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16 years ago
Worth the Read on a prospect that may fall into us at 9...

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Streets to star: Oher's stunning NFL journey
by Mark Kriegel"

NEW YORK - Michael Oher has been here before. He was a tourist, about seven years old, as best he can recall.

"My foster parents took me," he said.

I ask how many foster homes he'd been in.

"About three or four," he says. "Something like that."

His arrival today, for a pre-draft briefing at the Times Square Westin, is more triumphant than anything that 7-year-old foster child could have imagined. Oher is wearing a Yankees cap, and I find myself wondering if it's a sign of allegiance, or merely a fashion statement.

"They were always on TV," says Oher, explaining his rooting interest. [img_r]http://sports.espn.go.com/photo/2008/1205/ncf_g_oher_300.jpg[/img_r]

In other words, when you're a kid living place to place, which is to say, no place at all, the team on national television affords you some consistency, maybe even something to believe in.

"Jorge Posada, Bernie Williams, I liked all them guys," he says. Then, Oher's eyes narrow, raising a furrow across his brow. It's an arch expression, playful, but with a hint of the menace that awaits opponents on the other side of the ball.

"You thought I was just playing?" he drawls.

Michael Oher isn't playing. He's 6-foot-6, 310 pounds, and still relatively svelte around the middle. He possesses in abundance what the pro scouts covet in first-round left tackles that uncanny amalgam of nimble ferocity. He can pancake a state of the art defensive end. He can throw a fastball. He can dunk, any which way. "I can do it all," he says of his basketball prowess. "I'm going to blow out a rim."

Still, athletic ability isn't what makes Michael Oher unique. "There's people in my neighborhood," he says, "that had a lot more talent than me."

Back in the Memphis neighborhood to which he was born, Oher was just another lost child, one of 13 siblings. His biological father was murdered. His mother was a crack addict. Until he was 16, he lacked a permanent address.

How did you eat, I ask.

"You did whatever you could," he says. "Whatever you could."

"Yeah, but . . ."

"Churches. Community centers, stuff like that."

"The worst place you slept?"

"I don't know. A porch?"

At 16, quite accidentally, Oher arrived at Briarcrest Christian School, and by turns described in Michael Lewis' bestseller, The Blind Side, eventually found himself adopted by the well-to-do family of Sean and Lee Anne Touhy. They gave him a home, a tutor, a chance and still more.

Asked what hurts the most about living on the streets, Oher says, "not having somebody to take care of you, to be there for you, to tuck you in at night."

To tuck you in.

That's the real saving grace of Michael Oher. It's not his vertical, or his bench, or anything that can be quantified in the combine. Rather, what survived against all odds on the streets of Memphis, was a capacity to love and be loved. To be tucked in.

"For them to take me in with open arms," he says of the Touhys, "that just shows you the kind of heart they have. Where I come from, you don't do anything like that."

I wonder where he'd be if not for his chance admission to Briarcrest or the Touhys.

"That's a good question," he says. "I don't know. I'm very determined in everything I do. But meeting my family made the road a lot easier."

What a concept: meeting my family.

He has two siblings in attendance here at the draft. There's his dreadlocked biological brother, Marcus, and his blond sister, Collins. Collins and Michael attended Ole Miss, where he will graduate in a couple of weeks with a degree in criminal justice.

Why criminal justice, I ask.

"To take the innocent from the bad guys," he says.

To save them, he means.

For the record, Oher finally read The Blind Side about a month ago. "It was all right," he says. "It had a few things that probably made me look like I wasn't smart . . . But people got to sell books."

I don't think that's the case. To my mind, Lewis' book is a near perfect synthesis of analysis and narrative. And while it provides readers several ways to consider Michael Oher, not smart is not among them.

There's still a day and a half before the draft. According to Oher, the team that picks another offensive lineman is a team that's making a mistake.

"If you do, I don't understand," he says. "I know I'm the best. I play in the best conference. Every Saturday. Every snap. All you got to do is watch film."

He hasn't allowed a sack since 2007. "I just have a passion for it, shutting down that elite pass rusher," he says. "Every year, it seems like these guys are evolving into another monster. I just shut 'em down."

He leans in; his eyes narrow. I imagine this is what he looks like to his opponents, as seen up close, through the bars of a face mask.

