the investigation

“So began the investigation of Michael Oher... Some college football coach had gone to the NCAA and accused the Tuohy’s of abducting Michael and showering him with possessions in exchange for becoming the future left tackle of the Old Miss Rebels.” (Lewis, 197)

It wasn’t a surprise to me when I read that an NCAA investigator was called in to investigate the adoption of Michael Oher. The competition involved in American football recruitment is huge especially with a player like Michael Oher. When his adoptive family, the Tuohys had a reputation as “boosters” for Old Miss the situation needed to be looked into. Looking from the outside in on Michael’s new life style you would see a rich, white, republican family taking in a big, homeless, African American teenager. The Tuohys gave him a place to stay, food to eat, clothes to wear, an education and a loving family. They taught him how to play football and got him a private tutor so he could be eligible for a football scholarship. You would see the tens of thousands of dollars thrown towards Michael which in the NCAA’s eyes could have been some attempt to circumvent the rules and buy Michaels’ favor. A poor black football star inside the home of a rich white booster family’s home could be made to seem scandalous, and so in came the investigator. The investigator, Joyce Thompson, said she was just trying to establish the facts of the case, but as Lewis states “the facts didn't describe the case... they had violated the letter of every NCAA rule ever written.” I feel they gave Michael more than food, clothing, and shelter. They'd given him a life. In a way I can fully understand how the NCAA would think that the Tuohys only adopted Michael because they wanted to groom him into Ole Miss’s next best left tackle, but if you look at the time line, the Tuohys took Michael in way before he showed anyone his athletic ability. The Tuohys took him off the street with a failing grade point average and no future and in my opinion just gave him the foundation to become the person he was always destined to be.