![]() ![]() During Michael’s junior and senior years of high school, the Briarcrest football team does exceptionally well, thanks largely to Michael’s massive size and skillful maneuvering. Michael endears himself to Collins and Sean Junior, the Tuohys’ two biological children-in particular, Sean Junior, who’s much younger. Around this time, the Tuohys decide to adopt Michael as their own child. He becomes calmer and more outgoing around his peers-where before he barely spoke, he now laughs and jokes. She gathers that he lives with his mother, but doesn’t ask any questions about her.Īs Michael begins to distinguish himself in football practices, he begins receiving scholarship offers from Division I colleges. Shortly after he begins to distinguish himself as a football player, Leigh Anne decides to let Michael stay at her house, rather than going back to the inner-city every night. He’s so big and wide that he can tackle anyone-indeed, his coaches think he’s probably the biggest kid ever to attend Briarcrest. But Michael’s greatest talent seems to be as a football player. He’s an excellent basketball player-big, but also fast and agile. Michael works with special tutors and brings up his grades just enough to play basketball and football. Sean is sympathetic to Michael, but his wife, Leigh Anne Tuohy, is even kinder: she buys Michael food and clothes, and drives him wherever he needs to go. As a result, he’s better than other Briarcrest coaches at having a rapport with black students from poor neighborhoods, such as Michael Oher. Sean is a self-made millionaire who grew up in an impoverished household. However, the Briarcrest basketball coach, Sean Tuohy, notices Michael watching the team’s games. Michael isn’t allowed to play sports right away, because his grades are poor. He’s a slow learner in class, largely because he hasn’t had many of the experiences that his classmates take for granted-he’s spent his entire life in the inner city. Michael’s early days at Briarcrest aren’t happy: he’s incredibly shy and lonely, and barely speaks. Reluctantly, the Briarcrest administration agreed to admit Michael, in spite of his low test scores, partly because Michael seemed like he could be a talented football player, and Briarcrest was full of football-loving teachers, administrators, and alumni. Big Tony had taken Michael in because Michael seemed not to have a family of his own now, he tried to provide Michael with an education. One was Tony’s son, Steven the other was a kid named Michael Oher. In the early 2000s, at a time when left tackles were beginning to command massive, seven-figure salaries, a man named Big Tony, who lived in the Memphis inner-city, tried to enroll two students in the prestigious Briarcrest Christian Academy. Where before, all linemen had been treated equally, left tackles were increasingly paid high salaries-if the left tackle didn’t do a good job of protecting the quarterback, the quarterback could be horribly injured, just like Theismann. In the aftermath of the Theismann injury, coaches began recruiting big, heavy left tackles who could protect a quarterback’s blind side-i.e., the area, usually to the quarterback’s left, that was left defenseless when the quarterback turned to throw the football. Perhaps the defining football moment of the period came in 1985, when Lawrence Taylor “sacked” the legendary quarterback Joe Theismann, ultimately breaking Theismann’s leg and ending his career. Rushers became bigger and faster, meaning that quarterbacks had slightly less time to react or pass the ball to their receivers. Lewis begins by describing how in the late seventies and early eighties, there was a major change in the way football was played at the highest levels. ![]()
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