Blind Sided
Retired NFL star Michael Oher, whose "adoption" out of grinding poverty by a wealthy, white family was immortalized in the 2009 movie "The Blind Side," petitioned a Tennessee court Monday with allegations that a central element of the story was a lie concocted by the family to enrich itself at his expense.
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 a 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." In the years since, the Tuohys have continued calling the 37-year-old Oher their adopted son and have used that assertion to promote their foundation as well as Leigh Anne Tuohy's work as an author and motivational speaker.
Oher's petition asks the court to end the Tuohys' conservatorship and to issue an injunction barring them from using his name and likeness. It also seeks a full accounting of the money the Tuohys earned using Oher's name, and to have the couple pay him his fair share of profits, as well as unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
Oher was the 23rd overall pick in the 2009 NFL draft. He played for 9 seasons, won the 2013 Super Bowl and retired at the age of 30. He has a current net worth of more than $16 million US dollars.
In the past, the Tuohys have denied making much money from the movie, saying they received a flat fee for the story and did not reap any of the movie's profits. And what they did earn, they added, was shared with Oher.
"We divided it five ways," the Tuohys wrote in their 2010 book, "In a Heartbeat: Sharing the Power of Cheerful Giving."
Michael Lewis, the author of the "Blind Side" book, recently said to The Washington Post that the Tuohys saw about $350,000 worth of profits, the same amount that he did. Oher allegedly declined his share of royalty checks, which Lewis said he thought had prompted them to put the checks in a trust designated for the former NFL player’s son.
Oher's court petition says he never received any money from the movie, even though he long suspected that others were profiting, according to his attorney, J. Gerard Stranch IV. Whenever Oher asked questions, he did not get straight answers, his attorney said.
And since the film's success coincided with the start of his lucrative NFL career in 2009, Oher did not take the time to fully investigate the deal until after he retired in 2016, Stranch said, although in Oher's 2011 book, “I Beat the Odds,” he explained why he signed documents to make the Tuohys his legal conservators.
Now years later, Oher supposedly hired a lawyer who helped him uncover the details surrounding the movie deal and his legal connection to the people he believed were his "adoptive parents." His lawyer unearthed the conservatorship document in February, and Oher came to the painful realization that the Tuohys had not adopted him.
One may wonder why wait 14 years since the movie premiered, 12 years since he wrote his first book discussing the conservatorship, or even 7 years since he retired from the NFL, but look no further than Mr. Oher's new book, “When Your Back’s Against the Wall,” which came out earlier this month to explain the timing.
While adult conservatorships and guardianships can be important tools, they indeed can be abused. One need look no further than Brittney Spears and her Conservatorship, which was ended 13 years after it started at the age of 39 years old. Fear not for it has been announced that the Tuohy family has filed to end Michael Oher’s conservatorship, and thus most likely his place as a beneficiary of their $200 million dollar estate in the future based on this current situation.
If you should need assistance with a guardianship or conservatorship, please let us know at Winslow Law: 843-357-9301.
May God Bless You, Your Business, and this Country,
Tom Winslow