1. Michael Oher played college football for the Ole Miss Rebels, earning unanimous All-American honors as a senior in 2008.
37 Facts About Michael Oher
1. 2.
Michael Oher spent his first five seasons with the Ravens and was a member of the team that won Super Bowl XLVII.
3.
Michael Oher later played one season for the Tennessee Titans and his final two for the Carolina Panthers.
4.
Michael Oher was born in Memphis, Tennessee; he was one of 12 children of Denise Michael Oher.
5.
Michael Oher's mother suffered from alcoholism and crack cocaine addiction, and his father, Michael Jerome Williams, was frequently in prison.
6.
Michael Oher received little attention or discipline during his childhood.
7.
Michael Oher repeated first and second grades, and attended eleven schools during his first nine years as a student.
8.
Michael Oher was placed in foster care at age seven, and alternated between living in various foster homes and periods of homelessness.
9.
Michael Oher's father was murdered when Michael Oher was a senior in high school.
10.
Michael Oher played football during his freshman year at a public high school in Memphis.
11.
Michael Oher applied for admission to Briarcrest Christian School at the suggestion of Tony Henderson, an auto mechanic with whom he was living temporarily.
12.
Henderson was enrolling his son at the school to fulfill the dying wish of the boy's grandmother and thought Michael Oher might enroll as well.
13.
Michael Oher did not finish the program, but was admitted when the headmaster realized that his requirement had removed Oher from the public education system.
14.
Michael Oher was a state runner-up in the discus as a senior.
15.
Michael Oher raised his 0.76 grade point average to a 2.52 GPA by the end of his senior year so he could attend a Division I school, by enrolling in 10-day online courses from Brigham Young University.
16.
That difficulty was corrected by graduation, when Michael Oher completed online classes through Brigham Young University.
17.
The second issue was the Tuohys' preexisting relationship with the school and the fact that Ole Miss hired Freeze twenty days after Michael Oher signed his letter of intent.
18.
Freeze asserted that his position with Ole Miss was not an example of quid pro quo for encouraging Michael Oher to attend the school, but rather the result of his preexisting relationship with Ole Miss offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone.
19.
Michael Oher started in ten games as a guard during his first season with the Ole Miss Rebels, becoming a first-team freshman All-American.
20.
Michael Oher was named a second-team Southeastern Conference offensive lineman after his sophomore season and a first-team SEC offensive lineman after his junior season.
21.
On January 14,2008, Michael Oher declared that he would be entering the 2008 NFL draft.
22.
Already in 2008, Michael Oher was projected as one of the top prospects for the 2009 NFL draft.
23.
Michael Oher started the 2009 season as right tackle, but was moved to left tackle after an injury to lineman Jared Gaither.
24.
Michael Oher started every game in 2009, eleven at right tackle and five at left tackle.
25.
Michael Oher was second in the voting for Associated Press' NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Award, with six votes.
26.
On March 14,2014, Michael Oher signed a four-year, $20 million contract with the Tennessee Titans.
27.
On March 6,2015, Michael Oher signed a two-year, $7 million contract with the Carolina Panthers.
28.
Michael Oher responded with one of his best seasons as a professional, protecting Newton's blind side.
29.
Michael Oher played in his second Super Bowl that season, Super Bowl 50, as the starting left tackle.
30.
Michael Oher signed a three-year contract extension with the Panthers on June 17,2016, worth $21.6 million with $9.5 million guaranteed.
31.
On July 20,2017, Michael Oher was released by the Panthers after a failed physical.
32.
Michael Oher wrote his autobiography, I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness to The Blind Side and Beyond, in 2011.
33.
Michael Oher began dating Tiffany Roy after first meeting her at the University of Mississippi.
34.
Michael Oher alleged that the Tuohys used their power as conservators to strike a deal that paid them and their two children millions of dollars in royalties from The Blind Side movie while Oher got nothing.
35.
The producers of the movie, Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove, and the author of the book, Michael Oher Lewis, denied the Tuohys were paid "millions", claiming the family was paid about $700,000 after taxes.
36.
The Tuohy family later claimed in legal documents Michael Oher tried to extort $15 million from them or else he would take his accusations to the press and social media.
37.
The Tuohys later told the court they would remove all references to Michael Oher being adopted from their website and public speaking materials.