Mike Fisher likes to joke that he landed his job due to a "series of very poor decisions." More than a few film buffs wouldn't mind having such bad judgment.

Once a quarterback for the USFL's Denver Gold, Fisher, 48, makes a living these days helping to coordinate the action sequences in commercials and sports movies. One of his recent projects was to orchestrate the football scenes in "The Blind Side," the adaptation of Michael Lewis' acclaimed best-selling book about Michael Oher, the Ravens' tackle who overcame a troubled childhood in Memphis to become one of the nation's most coveted high school stars. The movie, in theaters now, took in $34.1 million in box-office sales in its first weekend.

"When you go from third-team USFL quarterback, where else is there to go? Straight to Hollywood," Fisher joked recently.

After his football career ended more than 20 years ago, Fisher, 48, found work as an actor in commercials. His athleticism was an asset, as his ability to dunk a basketball helped him land a few roles.

Along the way, he saw some things he didn't like — and he saw an opportunity.

"I think it was the quarterback in me or whatever that every set I was on, from the casting to the choreographed action, was so disorganized that I kind of stepped into that role — 'Hey, let me organize that for you,' " he said. "So, I got to be known as the guy that you could call and get a team or get a bunch of players who could set up all this stuff. And slowly, it just evolved."

In "The Blind Side," Fisher had a good idea of what he wanted the on-field action to look like, as director John Lee Hancock's screenplay clearly spelled out what Oher's character (played by Quinton Aaron) was to do.

"In some cases, the action will make absolutely no sense," Fisher said of some movie and commercial scripts. "The writer will have been a very good writer but doesn't know anything about sports. So he'll just get to the sports part and say, 'Game action — we see amazing plays' or whatever. He doesn't really put anything in there. But that wasn't the case in 'The Blind Side.'

"In this particular script, it was very well written, and all I basically had to do was follow John's directions."

From there, Fisher, who also worked with local high school coaches to find players for the game and practice scenes, sought to make the action realistic and visually appealing.

"With the left tackle, we have him pulling," Fisher said. "We obviously throw some screens where we get to see him moving and he's just not standing in one position, blocking a guy, pancaking a guy on a one-yard quarterback sneak. We try to make it as exciting as we can for one of the big guys — put it that way."

Aaron, a relative unknown, lost more than 100 pounds to play the role of Oher, who is exceptionally athletic. Aaron took part in some of the action shots, with a body double replacing him in others. "There wasn't anything that we asked him to do that he didn't give it a good shot," Fisher said.

Most of Fisher's work has come in commercials. He's worked with the famed Wieden+Kennedy advertising agency, which is best-known for its work with Nike, and he orchestrated the game action in a recent commercial starring Vikings RB Adrian Peterson for the shoe company. He's also done work for Gatorade and has begun work on a commercial that is to star Derek Jeter, Dwyane Wade and Serena Williams.

Said Fisher: "I want people to go, 'Huh. I wonder if that was real footage. What was that? I wonder how they did that. It looked pretty real.' That's my goal."

PFW has launched its brand-new NFL Draft Newsletter series, with the second issue being released the first week of December. Produced by PFW's player personnel department under the direction of Nolan Nawrocki, the series consists of four information-packed issues. For more info or to subscribe — click here for PDF e-pub or here for print format.