HOUR 1:
(Segment 1) Kevin Cerrito breaks down the week’s biggest stories in the Starting 5.
(Segment 2) “Feed Moncrief” rappers King Kobraz join the guys in studio to talk about their rise to stardom at Ole Miss, judging the upcoming Red Bull DJ contest, etc.
(Segment 3) Andrew Fleming stops in to rally some votes for the MLB Fan Cave competition. Cast your vote for Fleming here.
HOUR 2: (Segment 1) Hang Up & Listen.
SEE ALSO:
Click here for more MSL interviews.
Kevin Cerrito and Marcus Hunter host MemphiSport Live (MSL) on Sports 56 & 87.7 FM every Saturday from 11:00 am – 1:00 pm. MSL was voted 3rd Best Sports Radio Show in the 2010, 2011 & 2012 Memphis Flyer Best of Memphis poll.
Follow the MSL hosts on Twitter @cerrito & @marcus_hunter.
Baltimore Raven offensive tackle Michael Oher was selected with the 23rd overall pick out of Ole Miss in the 2009 NFL Draft. The Memphis native will start in his first Super Bowl Sunday when the Ravens take on the San Francisco 49ers in New Orleans. (Photo by the Associated Press)
Michael Oher wasn’t a bit perplexed. He knew it was bound to happen at some point.
So as the ESPN crew periodically aimed its cameras toward Oher during the 2009 NFL Draft, the star offensive lineman seemed his usual reserved self, relinquishing any thoughts of displaying a front for the millions of viewers who watched the opening round unfold.
Oher, as he tells it, remained poised throughout what was a lengthy process, much like the other eight first-round locks who accepted the league’s invitation of hanging out in the Green Room on draft day. Even after slipping a number of spots and eventually being left as the lone prospect in the Green Room when the Houston Texans had taken former Southern California All-American linebacker Brian Cushing with the fifteenth pick, Oher did not appear baffled.
Instead, the 26-year-old Memphis native took a moment to envision which team was on the verge of landing arguably the most talked-about prospect weeks leading to the draft, the player whom several football analysts had christened the sentimental selection, given the tumultuous life that was dealt to him prior to college. After nearly three hours, his fate had finally been sealed, capping what many would label an off-the-field comeback for the ages.
“With the 23rd pick in the 2009 NFL Draft, the Baltimore Ravens select Michael Oher, offensive tackle, University of Mississippi,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced, finally.
The former Briarcrest Christian School star suddenly emerged from the Green Room, proudly put on his employer’s cap fearing its logo, embraced his family, made his way across the Radio City Music Hall stage, shook Goodell’s hand, and then posed for a few photos with the commissioner, while holding a No. 1 Ravens jersey. Such a sequence, in a nutshell, intrinsically marked yet another chapter to a remarkable story that only keeps getting better.
On Sunday, Oher will appear on football’s grandest stage when the Ravens take on the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl 47 in New Orleans.
“It could have been shorter,” Oher, in a telephone conversation from Baltimore, said of his wait in the Green Room. “But it doesn’t matter. I got drafted and that’s the most important thing. I was excited because I knew I was going to get drafted. Don’t feel sorry for me.”
While several teams had balked at the notion of drafting Oher essentially because of what they perceived to be intelligence issues, the Ravens organization was ecstatic to see him fall to its position. Oher was a two-time First Team All-American and All-Southeastern Conference player. His skills have drawn comparisons to former seven-time Pro-Bowler Orlando Pace, who last played in the NFL (Chicago Bears) during Oher’s rookie campaign.
Thinking the Buffalo Bills were in serious discussion to acquire Oher, the Ravens traded their fifth-round selection to the Patriots to move up from No. 26 to 23. Unlike the teams that passed on him, they sensed this kid was a true mastermind on the field.
Eric DeCosta, the Ravens director of player personnel, for instance, were among those who watched Oher intensely during the club’s organized team activities and felt he would be a great fit from the outset. Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said he was among those surprised that Oher was still available after nearly three-fourths of the first round was in the books. Team general manager and executive vice president Ozzie Newsome said not only have the Ravens picked up a special player, but the city of Baltimore got a really good person.
“I think over the course of his career, we’re going to be able to enjoy both of them,” Newsome said.
The Briarcrest community certainly can attest to both sides of Oher, whose life prior to college is the subject of author Michael Lewis’ 2006 New York Times bestseller book, The Blind Side: Evolution Of A Game, and a movie entitled The Blind Side that was released in November 2009.
While growing up in North Memphis, Oher was left to fend for himself by age seven after his father, who was not involved in his upbringing, was shot to death and thrown off a bridge. His mother was an alcoholic and drug addict, and the fact that he was in school was a story in itself. He flunked both first and second grade, and attended eleven different schools during his first nine years as a student. Additionally, it was discovered that Oher had been absent from school as many as fifty days a semester, which ultimately resulted in him possessing a cumulative grade point average of .6 and an IQ of 80.
