Hitchens story is better then the Blind side by a mile

That was a cool story. I'll 2nd the opinion this is better than "The Blind Side" b/c this Hitchens story strikes me as genuine kindness/sacrifice..."The Blind Side" sounds more like what could become "the next big thing" in SEC recruiting (rich white people targeting athletic blacks to funnel to their alma mater!)
 
528646 said:
That was a cool story. I'll 2nd the opinion this is better than "The Blind Side" b/c this Hitchens story strikes me as genuine kindness/sacrifice..."The Blind Side" sounds more like what could become "the next big thing" in SEC recruiting (rich white people targeting athletic blacks to funnel to their alma mater!)
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It is possible that both this and the Blind Side story are about genuine kindness and sacrifice. Why do you feel the need to question or denigrate that family's genuine acts to pump this one up? Maybe you weren't trying to do that, but it sure looks like that is what you were doing.

Just because they were from the SEC doesn't mean they couldn't be doing a genuinely nice thing. There are genuinely nice people that don't live in Iowa (or where this took place) or that never lived in Iowa. In fact, rich, white people in the south that did what they did for Michael Oher probably sacrificed some friendships along the way as a result of what they did in taking that kid in. And I don't need a scene in the movie to tell me that. That strikes me as people that are genuine in their motives.

The Hitchens story is great. Don't get me wrong. I just don't like seeing someone else being torn down for no good reason, just because there is a good story about a Hawkeye, too.
 
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Thawki said:
It is possible that both this and the Blind Side story are about genuine kindness and sacrifice. Why do you feel the need to question or denigrate that family's genuine acts to pump this one up? Maybe you weren't trying to do that, but it sure looks like that is what you were doing.

Just because they were from the SEC doesn't mean they couldn't be doing a genuinely nice thing. There are genuinely nice people that don't live in Iowa (or where this took place) or that never lived in Iowa. In fact, rich, white people in the south that did what they did for Michael Oher probably sacrificed some friendships along the way as a result of what they did in taking that kid in. And I don't need a scene in the movie to tell me that. That strikes me as people that are genuine in their motives.

The Hitchens story is great. Don't get me wrong. I just don't like seeing someone else being torn down for no good reason, just because there is a good story about a Hawkeye, too.
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Maybe the OP should get a pass on this. Here is part of the story you might want to read again.

Comparisons to The Blind Side, the movie that dramatizes the journey of Michael Oher from poverty to the NFL, are inevitable. But the stories of Oher and Anthony Hitchens are far from identical.
One difference is economic. Anthony didn’t move in with a family of privilege.
Amy has been the supervisor of child care at a homeless shelter for much of the last 15 years. Brad was a crane operator at the Charter Steel Mill for 23 years before non-alcoholic cirrhosis ended his employment. He now lives on disability with 63 percent of his cousin’s liver.
Family and friends in the community came together to raise the $100,000 needed for the transplant to save Brad’s life.
“I think this is even a better story than The Blind Side, although I might be a little biased,’’ says Mike Collier, the athletic director and football coach at Clearview High School.
 
SayHawkKid said:
Maybe the OP should get a pass on this. Here is part of the story you might want to read again.

Comparisons to The Blind Side, the movie that dramatizes the journey of Michael Oher from poverty to the NFL, are inevitable. But the stories of Oher and Anthony Hitchens are far from identical.
One difference is economic. Anthony didn’t move in with a family of privilege.
Amy has been the supervisor of child care at a homeless shelter for much of the last 15 years. Brad was a crane operator at the Charter Steel Mill for 23 years before non-alcoholic cirrhosis ended his employment. He now lives on disability with 63 percent of his cousin’s liver.
Family and friends in the community came together to raise the $100,000 needed for the transplant to save Brad’s life.
“I think this is even a better story than The Blind Side, although I might be a little biased,’’ says Mike Collier, the athletic director and football coach at Clearview High School.
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I did read the story. Perhaps I can just say that I don't think anyones's acts of kindness need to be diminished just because of someone else's acts of kindness, regardless of who is making the comparisons. I didn't exactly rip the OP, but it was his words that he was posting as opposed to simply stating that is what the story said.

They are both good and genuine stories. Enough said.
 
Sorry, I don't think I'm the first person to question "The Blind Side" though.

The Blind Side people were well off, these people are obviously not.
Michael Oher was already a proven commodity/prospect (it's not like Michael was a 5'3" chess club kid with one leg shorter than the other), Hitchens was 12!
Oher got funneled to these peoples Alma Mater, Hitchens people had not Alma Mater to funnel him to in the first place!
Oher's story has generated a book and hugely profitable movie, most of us learned Hitchens story when this article came out (not to say there couldn't be a follow on book or movie, but I kinda doubt it - you'd have to either call it "The Blind Side II" or look like a total copy cat!)

I'm just saying, there is plenty of ammo to question the Oher's motives (or if not motives, what they had to sacrifice vs what they got paid back with) - on Hitchens side, this looks to be people trying to help out someone they care about, pure & simple. And if you think the Oher's story hasn't generated some thinking/scheming around SEC land, you're nuts!!!
 
