On a relaxing Saturday afternoon, I sat in my comfortable living room, munching on some rather tasty popcorn, and taking in an Oscar-nominated movie with a fantastic performance by an Oscar-winning actor. It took a few moments, but once into the movie, I began to feel extremely grateful for my surroundings. Three quarters of the movie in, the character central to the storyline was confronted by an official investigation on the “oddity” of his admittance into college. And then, I got to thinking…

If you haven’t yet seen “The Blind Side”, it is a movie well worth seeing. It is one of those movies that brings about a few realizations and comments for you… First, you’ll easily think of how grateful you are for the opportunities you’ve had in your life. And, secondly, you’ll hope that you have the courage it takes to be as good a person as was Leigh Anne Tuohy. The Blind Side tells the story of an inner city teen, who went from being homeless (couch surfing) to becoming a great NFL athlete. Meet: Michael Oher.

I won’t spend much more time on the story itself. Suffice it to say that if you haven’t seen it – I, for one, strongly recommend it.

SPOILER ALERT: Though, this is not really a spoiler since most people would have had a chance to know how things turned out for Michael Oher…

 

I want to go back to the part of the movie that made me think about possibilities: As Oher graduated from high school and received numerous scholarships to play at many well-deserving colleges he ultimately chose to play for the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). Incidentally, Ole Miss was the alma mater of the Tuohy’s. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) investigated Oher’s “odd” predicament by suggesting that the Tuohy’s purposely brought in “an inner city kid to groom him to play for their alma mater”. The suggestion went further to suggest that because of his result, other “rich people (like the Tuohy’s)” would take in these types of children so they could play for their favourite schools. FULL STOP!

My argument here: who cares!? Listen Mr/Mrs NCAA: Without the Tuohys, the opportunities and circumstances that kept Michael Oher safe and gave him a chance to be in the NFL may not have occurred. And, frankly, if this story makes other more fortunate people reach out and open their homes and hearts to “inner city kids”, and gives these kids a chance – is that so bad?

In his book the Outliers, Michael Gladwell tells us that an “outlier is a scientific term used to describe things or phenomena that lie outside normal experience”. Michael Oher is one such “outlier”… and so are the Tuohys. If this story can inspire other outliers to step up and make these kinds of deep, fundamental changes in society, than I encourage that fully!

Perhaps the NCAA might want to look at creating a program of this nature that can bring people together to inspire and encourage these types of actions? Perhaps this might be a great place to seed hope?

A recommendation to the NCAA: You might be a part of the solution to help people make lemonade.