Basically, he was a lost child, one of 13 siblings to be exact.
How else to explain why the poor lad wound up safeguarding himself on the brutal streets of North Memphis, not to mention spending time in various foster homes with no permanent address until he was 16 years old? Nevertheless, there was a silver lining to a story that many, to this very day, still have a hard time believing.
With the help of an acquaintance, with whom Oher was residing temporarily, Oher enrolled at Briarcrest, a private, Christian-based
Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy, an upper-class white couple, eventually ended up adopting Oher, despite being criticized by friends and extended family members for taking in a homeless black teenager.
institution in Northeast Shelby County. Despite Hugh Freeze, the former Briarcrest and current Ole Miss football coach, expressing interest in the kid, school administrators did not feel he was capable of fulfilling the school’s academic standards given his checkered educational background. Consequently, he was granted admission through a home-study program that removed him from the public school system.
Although his grades did not reflect it at one point, it is safe to say that Briarcrest was the perfect place for this miracle child. Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy’s daughter, who was a student at Briarcrest, spotted him walking to the gym one day during Thanksgiving break. The couple stopped their vehicle and gave Oher a ride. The giving, as it turns out, did not end there. The Tuohys, an upper-class white family, eventually ended up adopting Oher, despite being grilled by friends and extended family members for taking in a poor black kid.
One moment, he’s using someone’s front porch as a mattress. The next moment, a bighearted, wealthy family is tucking him in at night.
The Tuohys gave him a home. They gave him his own room. They gave him clothes. They gave him a tutor. Most importantly, though, they provided a new beginning to the life of a kid who, not too long along, seemed headed for being yet another statistic.
During Tuesday’s media day session in the Superdome, Oher took questions from reporters, many of whom asked the former Briarcrest star about his rags-to-riches lifestyle as the Ravens prepare for Super Bowl 47. (Photo by the Associated Press)
“It’s just like a recycle thing,” Oher said of his poverty-stricken commuity. “You grow up, you drop out of high school, and go back to the hood. It took a lot of hard work for me to get out. I mean, I don’t know why I wanted to do it. I’ve never seen nobody just graduate and be productive. (The Tuohys) showed me the other side of the world.”
A world that, fortunately for Oher, will give way to him making his first Super Bowl appearance Sunday, thanks to a high school career in which he was the No. 1 offensive tackle prospect in the nation, and a collegiate career in which many dubbed him the best offensive lineman in Ole Miss history. Even before playing in his first NFL game, Oher was deemed the front-runner to assume the Ravens’ starting right tackle position following the retirement of then-thirteen-year veteran Willie Anderson. So waiting hours in the Green Room and being left by himself was time well spent, if you ask Oher.
“Where I’m from,” he said, “nobody gets out.”
Luckily for Oher, he managed to get out, capping what many would label an off-the-field comeback for the ages.
Andre Johnson is a senior writer for MemphiSport. To reach him, send email to: andre@memphisport.net. Also, follow him on Twitter @AJ_Journalist.
One of the biggest factors in sports is home field. Teams play the entire season with the mindset of if we can just get home field advantage we can win playoff games and advance to a championship. In seven game series all the lower seed wants to do steal home court advantage by stealing one of the first two games on the road. If you do not believe home field is advantageous take a look at the NBA playoffs. In game sevens dating back to 1948 the home team is 88-22 (home court did not help the Grizzlies in game seven last year). In the Divisional Round and Conference Championship of the NFL playoffs home teams are 34-16 since 2002, so home field is very important.
The home field advantage was on display again last night when DJs from surrounding Memphis area colleges battled it out to see who would become Red Bull DJ Master. DJs came from all over the Mid-South to compete, but in the end there could only be one champion.
After the dust settled and the records stopped spinning only one Mid-South DJ stood alone as Red Bull DJ Master. DJ Crumbz and DJ Charlie White narrowed the candidate pool down to just two contestants, DJ PHNX from the Unviersity of Memphis, and The Ice Cream Social from Ole Miss.
When the crowd was asked to decide the winner of last night’s epic DJ battle, they roared with a level of excitement and enthusiasm that was matched by none for the home town DJ as DJ PHNX took home the crown of Red Bull DJ Master.
All of the DJs did a great job of keeping the party hype, but it was something special about DJ PHNX. He had the home crowd behind him every step of the way. And just like we see so many times in sports, he rode the home crowd momentum all the way to the title.
Who knows what the outcome might have been if instead of holding the contest at Senses in Memphis it was held at a club in Oxford, Mississippi. Maybe The Ice Cream Social would have been able to get the crown. However, in the end it was a party in Memphis and they were unable to pull of the upset.
Congrats to DJ PHNX and the home crowd.
