(WMC-TV) – Memphis native Michael Oher continues to defy the odds as the star athlete is set to play in his first Super Bowl this weekend.
And the Tuohy family that helped him get there will be watching front and center. They say the only hard part is waiting for Sunday.
First there was Briarcrest High School, then Ole Miss, and now the Super Bowl-bound Baltimore Ravens.
No matter where NFL star and Memphis native Michael Oher has been or is going, his adopted Tuohy family is right behind him.
"The epitome of proud," Leigh Anne Tuohy said. "I think I've slept in my jersey for probably a week now. I'm not going to take it off.
"I don't know if it's been 7 years or it's been 7 weeks, and it seems to have taken forever," Sean Tuohy said.
By now most have seen Oher's and the Tuohy's real life story on the big screen in the movie "The Blind Side." Oher was struggling through hardships in Memphis and was eventually raised by the Tuohys.
Now when he comes through the tunnel on Sunday he'll be fighting for his first Super Bowl trophy.
"Every time he runs through there, to me it just reads, ‘you made it, you did it,'" Tuohy said.
The Tuohys will take off for New Orleans on Wednesday. Oher's brother S.J. goes to college in Baltimore, where he normally gets to cheer on his big brother, but the family says they can't wait to see its newest member in his first Super Bowl.
"He doesn't think anything other than that ‘we're going to beat the San Francisco 49ers.' I mean that's how it is: ‘we're going to win the game.'"
Regardless of whatever numbers end up on the scoreboard, Leigh Anne Tuohy says her son has already won and hopes his story encourages others that you can go from the streets to the Super Bowl.
"It means hope for other kids as well because if Michael can do it, then a lot of people can do it," Touhy said.
Oher isn't the only Mid-South football player in the big game. Morgan Cox from Collierville also plays with Oher on the Ravens as a long snapper.
Click here for more Super Bowl connections.
Copyright 2013 WMC-TV. All rights reserved
