“The Blind Side” may have impressed critics, but the 2009 Oscar-winning film is not a favorite of its subject, Carolina Panthers left tackle Michael Oher. On Wednesday, Oher said the movie has been a detriment to his football career.
“People look at me, and they take things away from me because of a movie,” Oher told reporters (via ESPN) when asked if he feels he still needs to earn his place on the team. “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,” he continued, “that has nothing to do with football. It’s something else off the field. That’s why I don’t like that movie.”
Oher has long said his character in the 2009 Sandra Bullock movie was inaccurate and not just because his character in the movie is portrayed as a rather simple-minded kid. Oher takes particular issue with the film’s depiction of him as a football novice until he was taken in by the Tuohy family, who is credited in the film as shaping Oher into the Ole Miss player who became a first-round draft pick in 2009.
“I always knew how to play football growing up,” Oher said (via Yahoo Sports) ahead of his 2013 Super Bowl with the Ravens. “Playing football is what got me to this point.”
Oher’s ex-teammates on the Ravens have also stood up for him, including Kelechi Osemele who attested Oher, the actual person, is not the same man Hollywood imagined.
Source: Washington Post | Marissa Payne
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