It’s football season. Do you know how I know? My grandson wore his freshman football jersey to school today. It was his very first high school pep rally. I was told by a junior girl that the grade levels are all “color-coded” for the pep rally. Not by skin color or hair color or even eye color, the freshmen were all supposed to wear gray, a different color for each grade level. But not my grandson, he got to wear his red and black football jersey.
I have to admit to not knowing virtually anything about football. Most of the people who sit around me at the field or on the couch know a lot. That is the exact reason I’ve never asked for an ongoing tutorial. I just do not want to impede their enjoyment of the game. It seems as if whether its recreation league, high school, college, or Pro, a football lover is a football lover.
The Blind Side was released ten years ago but I honestly believe it is one of the best football movies ever made. Maybe that’s because it’s about a whole lot more than football. It’s only icing on the cake based on a true story.
Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) is a Southern Belle and former college cheerleader socialite, married to well-known college basketball star, Sean Tuohy (Tim McGraw). That was quite a long sentence and I still didn’t get in the 85 fast-food chains they own and more importantly, that they both graduated from Ole Miss, University of Mississippi. In the South, where football is a religion, that is the only place to play.
Michael Oher is an underprivileged kid that for the most part hasn’t had a life worth remembering. He’s been shuffled through the system and ends up attending a Christian School in Memphis. He doesn’t “live” anywhere and carries what little belongings he has around in a plastic shopping bag—the small kind with no handles. After a school event one evening, he catches the attention of Leigh Ann. It’s cold outside and he has no jacket. She chases him down and falls in love with this gentle giant of a child that people call “Big Mike,” that is when they bother to call him at all. Leigh Ann, Sean, and their two children are very white, by the way. Michael isn’t.
This is the true story of a child with nothing, literally being absorbed into the very fabric of a wealthy, loving family that see him as their own. I can’t even begin to explain, so I am just going to say: Watch it! Oh yes, Michael played football for Ole Miss and was later drafted by the Baltimore Ravens.
The Blind Side won an Oscar for Best Picture, and Sandra Bullock won an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and a Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actress. That, along with the $300+ million box office gross and you understand that I’m not the only one who loved this movie. It’s got heart, it’s got love, and it’s got pure human goodness. And, of course, it’s got football. Once again, I love your comments a
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