In a bit of surprising news this Thursday afternoon, it’s being reported Michael Oher will report to Carolina Panthers training camp. David Newton of ESPN broke this news, noting Oher’s status with the team remains uncertain.
For good reason.
Oher is still in the NFL’s concussion protocol. He suffered his concussion all the way back in September of last year and missed the Panthers’ final 13 games. As such, he hasn’t been able to participate in any of the team’s offseason workouts.
Furthermore, Oher has been in the news a couple of times for troubling reasons. He was arrested for assaulting an Uber driver back in May. Then an Instagram post on his account showed 10 bottles of pills with the caption, “all for the brain.”
Head coach Ron Rivera has been non-committal about Oher’s status with the team.
“We’re going to go into training camp with the guys that we have,” Rivera said. “We’ll have 90 on our roster, and we’ll be ready to go with those guys.”
It’s great that Oher reportedly is planning to show up to camp. It could indicate he’s taking positive steps in his recovery from what was obviously a traumatic head injury. We wish him nothing but the best as that recovery continues.