528646 said:
Sorry, I don't think I'm the first person to question "The Blind Side" though.

The Blind Side people were well off, these people are obviously not.
Michael Oher was already a proven commodity/prospect (it's not like Michael was a 5'3" chess club kid with one leg shorter than the other), Hitchens was 12!
Oher got funneled to these peoples Alma Mater, Hitchens people had not Alma Mater to funnel him to in the first place!
Oher's story has generated a book and hugely profitable movie, most of us learned Hitchens story when this article came out (not to say there couldn't be a follow on book or movie, but I kinda doubt it - you'd have to either call it "The Blind Side II" or look like a total copy cat!)

I'm just saying, there is plenty of ammo to question the Oher's motives (or if not motives, what they had to sacrifice vs what they got paid back with) - on Hitchens side, this looks to be people trying to help out someone they care about, pure & simple. And if you think the Oher's story hasn't generated some thinking/scheming around SEC land, you're nuts!!!
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All of that is irrelevant. Even in SEC country, there are people who are capable of doing truly genuine things like that. Is there reason to believe maybe there was an ulterior motive? Perhaps, but remember, Oher had never even played football before. I'd rather believe it was a genuine act of kindness than to dismiss it as more SEC shenanigans, simply because the family happened to be an SEC family.
 
tm3308 said:
All of that is irrelevant. Even in SEC country, there are people who are capable of doing truly genuine things like that. Is there reason to believe maybe there was an ulterior motive? Perhaps, but remember, Oher had never even played football before. I'd rather believe it was a genuine act of kindness than to dismiss it as more SEC shenanigans, simply because the family happened to be an SEC family.
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As far as never playing football before, Hollywood thought that made a better story - but reality is different.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Oher#Early_life

I'll summarize - he played at his public school in 9th grade and then at Briarcrest for 2 more years before being taken in by the Oher's. Get a load of his football accolades the season BEFORE the Oher's so generously took him in:

After the 2003 football season at Briarcrest, he was named Division II (2A) Lineman of the Year in 2003, and First Team Tennessee All-State.[SUP][3][/SUP] Scout.com rated Oher a five-star recruit and the No. 5 offensive lineman prospect in the country.

He lived with the Oher's during his senior (2004) season - at which time he would have already been established as one of the top prospects in the country.
 
528646 said:
As far as never playing football before, Hollywood thought that made a better story - but reality is different.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Oher#Early_life

I'll summarize - he played at his public school in 9th grade and then at Briarcrest for 2 more years before being taken in by the Oher's. Get a load of his football accolades the season BEFORE the Oher's so generously took him in:

After the 2003 football season at Briarcrest, he was named Division II (2A) Lineman of the Year in 2003, and First Team Tennessee All-State.[SUP][3][/SUP] Scout.com rated Oher a five-star recruit and the No. 5 offensive lineman prospect in the country.

He lived with the Oher's during his senior (2004) season - at which time he would have already been established as one of the top prospects in the country.
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Regardless, I'd rather assume the best in people in this situation.
 
tm3308 said:
Regardless, I'd rather assume the best in people in this situation.
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I honestly wish I was more like that, but unfortunately my life experiences have led me to be highly skeptical/distrusting of people's motives (especially when money and/or big time college sports come into the picture!) :)
 
I had heard things after the Blind Side story came out that all that wasn't exactly as the way the movie portrayed it. (we all know that Hollywood does what they do) I don't want to take away too much from a family that did open their doors in that type of situation. But there were all kinds of whispers of how the family was used to get him to Ole Miss.... Regardless of the football part of the story it's a sacrifice they had to make. It's not just money as huge as that is it's their time and ability to love and accept someone new. Albeit not nearly as much of one as Hitchens family did. They had no more room. They had to add on to the house for crying out loud. Hitchens story doesn't have even a sniff of any corruption or ulterior motives. Bottom line is if these stories came out at the same time witch one is getting the movie deal? Anyone else think the family type atmosphere Ferentz and the Iowa football program may have been a selling point for Hitchens to come? I think so too.
 
I'm a bit surprised in todays media world that his story hadn't been out there more. The coaching staff obviously knew his story day one of recruiting him. I'm not sure if that started sometime his JR yr or SR yr. It does fit Hitchens personality to not want it out there. He seems like a really humble down to earth quiet guy. So it only makes me admire him more and his family. His family could have very easily tried exploiting it for help. That hasn't been the case witch makes a guy like me only want to help them more if I could. A family in their shoes, how could anyone blame them if they were to. The Ohers seemed to do all they did to not only help him (witch they did) but funnel him to Ole Miss and exploit their generosity for fame/profit when they already were pretty well off. I'm not a Cowboys fan by any means but for him to go from where he was as a young teenager to playing in that monster stadium this year will have to be one heck of a fairytale ending for a movie to me.
 
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