CJ Hurt is a regular contributor for MemphiSport. Follow him @churtj09.
Photos courtesy of Rob Underwood.
Very few things make a sports fan happier than defeating an arch rival on the field, court, diamond, or pitch (for my soccer and cricket fans). However, sometimes rivalries transcend the realm of sports and creep into our everyday life, and Thursday November 8, 2012 is one of those times.
Arch rivals (and TAM teams) Mississippi State, Ole Miss, and the University of Memphis will face off against each other, but it will not be a football or basketball game this time. It will be a DJ battle to determine who is Red Bull DJ Master.
So what Mississippi State has beat Ole Miss in football the past four years and demolished Memphis last football season 59-14. It does not matter if Tigers basketball is head and shoulders above their two rivals fromMississippi, or that Ole Miss is a top 15 party school according to the Princeton Review. All that matters tonight is what happens when the DJ’s from these schools compete for the title of Red Bull DJ Master.
One of the great things about the contest is that each DJ must include aMemphisbased artist in their 15 minute set.
Come out and support your favorite college tonight and show that your school dominates your rivals not just in sports but in clubs as well.
WHO: Battling DJs: DJ Ben Murray, DJ PHNX, DJ T.Marsh, GLOtron, Ice Cream Social, & DJ TUGaWAR.
Headliners: DJ Crumbz & DJ Charlie White
WHAT: Red Bull DJ Master is a competition that gives campus DJ’s from the University of Memphis, Rhodes,Ole Miss & Mississippi State the chance to show off their talent and display their music versatility. Each DJ will perform one ten-minute set that must include a Memphis based artist. Well-respected and popular Memphis talent DJ Crumbz and DJ Charlie White will pick the top two DJs, and let the crowd determine the winner based on their cheers.
WHERE: Senses
2866 Poplar Avenue
Memphis,TN 38111
WHEN: Thursday, November 8, 2012
10:00 pm
CJ Hurt is a regular contributor for MemphiSport. Follow him @churtj09.
The UT Vols have been hit with the SEC’s curse
But the Ole Miss Rebels have it even worse.
The Vols have no conference wins – zip, zero, nada, no doubt.
While Ole Miss likewise has been totally shut out.
The Tigers are so bad they have become a bore
And it has been mentioned they might stop keeping score.
OK, Ole Miss fans would be all smiles
If the Rebels could hire LSU’s Coach Miles.
And Nick Saban would be a perfect fit for Tennessee.
A couple of years down the line and they’d be home scot-free.
But the Tigers are different — how does this sound:
It would take the Almighty Himself to turn them around.
So Tiger fans hang tough and please don’t blow it,
Because basketball will be here before you now it…
Written by Jack Eaton on 11/06/11. “Big” Jack can be heard every Friday at 8am on KWAM 990 alongside former County Commissioner John Willingham. He was recently inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame.
 Our TAM teams celebrated Halloween early this past weekend, and I do not know what is scarier, this grotesque razorback or the grotesque first halves Arkansas has been dealing with the past two weeks. Like Arkansas, Southern Miss also faced a first half scare before rebounding in the second half to win their game against UTEP. Nightmare seasons for Ole Miss and Tennesse continued as they reamin two of the three teams in the SEC without a conference win. Speaking of nightmares, Arkansas State is keeping every offensive coordinator in the Sun Belt up at night as not a team in the conference has been able to score more than 24 points on the terrifying Red Wolves’ defense. Equally as scary has been the play of the bottom dwellers MTSU and Memphis who both followed up wins with blow out losses. Mississippi State struck fear into yet another SEC East foe on Saturday to improve Coach Mullin’s record against SEC East opponents to 6-3 in his tenure at Mississippi State. Too bad the Bulldogs are in the SEC West where the only team they strike fear in is Ole Miss. This week’s most disappointing team is Vanderbilt who controlled most of the game Saturday against Arkansas, but lost anyways thanks to a truly greusome finish for Commodore fans, with a fumble inside the Razorbacks’ five yard line that was returned for a touchdown and a missed field goal to force overtime. Without further ado, the TAMs Rankings for the week of November 2, 2011…Rankings compiled by MemphiSport. Updated every Wednesday.
1. Arkansas (7-1): Last week No. 1
3. Mississippi State (4-4): Last week No. 3
4. Vanderbilt (4-4): Last week No. 4
5. Arkansas State (6-2): Last week No. 6
6. Tennessee (3-5): Last week No. 5
7. Ole Miss (2-6): Last week No. 7
8. MTSU (2-5): Last week No. 8
9. Memphis (2-6): Last week No. 9 The Mid-South is full of fans with allegiances to different area college football programs. Which FBS program in the three states surrounding the Memphis area is the best? To help end some arguments and start others, every week MemphiSport ranks all the college football teams in Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi. We call it the TAMs Rankings.
