Opinions are what they are ...some are shallow with content and some have depth, some are base on facts, assumptions, experiences, rumors ect.........at the end of the day it is still an opinion.

I have a hard time understanding why people continue to bash the Tuohys. I know he is an Ole Miss guy, but come on already. Even if everything you say is true (it's not)...He and his wife are money grubbing racists who are taking advantage of a kid by funneling him to their alma mater and then their agent with hopes of cashing in on his future success... What's the problem with that? Did the give the kid a place to stay? Yes. Did they teach the kid to read? Yes. Did they help him get a college education? Yes. Did they help him realize his dreams? Yes. Gee, I wish people would take advantage of me like that!! The Tuohys did more for Oher than his own family did and their bad people for it? Face it, the only reason why you don't like the story is because he has Ole Miss on his helmet.
I'm happy for Oher and the Tuohys, it is great when ANYONE gets to live their dream through hard work and determination.

Im happy for Oher..If you havent lived/worked around the kind of kids like Oher you wouldnt understand. There are tons of kids out there with "athletic potential" that dont have any help. Yea they could have taken an unathletic kid and brought him in, but would he have that passion to do right? You bring in a big kid who wants to play in the NFL and give him hope at it...and hope for the best. Im not sure about Briarcrest being racist I went to Memphis Catholic and my public school friends thought MCHS was a racist school. IMO because a school may be mostly white doesnt make it racist not one bit. Would white people consider BBHS a racist school? Regardless if you like the Tuoys or not they gave him a chance and it paid off big time. If she wanted him to disown Memphis honestly oh well whatever. I dont care if he loves Memphis, I was born here and I would love to move. At the end of the day a young man went from not having a family to having a family. Not having ANYONE who gave a damn about him, to having a family get him through school. Im happy for him regardless of him going to BHS and Ole Miss. Im sure there are kids out here who see him as a role model it is what it is.

Forgot to mention..,

Implant had missippi fire a few coaches she did not like. That was to make room for some Briarcrest coaches down there- all of which was part of the package deal involving the double admission of a functional illiterate at a private school then a university.

But yes...this was pure quiet altruism.

If you want to blindly look at the fact a wealthy couple adopted and helped out a poor inner city kid, so be it. If you familiarize yourself with the rest of the story and the people involved..it is unfortunateley less inspirational.

Read the book.

What's the book?

The Blind Side, by Michael Lewis.

Good read. I didn't take away the "disgust" that Mimi did, but factually, everything he recounts is accurate.

The deck was stacked against the kid, so I'm glad that he's in a better place.

I read the book.
Accolades to the Touys and all of the people who played a role.
Congrats to the kid.

without the Touy's hes probably a gangbanger right now

with the Touy's 1st round pick in the nfl

It dosent matter if the Touy's had a motive or not they helped that kid out alot

(04-26-2009 10:30 AM)Mimi Wrote:  Forgot to mention..,

Implant had missippi fire a few coaches she did not like. That was to make room for some Briarcrest coaches down there- all of which was part of the package deal involving the double admission of a functional illiterate at a private school then a university.

But yes...this was pure quiet altruism.

If you want to blindly look at the fact a wealthy couple adopted and helped out a poor inner city kid, so be it. If you familiarize yourself with the rest of the story and the people involved..it is unfortunateley less inspirational.

Read the book.

If you want to be a lawyer, accountant, software designer or film producer they don't force you to play basketball or drive a truck or anything else that is unrelated. I have no issue at all with a football player who has to cheat to get into university, as long as they make a reasonable attempt to do the work when they get there. Basketball is different because you can get to the league through high school, Juco, NBDL, Europe, etc.

I hate Ole Piss and I hate the Ravens, but I'm ecstatic that a guy like Oher can get paid a fortune for something that he was born to do. It seems crazy that society would force a lot of kids like Oher to work for the minimum wage their entire lives just because they aren't smart; especially if they have to deal with disadvantages growing up.

I wish there was more cheating to get football players into school. Maybe there is but most of the other student athletes are spared the indignities that Oher was.

Oher himself I am happy for.

Cannot share the same sentiment about this case glorifying cheating and lying...if Oher never got the opportunity to play ball and attend schools he was clearly and completely unqualified for the net sum here would be zero. The Ravens would have drafted someone else and there would be just as many players in the NFL. Then we would simply have one less that was encouraged by those that no better (the Tuoys) to cheat and lie in order to get what you think you deserve.

