@@http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blind_Side_(film)@@For 17 years, Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) has been in foster care with different families throughout Memphis, Tennessee. Every time he is placed in a new home, he runs away. His friend's father, whose couch Mike had been sleeping on, asks Burt Cotton (Ray McKinnon), the coach of a private Christian school, to help enroll his son and Mike. Impressed by Mike's size and athleticism, Cotton gets him admitted despite his abysmal academic record. After school one day, Michael is befriended by youngster Sean Jr. "SJ" (Jae Head). SJ's mother Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) is a strong-minded interior designer and the wife of wealthy businessman Sean Tuohy (Tim McGraw). After a late night Thanksgiving school play, Leigh Anne notices a poorly-dressed Michael walking on the road, shivering in the cold; when she learns he intends to spend the night huddled outside the warm gym, she offers him a place to sleep. The next morning, she finds Michael leaving. She asks him to spend the holiday with her family. Slowly, Michael becomes part of the Tuohy family, even as Leigh Anne's rich friends wonder what she is doing. One even suggests that her teenage daughter Collins (Lily Collins) is not safe around him, to Leigh Anne's disgust. At first reluctant to get involved, Sean eventually lists the Tuohys as Michael's emergency contact. When Leigh Anne seeks to become Michael's legal guardian, she learns that he was separated from his drug-addict mother when he was seven, and that no one knows her whereabouts. She is also told that even though he scored low in essentially every aspect, Michael is in the 98th percentile in 'protective instincts'. When his grades improve, Michael is allowed to join the school football team. After a shaky start, Michael dominates on the field. SJ sends out videos of the games to college coaches around the country. Leigh Anne discovers that to get a NCAA Division I scholarship, Michael needs a 2.5 GPA, so they hire a tutor, Miss Sue (Kathy Bates). Some of the teachers help out as well, and Michael ends up with a GPA of 2.52. When eager coaches come recruiting, Leigh Anne makes it known that she prefers the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss), as both she and her husband are alumni. Miss Sue, another Ole Miss alumna, tells Michael (who dislikes horror films) that the FBI bury body parts under the University of Tennessee's Neyland Stadium for research; Leigh Anne particularly loathes that school. Michael selects the University of Mississippi. Subsequently, Michael and the Tuohys become the subject of an NCAA investigation. The investigator tells him that the Tuohys are fervent Mississippi boosters (subject to special restrictions) and his high school coach got a job at Ole Miss after Michael chose the school. Michael leaves the room and confronts Leigh Anne, asking her if she only took him in so he would play football for her alma mater. He leaves before she can answer. Michael goes to his birth mother's apartment in the projects. His old friends welcome him, but then their leader makes crude remarks about Leigh Anne and Collins. A fight ensues; Michael dispatches three thugs before fleeing the scene. Leigh Anne goes in search of Michael. He finally calls her, and they meet at a neighborhood laundromat. Leigh Anne tells him she will support any decision he makes. Michael returns and satisfies the investigator by explaining that he chose Ole Miss because his whole family has gone there. Later, leaving Michael at the university, Leigh Anne feels happy for Michael and also for what he has done to strengthen her family. The film ends with the 2009 NFL Draft, showing the real Michael Oher being drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in the first round. A montage of photographs of Oher and the real Tuohys follows, with Oher's success in the NFL detailed. The end credits include a dedication to director John Lee Hancock's father, a football player and coach who died in 2009.