I step back. Then I find myself wanting to cheer for Michael Oher, of course, but also for all those kids who have yet to meet their families


"The oranges are dry; the apples are mealy; and the papayas... I don't know what's going on with the papayas!"
4PackGirl
16 years ago
i heard his story this morning & couldn't be happier for the guy.
much success to you, mr. oher...in life & on the field.
Fan Shout
Zero2Cool (14h) : He's been sporting a ring for a while now. It's probably Madonna.
Martha Careful (16h) : We only do the tea before whoopee, it relaxes me.
wpr (18h) : That's awesome Martha.
Mucky Tundra (18h) : How's the ayahuasca tea he makes, Martha?
Martha Careful (19h) : Turns out he like older women
Martha Careful (19h) : I wasn't supposed to say anything, but yes the word is out and we are happy 😂😂😂
Mucky Tundra (19h) : I might be late on this but Aaron Rodgers is now married
Mucky Tundra (20h) : Well he can always ask his brother for pointers
Zero2Cool (22h) : Bo Melton taking some reps at CB as well as WR
Zero2Cool (22h) : key transactions coming today at 3pm that will consume more cap in 2025
Zero2Cool (9-Jun) : Jaire played in just 34 of a possible 68 games since the start of the 2021 season
Zero2Cool (9-Jun) : reported, but not expected to practice
Zero2Cool (9-Jun) : Jenkins has REPORTED for mandatory camp
Zero2Cool (9-Jun) : I really thought he'd play for Packers.
buckeyepackfan (9-Jun) : Packers releasing Jaire Alexander.
Mucky Tundra (8-Jun) : (Context: he wants his defense to create turnovers)
Mucky Tundra (8-Jun) : Giants DC Shane Bowen tells players to “be a damn pirate."
dfosterf (6-Jun) : Semper fi !
Cheesey (6-Jun) : This is why I have so much respect for those that have gone through battles
Cheesey (6-Jun) : I can't even imagine what that would have been like
wpr (6-Jun) : "Come on, you sons of bitches. Do you want to live forever?"
wpr (6-Jun) : Facing a line of machine guns 2 time medal of Honor recipient, First Sergeant Dan Daly told his men,
wpr (6-Jun) : Another detachment went into the Belleau Wood.
wpr (6-Jun) : On the 6th the Marines took Hill 142 but suffered terrible losses.
wpr (6-Jun) : It’s time to remember dfoster’s Marine brothers in Belleau Wood. The battle went on from June 1-26. Nearly 10,000 casualties.
packerfanoutwest (6-Jun) : Nick Collins and Morgan Burnett have signed with the PACK
packerfanoutwest (6-Jun) : he won't be wearing #12, maybe he will wear number two
packerfanoutwest (6-Jun) : He will fail this season, should have retired
Mucky Tundra (5-Jun) : Thus the cycle of Hall of Fame Packer QBs going to the Jets and then the Vikings is broken
bboystyle (5-Jun) : Rodgers to steelers on 1 year contract
Zero2Cool (5-Jun) : It's the cycle of civilizations. Get lazier, lazier, softer, softer and vanish.
Martha Careful (5-Jun) : great point. every aspect of society, including art, culture and sports has degraded.
dfosterf (4-Jun) : Green Bay sweep meant something to society about stopping pure excellence. We have the tush push now
dfosterf (4-Jun) : We old Martha.
Martha Careful (4-Jun) : *front four
Martha Careful (4-Jun) : Re frout four, I wish we had some Green "People Eaters" or a fearsome foursome
dfosterf (4-Jun) : *directions*
dfosterf (4-Jun) : Just don't ask him for driving direct
dfosterf (4-Jun) : Jim Marshall was an all-time great DE for the Purple People Eaters. Didn't like him. That's a compliment. RIP
Zero2Cool (3-Jun) : ooppppss
Zero2Cool (3-Jun) : “Kenny Clark played all of last season hurt by the way and got surgery to fix it in January”
Mucky Tundra (3-Jun) : @ByRyanWood How much did the injury affect him last fall? “A lot.”
Mucky Tundra (3-Jun) : @ByRyanWood Kenny Clark said he had foot surgery in January. Injured his foot in opener against Eagles and played through it all year.
Zero2Cool (3-Jun) : Golden is wearing guardian cap again. I bet he plays with it on too.
Mucky Tundra (3-Jun) : All the stuff I'm reading from Lions fans are pointing at his toe; he more or less has permanent turf toe in one of his big toes
dfosterf (3-Jun) : Kenny played through it, and a shame he gets little credit for that, imo
dfosterf (3-Jun) : Big men. I hope it's not the undoing of Kenny Clark
dfosterf (3-Jun) : Probably his toe. Pretty much a great center. Toe injuries are brutal to bigen
Mucky Tundra (2-Jun) : Lions All-Pro C Frank Ragnow retires
wpr (30-May) : It's all good.
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