): I think I went up against him a couple of times but to finally be out there with him was unbelievable to me.

Costas: You’ve been known to ‘yack’ a little bit out on the field. Even a guy like Jarrod Allen (Minnesota Vikings’ Defensive End) who’s having an MVP season with the Vikings, you guys were jawing a little bit. What was that conversation about?

Michael: I have been watching that guy for a long time and I am an emotional player and I am not going to back down from anybody. I am out there with these great players and I’ve got to act like one.

[Cut to a clip of Roger Goodell, NFL Commissioner, announcing the Baltimore Raven's first draft pick (Michael) in this year's (2009) NFL Draft.]

Costas: When Roger Goodell called your name, you could see how emotionally you were reacting. Why?

Michael: I had dreams about that moment years before about having my name called and waiting for that moment knowing how hard I had worked to point for so long. I had to go through so many things. It was unbelievable…I just couldn’t wait for it.

Costas: The offensive line is sometimes such an anonymous position even for the all time greats. Other than size, Jonathan Ogden (played Offensive Tackle for the Raven’s from 1996-2007, 9 time All-Pro) probably could have walked down any street outside of Baltimore and people would not been 100% sure who he was. You got, in an odd way, some celebrity status coming in even as a rookie (Michael smiles). Are you comfortable with that?

Michael: I really don’t see it like that. I feel that if I go out to eat somewhere, people won’t recognize me. I am just a regular person.

Costas: Who would you like to meet…in or out of sports that you haven’t met?

Michael (smiling): I was always a big Michael Jordan fan. I liked that last shot he made in ’98 (1998 NBA Finals).

Costas: I think we can arrange this!

Michael (laughing!): That would be great!

[Cut back to live video of Michael doing his pregame warm-up and Bob Costas continues…}

Costas: I think we are going to have to call our good friend Amad Rhashad (former NFL player and sports announcer) and set up a meeting between Michael Jordan and Michael Oher. He (Michael Oher) saw the movie. At first he said he didn’t want to see it. He saw the movie (The Blind Side about Michael Oher’s life) a few nights ago and said he liked it and that he understands that there is “cinematic license” taken and his one big objection, at least the only one that he is willing to express, is that it made him seem like a “babe in the woods” football-wise and he contends that, and I am sure that he is right, that he had a much more nuanced understanding of the game when he first arrived to play high school ball and when he first moved in with the Tuohy’s then the movie makes it seem. And obviously, he is a more sophisticated person then presented in the movie.

Chris Collinsworth (ex-NFL player and game announcer): No question about it! You’d think that he came out of the local country club when you first meet him for the first time. But I have seen a lot of remarkable stories during my day in the NFL but what this young man has been able to accomplish…what he has been able to overcome individually BEFORE he even met the Tuohy’s. Then to go and live with that family and become a member of the NFL is one of the most remarkable things I have ever seen in my life!

Costas: And clearly he loves and appreciates that Tuohy’s and the movie is very entertaining…there is just a “grain of salt” in a few places.

Collinsworth: No doubt…No doubt! But this guy EARNS what HE accomplished…not what ANYONE gave him!

Costas: Alright, let’s talk more about Michael Oher the player and throw it back to New York (Football Night in America’s studio) and see what Tony Dungy thinks.

Coach Tony Dungy: Michael Oher is not just a movie star he is a future star on the field in the NFL. He has all the qualities that you look for in an offensive lineman. He’s big…he’s athletic and he’s a pass protector. He did not play much against Dwight Freeney (Coach Dungy coached Dwight Freeney) but he did play against Robert Mathis (the Indianapolis Colt’s other Defensive End). They gave his (Michael) a little ‘chip’ help (back hits Michael’s man on the backs way out to catch a pass) but he (Michael) is athletic and stayed in front of Mathis and used his size and athleticism. Now in the Minnesota game, he had to play the left tackle due to some injuries and he played against Jarrod Allen and he did a very good job in pass protecting. Here (showing the video clip of the Minnesota Vikings and Baltimore Ravens’ game) is that nasty streak that Jarrod Johnson (Michael’s teammate) talked about (Allen got in Michael’s face jawing at him and Michael didn’t back down). He does not back down from anyone on the field. This guy can do it all…he is going to be a star for the next decade!

