I Beat the Odds_ From Homelessness, to the Blind Side, and Beyond - Michael Oher [64]
The third thing that happened, though, stung most of all. A few weeks before draft day, ESPN draft analyst Todd McShay said that I had "character issues" and listed me as one of the three "riskiest picks" in the upcoming draft. I couldn't believe it. I didn't understand what he could have possibly meant. Just a few months earlier, in December, McShay wrote about me on ESPN.com , saying: "While he possesses the physical tools to warrant top-15 consideration, it will be interesting to see if he slips to the bottom half of the first round--or beyond--because of concerns regarding his work ethic, motor and overall toughness." I didn't understand how he could drop me from the top fifteen to being one of the "riskiest," and then to say that I had character issues. I had always worked so hard to live responsibly and train harder than anyone else.
In fact, I even looked up the definition of "character" after I heard McShay's remarks, because I thought that maybe I had the wrong idea about what it meant and I was not being fair to him by being offended by what he said. But everything I read about character just confirmed what I felt: The comments were totally off base and completely unexplainable.
Thankfully, Coach Nutt was just as confused by McShay's comments as I was. He talked to the Memphis Commercial Appeal about me, saying: "I've had him for a year and there isn't a better person than Michael. He never was belligerent, always 'Yes-sir, no-sir,' worked hard in the weight room, voted captain and he played great all season long." It made me feel so much better knowing that my head coach was willing to vouch for my character.
I decided to just shake it off. I figured that McShay must have had me confused with someone else. But as you can probably imagine, Leigh Anne was not happy. She was so angry that someone would say something like that about one of her children without having met us. I think I might have had to calm her down a bit from going into full-on "mama bear mode."
When April 26 arrived, I was sitting in a room in Radio City Music Hall in New York City, waiting to hear my name. The Tuohys were all there, as was my big brother Marcus and Miss Sue. We were sitting in a room with a number of other players who were expected to go in the very first round. It was crazy to look around the room and see other big-name college football players like Matthew Stafford, Jason Smith, Eugene Monroe, Josh Freeman, Aaron Curry, Brian Cushing, and Michael Crabtree sitting with their families all trying to play it cool, even though I knew they were probably feeling every bit as on top of the world as I was.
One by one, their names were called. As they left the room for their photo ops, I was still sitting there. Finally, I was the last person left in the room and my heart started to sink. For a split second, I started to panic, thinking McShay's comments must have really spooked some coaches; or maybe they had believed that now that I had a family, my drive to prove something with my game was gone; or maybe they had read the book and incorrectly assumed I wasn't smart enough to learn the team's playbook.
But then I looked around and thought, "Michael, you are at the NFL draft. You are at the NFL draft! What were the odds of this just a few years ago? Who cares if you are the number one pick or the number one hundred pick--think of what you've accomplished and what you've gotten to be a part of!"
And just then, my phone rang. I was the number twenty-three overall pick, and I was moving to Baltimore.
I couldn't have been happier. I respected Coach John Harbaugh from his time with the Eagles before taking over as head coach for Baltimore and was thrilled at the idea of playing