But yes, Oher himself, other than his deciding to lie to Phil Fulmer and him getting in a pointless fight that nearly killed a kid (twice) is relatively blameless.

I'm still curious as to why you think B-crest is a racist school. I didnt go there (went to Harding) but had some good friends who did. I dont see it. What gives?

(04-26-2009 01:03 PM)Mimi Wrote:  Oher himself I am happy for.

Cannot share the same sentiment about this case glorifying cheating and lying...if Oher never got the opportunity to play ball and attend schools he was clearly and completely unqualified for the net sum here would be zero. The Ravens would have drafted someone else and there would be just as many players in the NFL. Then we would simply have one less that was encouraged by those that no better (the Tuoys) to cheat and lie in order to get what you think you deserve.

But yes, Oher himself, other than his deciding to lie to Phil Fulmer and him getting in a pointless fight that nearly killed a kid (twice) is relatively blameless.

My point is that if he went to Memphis you wouldn't have a problem with it. We all know Cal bent a few rules to land a recruit or get him to qualify and we all applauded him for it. I read the book and came away with two observations...
1) Glad I didn't grow up like Micheal Oher
2) Micheal Oher is better off having met Sean Tuohy

(04-26-2009 02:01 PM)wyogrizboy Wrote:  My point is that if he went to Memphis you wouldn't have a problem with it. We all know Cal bent a few rules to land a recruit or get him to qualify and we all applauded him for it. I read the book and came away with two observations...
1) Glad I didn't grow up like Micheal Oher
2) Micheal Oher is better off having met Sean Tuohy

Oher may be better off---as to his family that Implant encouraged him to abandon---that is your call. And the overall sentiment of the Tuoy's from 5 years ago was detrimental to the Michael Oher types, if not Oher himself. Again, read the book. If any wealthy family hand picked one kid from anywhere and lied and cheated and lavished expensive attention on him even while that kid still did some eregious things (including lying himself) then the kid would likely do better.

Do not assume I would have no problems if Memphis admitted someone who could not read. I would didlsike it just as much. I was glad when Banks got kicked off our team, I was happy to see Bailey go and there are many more examples.

This is all being applauded after the fact because he can block. Friend of the family Lewis was not flattering towards this overall disgusting episode. Point is, Tuoy types and tehir bashing of the inner city and tehir abandonment of the city schools followd by their disparaging comments about those same city schools helpsed create some of teh very problems Implant felt so good in allegedly addressing.

This is unfortunately a no budger for me. Please- read the book and then see if you still get the warm fuzzies. And I will say right now, if our best football player (Tigers) cannot read, I do not want him at the university.

(04-25-2009 10:53 PM)Mimi Wrote:  NTR.

While some see this as inspiring because a wealthy white family adopted a poor black inner city kid and that kid ended up in the NFL---I see it as disgusting...

An illiterate kid gets admitted to a private high school because the equivelant of an AAU scout delivers him.

The kid has football ability so the otherwise racist private school gives him tutors and special attention so he can marginally get by the remedial level classes, but not to the point that he remotely could ever consider getting into a real college.

The kid plays around with Phil Fulmer and utk...since he knew he was going to his benefactor's alma mater...despiet the fact that by any measure utk was a superior program (and this was supposed to be about football).

The kid, who after graduating from Briarcrest is still a functional illiterate, gets squeezed into ole miss by taking fringe meaningless non academic BYU correspondence courses, which effectively renders his college admission a joke.

His "mom" encourages him to abandon any fragment of his Memphis culture, and his "mom" says disparaging thinkgs about Memphis and the Memphis schools, ignorantly not realizing that implant chasers like herself that abandon the city helped exacerbate any problems.

The kid gets in a nonsensical fight while at ole miss that nearly kills a little boy.

But all is well because after being lavished with tutors, after being taught that cheating is ok, after being delivered by bthe AAU equivelant, after being singularly helped and encouraged to abandon his city, his family and his culture, he gets drafted.

I see everything that is wrong with athletics and with look at me self righteous gimme some credit implant waving racists like Mrs Tuoy tryinng to alleviate their guolt by "helping" out a single kid while harming the community the kid came from (although after the backlash from Blind Side they have finally outreached a little).

