Michael Oher claims ‘The Blindside’ was a lie
Michale Oher made headlines Monday, claiming that “The Blindside” is a lie and that he was never actually adopted.
In a 14-page petition filled in Tennessee, it claims that Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy never actually adopted Michael Oher, but rather tricked him into making them his conservators allowing the family to profit from his name and likeness.
The petition also claims that the Touhy’s used their power to strike deals that gave their kids millions of dollars of royalties through “The Blindside” movie, while Oher himself on the other hand received no compensation from the movie about him.
To this day, the Touhy’s still call Oher their adopted son which they use to promote their foundation, and Leigh Annes work as an author and a motivational speaker.
“The lie of Michael’s adoption is one upon which Co-Conservators Leigh Anne Tuohy and Sean Tuohy have enriched themselves at the expense of their Ward, the undersigned Michael Oher,” the filing said. “Michael Oher discovered this lie to his chagrin and embarrassment in February of 2023, when he learned that the Conservatorship to which he consented on the basis that doing so would make him a member of the Tuohy family, in fact provided him no familial relationship with the Tuohys.”
Via ESPN
Oher is now hoping that the conservatorship will come to an end, along with the family using his name and likeness. Oher is also wanting an exact account of the money the family made using his likeness. He is also looking to be compensated his “fair share” of profits made from the movie.
On the flip side, though, the Touhy’s have claimed that they didn’t make a whole lot of money from the movie, but Oher seems adamant that the family made significant money from this and was never able to give him “clear answers.”
Honestly, I don’t want to get into the legal mumbo jumbo. It makes little sense to me and you reading probably don’t care too much about it. That’s what lawyers are for, not a 20-year-old college student.
The thing that is most interesting to me is the timing. The movie came out in 2009 and Oher himself retired back in 2016, so why exactly is he deciding to make this all public now in 2023?
If you truly were being taken advantage of, I think you would have noticed sooner, but would have then immediately made it public for the world to know and not sit on the information for years waiting for the perfect time to drop it.
Now to Oher’s credit, he has come out in years past talking about the issues he had with the movie. The main one is that he appears unintelligent in the film and of slow learning, something Oher has refuted on multiple different occasions.
“People look at me, and they take things away from me because of a movie,” he said. “They don’t really see the skills and the kind of player I am.”
Via ESPN
This is where I think the root of the issue stems from for Oher. I don’t think he cares about not making money off the movie. He has enough of that to live comfortably for the rest of his life. I’m assuming his grievance is the fact that the Tuohys allegedly lied about adopting him.
Oher’s uprising was a tough one, being born into a family with 11 other siblings and a drug-addicted mother. It didn’t take long for him to find himself in foster care homes bouncing around different homes.
This also forced him to attend 11 different schools in nine years putting him behind the curb academically. His fortune was raised when a friend’s dad introduced him to the principal of a Private Christian High School, which eventually led to him crossing paths with the Touhy family, who took an interest in the well-being of Oher. Having gone through what he did, was elated to be able to call somebody his family and immediately jumped at the opportunity to be adopted by the Tuohy’s.
He played college football at Ole Miss and was drafted by the Ravens in the first round in the 2009 NFL Draft, playing until 2016.
So now it’s time for me to insert an opinion that nobody asked for, but I don’t care because I’m writing this. I think Michael Oher is overreacting here–I understand being upset that the family lied about adopting you, but what does Michael Oher’s life look like without the Touhy family? I can’t say for certain, but I can tell you that it very likely doesn’t end up with him being a first-round draft pick.
Sure, they may have made some bad decisions and showed poor judgment in certain instances, but they still took in a kid who needed help and helped him form a path to the damn NFL. So maybe they get a small break for trying to make money off the whole thing.
I know for a fact most people would even take in a kid in that scenario, even with the resources the Touhy family had, so it seems a bit hypocritical to criticize a family that did something many others do not.
Now I’m not saying the Touhy are completely innocent and did nothing wrong with “The Blindside.” The entire thing was certainly shady and it seems like their focus was more on money and not Oher himself, which is why I believe Oher has some ground to stand on.
Lying to a kid about adopting him is just wrong no matter how you spin it. You won’t see me defending that, but to completely tarnish the Touhy name and paint them as monsters also isn’t right.
Oher has every right to be upset as a person. But before he goes burning every bridge he built, he should maybe think about what his life would look like without the Tuohys in it because I don’t predict it would have been a very good one.
They often say a story can be too good to be true. We didn’t want that to be the case with “The Blindside,” but alas, here we are. No such thing as a good or heartwarming story anymore.
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