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Ole Miss made some important changes this season replacing long time mascot and Rebel fan favorite Colonel Reb with a new mascot, Rebel Black Bear. Some fans are struggling to come to terms with the fact that Colonel Reb is gone and that is to be expected. After all, nobody got the crowd going at an Ole Miss football game like Colonel Reb. While Colonel Reb’s ability to motivate the fans was great, the success of Ole Miss on the football field was minimal. Since the Colonel appeared on the sidelines in 1979, Ole Miss has not won a national championship or an SEC title. The football team’s record with Colonel Reb on the sideline is an unimpressive 140-134-4, finishing ranked only five times with him on the sidelines of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium from 1979-2003.
Even with all the years of futility under Colonel Reb’s watch some Ole Miss fans are refusing to give Rebel Black Bear a chance. Few mascots are more beloved than Colonel Reb, but even fewer mascots carry the racial stigma that he does.
Ole Miss fans have always been slower than most to accept change, and you do not have to look too far in the past to see examples of their stubborn nature. In 1997 when then chancellor Robert Khayat banned sticks from the stadium in an attempt to keep confederate flags out of sporting events, Ole Miss fans responded the same way. Even though Coach Tommy Tuberville said openly on several occasions that the confederate flags make it difficult to recruit blue-chip black athletes. Fans hid behind a misguided sense of tradition and fought the decision every step of the way, just like they are doing now with Colonel Reb. Supporters are now trying to pass a measure to put Colonel Reb on the 2012 election ballot to get him reinstated as the schools official mascot.
Do the die hard traditionalist fans at Ole Miss not see that the traditions are making it difficult to recruit black athletes? Young and talented black people are turned off by images of a plantation owner as a mascot, the confederate flag, and “Dixie”. Ole Miss is losing top recruits because the school has not progressed with the times, and when the school does try and progress fans behave in such a way that it leaves a sour taste in the mouths of people across the country, hurting the perception of the university.
Maybe Rebel Black Bear is the mascot they need to get the job done at Ole Miss. He is a ferocious beast, does not offend anybody, and he has a great back story involving former president Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt. After all, Colonel Reb’s tenure at Ole Miss was not as successful as some might think on the field, and off the field he served as a reminder of our nations painful past.
CJ Hurt covers college football for MemphiSport. Follow him @churtj09 for live tweets from games.
Photo by JD Meredith.
As a long time Rebel fan… Great Caesar’s ghost
Auburn just knocked us from pillar to post.
We gave ‘em a game for a while but it didn’t last
And in the second half, we faded away… really fast.
Is it the coach,the players or maybe a little of each
Blaming the Chancellor may be too much of a reach.
Our football program is so bad,there’s so much we lack
The question among the alumni is- “Can we ever come back.”
The Rebels will come back but not with what’s at hand
Someone has to assert themselves and take a stand.
We need a Johnny Vaught type, a leader if you please
But unfortunately guys like that don’t grow on trees.
But the sooner we begin looking the quicker the start
We will find him and then the alumni will do their part.
Give him what he needs – turn him loose
Show that ‘ol Rebel spirit- plug in the juice.
So come on Rebel fans join with the crowd
Lets make Jake Gibbs and Archie really proud.
Let’s send a message-hear us roar
We’ll be the SEC’s doormat never more…
Written by Jack Eaton on 10/30/11. “Big” Jack can be heard every Friday at 8am on KWAM 990 alongside former County Commissioner John Willingham. He was recently inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame.
For Ole Miss football fans it’s a season of discontent
As they wonder where their football went.
And considering the Rebels play it’s not so strange
That a vocal few have been calling for change.
Now a 45 point loss can’t be allowed to pass
And their patience has reached a critical mass.
Since the football program is dead now, their goal
Is for many many heads to roll.
They’ve had it with Coach Nutt, he’s become a bore
And they want him gone-out the door.
Pete Boone doesn’t get away Scott free
They want him hanging from yonder tree. (figuratively speaking)
So the fans have spoken,they’ve had their
And change is coming,it’s on the way.
The odds are short, 10 out of 10
It’s not a matter of if–but when.
Written by Jack Eaton on 10/16/11. “Big” Jack can be heard every Friday at 8am on KWAM 990 alongside former County Commissioner John Willingham. He was recently inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame.
Photo by JD Meredith.
A Tigers football poem, how very neat
How about-another game, another defeat.
East Carolina if you want to know what
Came to town and kicked our butt.
And to add insult to injury it came to a head
When they casually up and covered the spread.
To close it out I’ll just say this
It’s a doggone shame they can’t play Ole Miss.
Written by Jack Eaton on 10/16/11. “Big” Jack can be heard every Friday at 8am on KWAM 990 alongside former County Commissioner John Willingham. He was recently inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame.
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