Michael Jerome Oher is a former American football offensive tackle who played in the National Football League for eight seasons, primarily with the Baltimore Ravens.
Michael Oher: Calls the blind side a massive lie| Arrested| Age
Calls the blind side a massive lie:
After all, it’s hard to outshine Sandra Bullock. Before Oher spent eight years in the NFL, he was one of the subjects of acclaimed author Michael Lewis’ 2006 book, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, and then the sole focus of its big-screen adaptation, The Blind Side.
The movie, written and directed by John Lee Hancock, traced Oher’s journey from homeless teenager to Division I All-American left tackle for Ole Miss. A smash hit that made over $300 million at the box office, the film won Bullock an Oscar but took some liberties with the particulars of Oher’s life story. In some ways, the real story is even more amazing than what was shown in the movie.
Arrested:
“When my mother was off drugs and working, she would remember to buy groceries and there would be a mad scramble to grab whatever you could before anyone else got to it,” he wrote in his 2014 memoir. The problem was that she was rarely off drugs and working, so Oher was a nomad from an early age.
Child services removed him and his siblings from their mother’s home when Oher was at the tail end of first grade, and he bounced around between foster families, friends’ couches and wherever else he could find a warm place to rest his head.
Age:
35 years
28 May 1986
Born Michael Jerome Williams, Jr., in Memphis, Tennessee, he was one of 12 children of Denise Oher. His mother suffered from alcoholism and crack cocaine addiction, and his father, Michael Jerome Williams, was frequently in prison.
He received little attention and discipline during his childhood. He repeated first and second grades, and attended eleven schools during his first nine years as he’s a student.
