I Beat the Odds

This book strikes the right balance of cockiness and humility. Michael Oher is a little upset with the way he was treated in the Blind Side movie. This is his attempt to "set the record straight" with his account of his upbringing. He starts from his earliest memories growing up in the projects and continues through the period covered by The Blind Side and goes on to his being drafted in the NFL. (Perhaps he will update it to include winning the super bowl.)

The period corresponding to that covered in the Blind Side seems to agree with the other book on the major points. I had only read the book, and did not seem to see any major discrepancies in the story told in both. However, his beef seems to be primarily with the movie. While it got most of the "big facts" right, it did portray him as being "stupider" than he really was.

In this book, Oher presents the thesis that he was lucky to beat the odds and rise out of the projects and foster care system to achieve something with his life. When you live in squalor, that is what you are used to. It is difficult to be motivated to achieve anything else. Oher had a mix of motivation and a few highly motivated people that helped him to rise out of the conditions. However, there are many more people that are still "stuck" there. He would like them to have some of the basic help that he had. While the movie displays some of the "final" help in being adopted by a rich family, there were many other people on the way that helped him. These include some motivated teachers, foster parents and coaches that were willing to help him to achieve his goals. In this book, Oher is open to praise these helpers by names. He also mentions the many others that were a negative influence. Other than his mother, these were all mentioned anonymously and not dwelled on.

The book is a quick read and presents a message of the "other side" from somebody that has truly lived there. From his perspective, what is most needed is caring people willing to set examples and guide. Programs and other plans to reduce poverty coming from those that have not lived there may appear nice, but true caring is more valuable.

The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game

Lawrence Taylor willed himself to destroy the quarterback via the blind side. This lead to a changing of the way football was played. Unfortunately, there was a limit to Taylor's willpower, and he wasn't able to will himself out of an addiction to drugs.

Michael Oher similarly exhibited strong willpower. He grew up in a broken "family" in the projects of Memphis. He was in and out of school, and bounced around from place to place, trying to avoid being taken away by child protective services. His goal was to become the next Michael Jordan. He continued to work at it, even as his body grew to enormous proportions.

Through a series of fortunate events and coincidences, he was able to attend a private, predominantly white, Christian school on the "good" side of Memphis. There he was adopted by wealthy white family who helped train him on how to navigate the wealthy, "white" world. He was also discovered by the football coach. Oher's size and speed allowed him to become the centerpiece of the team's offense. Would he have had these opportunities if he were not a great athlete? Almost certainly not. However, even if he were a great athlete, if he didn't have the support network, he would never have succeeded in sports, and would probably still be on the streets.

He was recruited by many schools, and interrogated by the NCAA for rules violations. (The dark underbelly of college athletics is well exposed.) He had to a cram in many last-minute correspondence classes to get his GPA high enough to play college football.

For many inner-city kids, sports seem to be the only way out of the projects. Yet they are caught in a catch-22 where success in sports requires you to first get "out of the projects" and perform well enough in school to play for your high school and make it to college before you can finally make it to the pros and get a paycheck. There are so many chances to fail in the process, with the best "consolation prize" often being work as a gang bouncer. Does glorification of the athlete really benefit the community as a whole?

This book does present a nice uplifting story, told primarily from the point of view of Oher's supporters. (Oher is remarkably silent in this book, though he has since written his own book.) It is clear that he was strong willpower and character, but needed some guidance and opportunity to channel it. He knew he would succeed and he did.