Former Baltimore Ravens OT Michael Oher is known more for his story than his NFL career. Adopted by a family when he was young and homeless, overcoming the odds, finding the strength to push through the adversity of his football career and make it to football’s biggest stage. His life story got told as part of a best-selling book and later became a full-length movie, The Blindside, a massive commercial success that won several awards.
Now, Michael Oher says it was all a lie.
In a 14-page petition field in Tennessee, Oher alleges he was never adopted. It’s a bombshell story that ESPN’s Michael A. Fletcher lays out in a Monday article.
“The 14-page petition, filed in Shelby County, Tennessee, probate court, alleges that Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, who took Oher into their home as a high school student, never adopted him. Instead, less than three months after Oher turned 18 in 2004, the petition says, the couple tricked him into signing a document making them his conservators, which gave them legal authority to make business deals in his name.
The petition further alleges that the Tuohys used their power as conservators to strike the deal that paid them and their two birth children millions of dollars in royalties from an Oscar-winning film that earned more than $300 million, while Oher got nothing for a story that would not have existed without him.”
While it does appear Oher, now 37 years old, was taken in by the Tuohy family, he was never formally adopted. And Oher claims he received no royalties from the movie about his life. As Fletcher points out, because he was never officially adopted and entered into a conservatorship, the Tuohy family had no legal control over his finances. According to the petition, the deal signed by the Touhys paid them over $200,000 initially and 2.5 percent of the film’s “net proceeds.”
The Blindside, released in November 2009, grossed $309 million on a budget of less than $30 million. Sandra Bullock won an Academy Award for Best Actress, and the film was nominated for Best Picture, though it lost out to The Hurt Locker. Over the years, the Touhys have claimed they only received a flat fee and money made from the film was shared with Oher.
The filing later says Oher was “devastated” when he discovered he was not officially adopted. Over the years, it’s also been reported he was unhappy with his depiction in the film as a dumb football player.
A first-round pick of the Baltimore Ravens, Oher spent eight seasons in the NFL, also spending time with the Carolina Panthers and Tennessee Titans. He appeared in 110 games, starting each of them in a career that spanned from 2009 to 2016.
You can read the full article that explains all the details — it’s worth your time — at the link here.
