Most people know Michael Oher because his story was told through the popular book and movie The Blind Side. Oher is no longer playing on “the blind side,” (he’s been moved to right tackle), but he received attention last week for a tweet he sent when Apple CEO Steve Jobs died.
“Can somebody help me out?” he wrote on Twitter. “Who was Steve Jobs!”
Oher’s tweet seemed lazy at the least — if he knows how to operate Twitter from his phone, why didn’t he just perform a quick Google search to find out? Or maybe he was trying to prove a point: although many people were acting like the world had come to an end, there were some people who didn’t know of Jobs. The ultimate irony was that Oher was tweeting from an iPhone — one of Jobs’ finest creations.
In an article published Thursday in the Carroll County Times, Oher responded to the Jobs controversy. The lineman said he was caught off guard by the harsh reaction to his question about Jobs and defended himself.
“Oh man, that was terrible,” Oher said. “I grew up knowing Bill Gates. I didn’t know who Steve Jobs was. When did I have an opportunity to learn who Steve Jobs was? I didn’t get it. It was crazy how people responded.
“I’m a pretty smart guy, on and off the field no matter what people think. I asked the guys in the locker room and half of them didn’t know who he was before he died. It is what it is. People have their own opinions.”
I’m with Oher on this and have two thoughts. One, Jobs wasn’t a widely-known public figure. If you’re reading this store on your mobile phone or iPad, we’re obviously not talking about you. To the rest of America, Jobs wasn’t as well known as say, the president of the United States. Secondly, if you saw or read The Blind Side, can you really be surprised that he didn’t know of Jobs? Not everyone grew up living the Apple life. Give the guy a break.
