Name: Michael Oher On What 'The Blind Side' Got Wrong About Him | The Jim Rome Show
Uploaded: 2023-08-22T21:01:30.000Z
Duration: 14 min 4 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Michael joins us here in the studio. Mike, how (are) you doing, man?

First, football question: you played under Hugh Freeze and now he was back at the SEC.

You played for him under Ole Miss at Ole Miss.

Hugh has had some ups and downs in his career as well.

But in this book, you talk about how much you appreciate him that you're still friends to this day.

So tell me about your relationship with Hugh and how do you think he'll do at Auburn?

We could say all the way back to high school.

And he was my high school football coach.

And he was one of the first mentors I saw do it the right way; football-wise off the field, fundamentals, technique.

I learned from him that the coach is way more important than the player because I saw a bunch of guys who didn't quite have the talent beat a guy, beat a lot of guys who had tons of talent.

And that's where you know, fundamentals and technique became a big emphasis in, you know, how I approached the game of football.

But at all, he facetimes me all the time when he has a big-time recruiter in, you know, lets me talk to the big0time recruits.

But, I think he's a genius offensively and I think he'll do fantastic right away.

You played with some of the greats and you were on that Super Bowl team that ended Ray Lewis's storied and fame career.

You won the Super Bowl with the Ravens in 2012.

What was the fire from Ray? Like we saw what it was on screen. What was it like behind the scenes?

I still get chills watching his videos today.

Behind the scenes, you know, you come in, I came in, I think he was in year 12 or something.

So, you know, we looked up to Ray Lewis, every guys like that like they were a Marvel character.

So, to have him be able to go out on the field pregame and just get us pumped up, man.

He could just look at us, (and) we'll get fired up, man.

We used to hang out and just, I mean, to be around guys like that--

If he hadn't, me personally, if he hadn't said he was going to retire a few weeks before the playoffs started, I don't think we would have won the Super Bowl because for me, everybody locked in.

You think guys like that are gonna play forever?

You know, when he said, when he talked to the team, I told him, "Man, I thought you was going to retire with me."

I think, everybody develop a sense of purpose, a sense of urgency and, you know, headed toward one goal and for him to retire on top. It meant a lot.

One theme from this book and some of the other interviews you've done is that what you see is not always the truth.

And that there's a lot of narratives out there that may not be even attached to truth.

And you mentioned Cam Newton in this, you were a teammate of his in Carolina.

You guys went to the 2015 Super Bowl, lost to the Denver Broncos.

But you said your interactions with him very different than how the public perceived him.

Well, I think I related... we relate because I'm, I feel that I'm misunderstood.

You have to get to know someone personally and you can't just go off a picture or a video or a small clip.

I mean, Cam is one of the most genuine fun-loving guys I've ever been around. Jeez.

We spent a ton of time together, week in and week out, off days.

And, you know, just, when your character is, your character is everything, that's what you work for.

And when someone doesn't appreciate who you are as a person, I think, you know, that carries more weight than anything.

But me, personally, you have to get to know people, but Cam is, he's still a fantastic guy.

And yeah, you definitely have to get to know people.

Michael Oher joins us here in the studio; author of the new book - "When Your Back's Against The Wall."

And you just said you feel like you've been mislabeled sometimes, misunderstood.

And I think at least from what I've read in the book, a lot of that stems from how you were portrayed in the movie, The Blind Side, and that people might have the wrong idea of your personality.

Number one that you were this kind of shy wallflower that you were timid and you had to be kind of like drawn out of your shell.

When in reality, you were a workaholic, you were hyper-organized and you were like, "Damn it, I'm making something of myself no matter what it takes after a rough background."

Is that the big one that you feel you were mislabeled as?

I think it took away the hard work and the dedication that I created from a child and going to school in the third grade, getting myself up, first one in the locker room, last one out.

And I think the biggest for me is, you know, being portrayed (as) not being able to read or write.

(In) second grade, I was doing plays and for in front of the school.

And I think that's one of the-- when you go into a locker room and your teammates don't think you can learn a playbook, you know, that weighs heavy on someone.

I understand that the movie has given me a position. I'm honored to have the position it's given me.

But, you know, you have to understand before I moved in with the family.

That's what I want the generations behind me to see in this book right here to understand that you don't have to come, have someone save you and rescue you to go out and be successful.

You got every tool in you, in this book right here is a playbook on life.

You know, looking yourself in the mirror when I was (a) 11, 12-year-old kid, telling myself,

"Hey, everyone around you is even in an even worse situation that you're in. So you're gonna have to get up and do this thing yourself and developing a routine right then,"

when I could have given up at 11, 12 year old as an 11 to 12 -year-old kid.

So that's what I'm trying to paint the message in this book right here.

And looking through everything that I went through and finding a positive in it.

And it wasn't that you don't have gratitude to the family that took you in. That's really not the message.

Very grateful, very grateful for every family that helped me throughout this journey.

It's a lot of people that deserve a lot of credit.

For me, I want to show the young people in everyone behind me that "Hey, you deserve some credit for your hard work. You can get it done and that's really the goal."

So for those that don't know, you grew up in a really difficult situation, no one in your family had aspired to really have a career.

Many didn't want a job, the people that you were around didn't have anything to do most days.

Poverty, homelessness, the projects in Memphis, you were just surrounded by a culture of, there's really nothing to life, there's no way out,

but you somehow figured out that you needed to see something else.

I think you described it as like standing in front of an ocean when you walk to the edge of the projects that there was a whole something out there that you had no idea about.

How do you gain a perspective in a cycle that usually doesn't allow that?

I think I was blessed with being on the streets from the time I was three years old, in and out of foster care from 3 to 10.

- On the streets for a year - You're blessed.

After running away from foster home at 10 years old and being placed in a mental hospital and running away from there a few weeks later.

And the state has gaven up on me and gaven back custody and the struggles that I had early on being inside of in and out of homes on the streets.

11, 12 years old, going to school on my own in the third grade and from their own.

And your family, not to interject, but a lot of crack addiction amongst your family and your parents, you didn't know your dad.

That was the norm at the time. That's the way we grew up.

But you grow up so fast, like I said, you understand what's right and what's wrong.

So from that point on, when I started going to school on my own, I was gonna do the right thing.

Because I knew what the wrong thing was and I didn't want to be there and I saw what it did to my family and I saw the situation that we (were) in.

So, you know, I was gonna put it in my mind and imagine a, a future and go chase that.