The Tuoy's and their $4,000 couches they were worried Oher would sweat on or break can take all these fake plaudits and stick it.

And yes, if Memphis admitted an illiterate I would be just as disappointed.

I have never read or posted to an internet web site, but when my husband asked me to read this one, "Mimi" made me mad. I am a character in the book, but more than that, I am a real, live, working educator who worked with, loves, and adores Michael Oher. I will not respond to the racist comments of "MIMI", but I will say that BCS took a bad situation and used it for good. Michael Oher was not and is not illiterate. He was not and is not dumb/stupid. He was an unschooled individual who has been given a gift by God. All athletics aside, the gift was the gift of an education. Briarcrest took the time and effort to educate a young man more in 3 years than MCS had in 9. Where is the sin in that situation? You have cast stones on a family and a school that you don't know. You don't know the hearts of the staff members that probed and prodded Michael to be the best he could be. You don't know the heart of the family that quietly put money on his lunch card because their child went home and said the "new kid doesn't eat because he doesn't have money." You, sir or madam, don't know the other children that BCS goes out of it's way to help. BCS is not an elitist school that snubs its nose. It's a Christian school that works hard to represent Christ in our words and deeds. We didn't cheat for or with Michael Oher. WE taught him to be the best he could be by working hard, respecting himself and others, love the LORD, and hopeful to turn the cheek to the people in this world that talk about things they know nothing about.
I apologize if I have offended anyone else in this internet conversation, but the Tuohy's are good folks. Briarcrest is a good school and GOD is faithful to the faithful. This person has really offended me by their lack of factual information. Congratulations Michael. You are still my favorite #74. I guess I have a new team to cheer for now!

all the argument and debate aside, there are plenty of folks that, when facing the situation Michael was up against, wouldve let life break them...instead he rose above it. period. i havent yet read the book but intend to do so and regardless of cheating, deals, bla bla bla, he is clearly a gifted young man to become that driven...seeing his face during the draft yesterday was beautiful--he is living his dream and will truly work hard and be grateful for his experience as a professional athlete and for that i applaud him whole heartedly

You are personally involved- makes you incapable of seeing this with any type of neutral reason.

Yes- he was simply a man child that needed to be harnessed.

We get it.

Sorry you are angered...but your love for Briarcrest or the like has created a "Blind Side" in your ability to analyze why this suituation has many holes in it. It would be great if the BCS mission became one in shich any problem and illiterate child gets a paid for opportunity. That is not the case. Cheating, lying and manipulation simply cannot be BCS attributes.

Note- the stripped to the bone issue of helping a kid makes it easy to like this story. The realty of what went on makes it less pretty.

(04-26-2009 02:57 PM)staciemontero Wrote:  a gifted young man

He is big and strong.

Those are and were the gifts.

Anything else---with lavished attention and money and skipping rules and lying and cheating- there are a lot of otherwise problem kids that would come out smelling like roses.

(04-26-2009 02:31 PM)tigercat11 Wrote:  We didn't cheat for or with Michael Oher.

All evidence to the contrary.

Sorry- again---you are personally involved- and you like the kid.

But BCS compromised their principles here.

If Oher showed up without the AAU style promoter, this never happens. This is not taking away from Oher being a big kid and a good football player. This is pointing out the nobility being trumped up here is far from it.

(04-26-2009 02:58 PM)Mimi Wrote:  

(04-26-2009 02:57 PM)staciemontero Wrote:  a gifted young man

He is big and strong.

Those are and were the gifts.

Anything else---with lavished attention and money and skipping rules and lying and cheating- there are a lot of otherwise problem kids that would come out smelling like roses.

ur going on and on and on about this like u have never cheated at something in your life, of lied about something or took a short cut to make it easier for you

(04-26-2009 02:58 PM)Mimi Wrote:  

(04-26-2009 02:57 PM)staciemontero Wrote:  a gifted young man

He is big and strong.

Those are and were the gifts.

Anything else---with lavished attention and money and skipping rules and lying and cheating- there are a lot of otherwise problem kids that would come out smelling like roses.

i meant gifted in the sense of his ability to overcome...im not arguing with your take on the situation and whether there was cheating involved or not..that very well may be the case...but once again those circumstances would render most people broken and unproductive...thats all i was trying to say