First of all, let me say up front that the University of Mississippi, otherwise known as "Ole Miss" sucks out loud.  While the clearly superior minds at Mississippi State University are making breakthroughs that feed billions and keep beer and soda fresh, Ole Miss continues to churn out ambulance chasers, quacks and egg headed Faulkner wannbes.

That out of the way, there's a player on this year's team, left tackle Michael Oher, who is garnering national attention.  Moneyball author Michael Lewis' new book, The Blindside, chronicles Oher's rise from the streets and crack houses of Memphis to becoming one of the most sought after players in years.  Personally, I haven't heard buzz about a high school kid since Dan McGuire.  Similar to big Dan, Oher's appeal is in his physical proportions.  He's enormous at 6' 5" and 330 lbs, but at the same time, he can move like a guy coming out of the backfield.  Lewis interest in him springs from the fact that the game of football has changed over recent decades to the point where a left tackle is almost as important a position as quarterback.

Like I need a book to tell me what studs left tackles are.  That's what I played in high school, but I digress.

I saw Oher play on the TV this morning against Alabama, and he lives up to the billing.  I saw him make some beautiful blocks that I'm sure went unnoticed by 99.9% of the viewing audience, so I get a certain amount of satisfaction knowing that he and his position are receiving some positive attention.

Not all of it, however, will be positive.  Another reason Lewis is so interested in this kid is because of his friendship with Oher's adoptive parents, a  rich white, evangelical Christian family from Memphis who also degraded themselves by attending the University of Mississippi.  Coverage is predictable from certain corners of the cultural commentariat.  LA Times' Calendar Live section has this concern:

Lewis also documents the rule-bending done to keep Oher college-eligible. The administration at his high school accepts him although he can barely read. He secures a full-time tutor. When his grade-point average still proves too low for the NCAA, his adoptive father, a canny former college basketball standout named Sean Tuohy, manages to find a crucial loophole. He has Oher tested to prove he's learning disabled, then has him take numerous easy, online courses. Lewis treats these measures as ingenious. We are meant to cheer the fact that Oher has gamed the educational process.

How else are we supposed to react?  This may come as a surprise to those of you who know that I am a public school teacher, but I think it's terrific that Oher has had advocacy to get him through the government monolpoly that on one hand fails to educate him and threatens to deny him the chance to benefit from his natural gifts on the other.  It is the height of hypocrisy for reporters, public school teachers and NCAA officials to gasp and clutch pearls at the thought of an ignorant football player making it into big time college football.  Of the half dozen stories I've read that seem to bristle at the thought, none of them display any distaste for the notion that a school system allowed a child to go nine years without teaching him how to read.  Before anyone suggests taking millions of dollars out of this guy's hands, they should demand that every teacher and principle he had be fired and forced to pay back every cent they earned while they weren't teaching him anything.

As for his adoptive parents and the benefits they might derive from his success, so what?  They still took him in and showed him the love and compassion he never got as a child.  They did the work no one else was willing to do.  What exactly should have happened with this kid--the rich Christians should have left him at the bus stop?

Gosh...imagine what I'll have to say once I've finished reading the book (shouldn't take more than a few more visits to Borders to finish).  Just give me time; afterall, I am a former left tackle.

My Mind is Clean