That guy whose story is told in 'The Blind Side'? He wants to help impoverished local kids

Michael Oher — whose poverty-to-Super-Bowl-champ story was made famous in the 2009 movie "The Blind Side" — has launched a Nashville nonprofit to help kids who grew up just like him.

Well, not exactly like him.

The first two middle-school kids to get scholarships through his foundation to go to private Lipscomb Academy high school are girls, Oher said. And they're not particularly talented at sports.

"I want kids to go someone where they’re accepted right away and have an impact, and teachers see potential and pour into them on a consistent basis," Oher said from his Brentwood home, "whether they play football or not."

Oher said repeatedly in an hourlong interview with The Tennessean and in a news release he wants to help children who grew up like him.

Oher, born into poverty in Memphis, often lived in cars, on friends' couches and on the streets in between placements in foster homes. He eventually — with help from foster parents — got a scholarship to the private Briarcrest Christian School in Memphis and excelled on the school's football team, which set in motion a long career as an NFL starting lineman.

In launching his foundation's scholarship program, though, Oher said he wants recipients to be able to chase their dreams, whether or not they include sports.

But Oher is insisting scholarship recipients have academic potential, "strength of character" and "work ethic," again, how Oher sees himself as a child.

"Even as a kid, I could see being a junkie and being on drugs just wasn’t a good thing," he said. "I saw how it destroyed my family. I knew what was right from wrong."

And Oher in these early days of his eponymous foundation is being hands on about picking scholarship recipients, meeting with as many as 20 applicants himself in the first round.

"I’m looking for a kid who’s not gonna have opportunities, but who’s a great kid who’s going to be a great influence on society," he said.

This is the beginning of what Oher hopes to be a much bigger nationwide effort to help overlooked kids in poverty. The NFL alum, who played with the Tennessee Titans before finishing his career in 2016 with the Carolina Panthers, is dreaming big. He explores some of those dreams in his second book, "When Your Back's Against The Wall: Fame, Football and Lessons Learned," which comes out Aug. 8.

Oher has envisioned and discussed creating learning centers for underprivileged kids, maybe even villages that provide housing, transportation, education and more.

Oher also told The Tennessean he hopes one day to give middle school kids scholarships to private high schools in most major U.S. cities.

"I want to have the greatest foundation out there, changing lives year in and year out."

For now, though, Oher's foundation will start with three scholarships to Lipscomb Academy each academic year. Oher is relying on donations from friends and from the public to seed these programs.

There's a place to donate on the Oher Foundation website, and a $250-a-ticket gala is planned for Oct. 27.

Reach Brad Schmitt at brad@tennessean.com or 615-259-8384 or on X @bradschmitt.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Michael Oher of 'The Blind Side' has charity to lift kids out of poverty