Blog post #5, chapters 10,11, and 12, pages 263-313

For this week I finished my book and read chapters 10, 11, & 12. This was pages 263-331. These chapters were about Michaels outstanding college football experience and the time leading up to him being a first round NFL draft pick with the Baltimore Ravens. It also went into great detail of the parts of his life that were not talked about earlier in the book. It told about how he and his 13 other brothers and sisters had raised themselves on the streets of Memphis and avoided foster care. It also explained how even though he was a better football player, when he was a little kid he had wanted to be the next Michael Jordan when he grew up. To me, what I find amazing about the Michael Oher story is that many people in his situation would have never made it to the NFL. He grew up in the poorest part of Memphis and was around gangs and drugs for most of his life. In the book the author says: "As Michael entered his freshman year in high school, he had before him one obvious career path. Once he quit school he would have waiting for him a single, well paying, high status job: bodyguard to Devin Lane. Or rather, since Devin had moved on, to Devin's successor. The job was to watch the back of the guy who ran the only real business in the neighborhood. Left tackle of the ghetto."(310) It's amazing that Michael even graduated from high school, much less make it to the NFL with his background. As the author said he would have ended up being the left tackle of the ghetto. If I were to rate this book on a scale of 1-10, I would give this book a 9.5.