Everybody loves a real-life sports drama that tugs on the heartstrings and ends up with a positive message and the main characters coming through tough times to prevail. ‘The Blind Side’, released in 2009, had all those characteristics and more and made over $309 million at the box office as well.
Sports do lend themselves to rags-to-riches tales and ‘The Blind Side’s story of an underprivileged black teenager making it through to the NFL thanks to the help of a caring white family made just about everyone feel good that through perseverance and teamwork, good things can happen.
The inspiration behind ‘The Blind Side’, Michael Oher, has now retired and does not feature on the sportsbooks profiled by websites such as at Sportsbetting.com. But he has made a reappearance in the media in recent weeks. It’s not because of his onfield exploits this time though. He is in the news for filing a petition in a Tennessee court against the family that took him in. So what is the real story of The Blind Side? And what is the legal state of play now?
‘The Blind Side’ Movie
The critics didn’t universally love it when it was released in 2009, but The Blind Side certainly hit a chord with the public. It easily made a profit, as cinemagoers took to the ‘good things happen to good people’ story of a young black man who turns away from his impoverished life and attempts to make it as a professional football player.
Sandra Bullock played the woman in the couple that took Michael Oher in and was praised for her performance. It was a role that won her an Academy Award. But it was her name that trending on social media recently when the news of the court petition was announced. Although she can still be proud of her performance in the film, the story itself is now at the center of controversy.
White Savior Stories
These kinds of stories are not new in American cinema. They are not always based on real life, but the idea of a white person coming to the aid of a non-white character and rescuing them from unfortunate circumstances has been a trope for as long as there have been movies.
Regularly a particularly clumsy and offensive storyline for a film to follow, it suggests that the white savior possesses innate characteristics that the non-white character does not have. There is also the chance for the white character to gain insight and learn life lessons from the non-white character – while still being the one that saves the day.
The Real Michael Oher
The true-life Michael Oher was born into a disadvantaged home, with an addict mother and a father who spent time in and out of prison. He was one of 12 children and attended 11 schools in his first nine years as a student. He was taken into foster care at just seven-years-old and was homeless for a time.
But he showed a talent for football and got to the point where he was attracting interest from major Division I schools. In 2004 he was taken in by Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy and his battle to raise his grades and to be good enough to win a football scholarship is the plot of The Blind Side.
Michael Oher did get to play college football and then went on to be taken 23rd overall in the 2009 NFL Draft by the Baltimore Ravens. He went on to win a Super Bowl with the Ravens before playing for the Tennessee Titans and the Carolina Panthers before retiring in 2017.
Problems with The Blind Side
The main reason why Michael Oher is now petitioning a Tennessee court is the way the Tuohys have profited from his success. But there are other inaccuracies in the Oscar-winning film that plays into the white savior trope and throws a different light on the relationship between Oher and the Tuohys.
One of the biggest is the way that the movie ends. After being promised scholarships from a number of top schools, including the dominant Alabama Crimson Tide, Oher elects to go to the very good – but inferior – University of Mississippi. In The Blind Side Oher proclaims that he has chosen Ole Miss because “that is where his family goes to school”.
It is true that both Sean and Leigh Anne attended Ole Miss and were big fans of the football program there. Maybe if Michael Oher hadn’t been directed into going there he could have played at a higher level and done even better as a professional football player. He did win a Super Bowl, but there may have been even more success had he played for the best possible college football team.
Michael Oher Misconceptions
More sinister is the way that the way that The Blind Side told Michael Oher’s story has been accepted as the truth. This is very often the case when it comes to sports dramas based on real-life events. When viewers know that the story is true, they take everything that happens in the movie as the gospel truth. The based on part of the marketing plan is forgotten.
In the film, Oher is portrayed as someone who can hardly read or write but also needs the basics of football to be explained to him. In reality, Oher was already a huge prospect at high school level and had worked hard to improve his grades. But even when he made it to the NFL, teammates treated Oher as if he would not be able to read playbooks and was essentially stupid.
The Legal Situation
Now Michael Oher is trying to right the wrongs that the film embedded in popular culture. He also alleges that the Tuohys claimed that he was their adopted son but only conned him into accepting them as his conservators after his 18th birthday. This allowed the Tuohys to make business deals on his behalf and make a lot of money from his name and talent.
Oher says that there was extensive exploitation of his name and is seeking to redress past deals. Whether he is financially rewarded remains to be seen but hopefully his true story will be revealed to a wider public, at the very least.
