Michael Oher now living up to “The Blind Side”
Carolina Panthers left tackle Michael Oher’s career got of to a slow start after he was drafted No. 23 overall in the 2009 NFL Draft by the Baltimore Ravens. And he openly blamed much of that slow start on the “The Blind Side,” a blockbuster film inspired by his real-life journey to the NFL.
Oher voiced his frustration to ESPN last summer, saying, “I’m not trying to prove anything. People look at me, and they take things away from me because of a movie. They don’t really see the skills and the kind of player I am. That’s why I get downgraded so much, because of something off the field.
“This stuff, calling me a bust, people saying if I can play or not … that has nothing to do with football. It’s something else off the field. That’s why I don’t like that movie.”
And now, here we are at the end of the season he was preparing for and he seems like a man now at peace with the movie. He should be by now because during the 2015 season, he proved to be capable of protecting the blind side of a franchise quarterback. And he better be because in the 2-week buildup to the Super Bowl.
He told ESPN Wednesday, “I guess it’s a good story. It’s a great story. “They helped me to get this point from what I can tell. They’re my family and without them I wouldn’t be here. They taught me a lot of things, showed me a lot of different things. It shows that if you help somebody and give somebody a chance and don’t judge people look where they can get to.”
After Oher didn’t live up to the hype of the movie and his draft status in Baltimore, quarterback Cam Newton still believed in him. And he showed that belief in him this offseason when he made his pitch to woo Oher to Charlotte in free agency. Newton want to make sure how important Oher was to him and the team.
He told the media Wednesday, “With the free agent pool, I’ve sent texts out before, called guys and said, ‘We’d love for you to be part of the team.’ But Mike was different,” Newton said. “I didn’t say, ‘I want you to be here.’ It was, ‘I need you.’ That’s different. Want and need are two different words, and that’s what I used in that text, along with other explicit words before the ‘need.’ And I think he got the feeling from that.”
And Oher has been good in pass situations for Newton.
Hence, Newton will be the NFL’s MVP and the Panthers are playing in the Super Bowl.