I have received many requests for Michael Oher’s contact info so I thought that I would post it here. Unfortunately, I do not have any info other than a way to contact him through his football team (below). As you may have read in some of the comments, there are many great people out there who work with kids that have a similar story to Michael’s and they too would like Big Mike to speak to the kids. I had one such person contact me recently and the only address I found for her to be able to contact Michael was through the Baltimore Raven’s office. She used the following contact information to leave a message for Michael. I encourage you to do the same so here is the link to their contact information:

http://www.baltimoreravens.com/About/Contact_Us.aspx

Ravens Owings Mills Training Facility
1 Winning Drive
Owings Mills, MD 21117
(410) 701-4000

M&T Bank Stadium
1101 Russell Street
Baltimore, MD 21230
(410) 261-RAVE (7283)

Training Camp
McDaniel College
451 WMC Drive
Westminster, MD 21158
(410) 840-5000

Fan & Practice Information
(410) 261-RAVE (7283)

Email Address
Contact us with any questions, comments, suggestions or concerns at contactus@ravens.nfl.net

I have encouraged anyone that is looking for Michael’s contact info to also look for his parents contact info. I do not have that info to give out at this time. If I find it, I will post it.

Michael Lewis, Author of “The Blindside”:

“One of the things that was striking to me was that Michael Oher who’s six foot six 325 pounds  at the age of 16 and runs a 4.9 forty (yard dash) is already someone that people with some certainity can say that’s and NFL player.

Michael Oher spent the first 15 years of his life foraging for food and foraging for rooms to sleep in one of the poorest neighborhoods in America in inner city Memphis.  It just so happens that he talked his way into someone’s house sleeping on the floor.  When the father in that house decides to take his own son to this Christian school on the outskirts of town and try to enroll him there and since Michael just happens to be living with him, he decides to take Michael too.

Serendipiticly Michael ends up attending this Christian school the Christian school realizes that they made a huge mistake because he is a sophmore in high school and he can’t read.  He actually basically has never been in a classroom.

In his class, there just so happens to be an adorable 15 year old girl named Collins Tuohy who goes home and tells her father about this odd huge guy who has joined their class.  Everybody’s terrified of him because he doesn’t say a word to anybody.  He just wonders the halls.

Sean Tuohy, Collin’s father, makes an effort to get to know Michael.  He realizes that Michael is hungry all day because to the extent that he has gone to school its been public school and public school gives you lunch for free and Michael has no money to buy lunch.  So Sean starts buying him lunch and one day…it’s actually during Thanksgiving break and it’s snowing in Memphis…Sean and Leigh Anne are driving down the street they see Michael get off a city bus in front of them in the snow wearing shorts and a T-shirt and nothing else.  Sean points to him and says, “That’s that kid that Collins has been talking about in her class”  and Leigh Anne tells him to pull over.

They ask him what he is doing and he says that he is going to the school gym.  They say that there is nothing going on in the school gym.  He says, “Yeah I know but they got heat there and I thought that I could get warm”.

That is when they realize that he is sleeping out in the streets.  And Leigh Anne Tuohy gets very upset that he is in this condition and she says get in the car.  She takes Michael shopping for clothes and she realizes that there are no clothes in Memphis that fit him.  She ends up sending his dimensions to a friend who plays on the Washington Redskins…he’s a quarterback, Patrick Ramsey… and says here, get some hand-me-downs from some of your linemen because I can’t find anything that fits him.  Ransey calls her back and says that you must have got the dimensions wrong because we don’t have anyone here that is that size.  Of course she had got the dimensions right.

She says that Ok this is my problem I am going to take over.  She brings in tutors and brings him into their house and 6 months later she’s got him reading…she’s got him funtioning at school…she’s got him on the football team…and she’s got a new member of her household!  I mean there is no where else for him to go.  So he becomes, very gradually, a member of their  family and a year later they end up adopting him.

One of the things that has been astonishing for me to watch is Michael’s intellectual developement because everyone was focused on his athletic ability but even more remarkable in a way is the developement of his brain.  Because it is generally believed that if you take a 15 year old kid who has been completely unnurtured and can’t read and write it’s too late.  By his senior year he had made the honor roll at the Christian school.  He made the Dean’s List at Ole Miss…his brain is awakened in some way and it has done it at a surprisingly late age.  And contemporanius with this is his awakening of his sense of self!”

Congratulations to Sandra Bullock for winning the Oscar for her lead role in “The Blind Side” movie!  She was my pick to win and I am so glad that she won as she is a great actress and played the part like she was born to it.