Where is Michael Oher now? He is working to support the less fortunate

The fact that Michael Oher made it to the NFL can be considered a miracle. Oher had the odds stacked against him in his early life that few predicted he would make it to the top football league, let alone win the Super Bowl. Oher’s improbable route to the NFL featured in the Academy Award-winning film, The Blind Side. 

Oher won his first Super Bowl ring as a starter for the Baltimore Ravens. He experienced an unsuccessful with the Tennessee Titans before turning his career around with the Carolina Panthers. Unfortunately, Michael’s NFL career ended after struggling with post-concussion syndrome.

Michael Oher had a less than ideal start to life. Oher’s father left Oher’s addicted mother to take care of children in the inner cities. His mother, Denise, fell victim to the crack cocaine epidemic, affecting her ability to raise the kids.

Oher and his siblings scrambled for whatever little Denise could provide. ‘When my mother was off drugs and working, she would remember to buy groceries, and there would be a mad scramble to grab whatever you could before anyone else got to it,” Oher wrote in his autobiography. 

Child services took over the siblings’ care, sending Michael to foster care. Foster care didn’t work, forcing Michael to become homeless. Luckily, Oher found a family to support him; however, he knows that few will get as fortunate as he did.

“I’m still traumatized, and I still deal with things that I dealt with as a kid,” Oher told People. Oher’s mental state started to improve after he got into a stable family that could provide necessities. He continued:

“When I started to see that I had two or three pair of shoes to wear to school and I had multiple pants, my mental health started getting stronger. I could focus on school, and my grades started to go up. I was eating, so I could focus on other things rather than being hungry, that’s when I really started to excel.”

Oher has donated to the less fortunate for a long time, but in recent years, he’s gotten more involved in the distribution of provisions. His app, Good Deeds, connects donors to people in need. Michael told People that the app reduces wastage of donated materials:

“I was watching the news and so many bottles of water got left in a warehouse. Supplies never got to the people. I would donate stuff all the time to the shelters, the thrift store, things like that and it just got me thinking. I’m donating all this money and I don’t know if it’s going to the people that are in need.”

Michael also runs The Oher Foundation, which aims to break ‘the cycle of poverty, addiction, and hopelessness.’ The Foundation’s website reads: “I have built my foundation with the mission of serving those suffering from impoverished conditions and facing life’s hardships, and now, it is our job to help them win.”

The Blind Side launched at around the same time Michael Oher earned his position in the NFL. It cast a spotlight on him even before he played his first game with the Ravens. 

The pressure didn’t appear to affect him: he ended up winning a Super Bowl with the team. However, as his career wound down, Oher claimed that people scrutinized his game more because of the film. He told ESPN:

“They don’t really see the skills and the kind of player I am. That’s why I get downgraded so much, because of something off the field. This stuff, calling me a bust, people saying if I can play or not… that has nothing to do with football. It’s something else of the field. That’s why I don’t like that movie… That’s why people criticize me. That’s why people look at me every single play.”

Quinton Aaron, the actor who played Michael in the film, advised Oher to focus on the film’s positives. He also told Michael to drown out people’s opinions and work on getting back to his best. 

“Who gives a damn about what people say or think?” Aaron said. “That shouldn’t matter. Somebody is always gonna have something to day that you’re not gonna like… So what?”

Oher heeded Aaron’s advice, massively improving his stats in the next season. Unfortunately, he suffered a head injury that forced his premature exit from the NFL.