‘The Blind Side’ subject Michael Oher speaks out on Tuohy family lawsuit
Michael Oher, the subject of the Oscar-winning film The Blind Side, stressed that his decision to sue Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, the couple who took him in when he was in high school, was not because of financial gain.
More than a year after filing the lawsuit, the 38-year-old athlete opened up about the issue in his interview with The New York Times Magazine.
“I worked hard for that moment when I was done playing, and saved my money so I could enjoy the time,” he told the magazine. “I’ve got millions of dollars. I’m fine.”
He pointed out the inaccurate portrayal of him in both Michael Lewis’ book, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, and the film, starring Sandra Bullock and Quinton Aaron, which left an impression to the public that he is “stupid.”
“The NFL people were wondering if I could read a playbook,” Oher said, saying that it cost him a “higher draft position and the increased money that goes with it,” as per the magazine.
After seeing the film, Oher said: “It’s hard to describe my reaction. It seemed kind of funny to me, to tell you the truth, like it was a comedy about someone else. It didn’t register. But social media was just starting to grow, and I started seeing stuff that I’m dumb. I’m stupid. Every article about me mentioned The Blind Side, like it was part of my name.”
Oher, who is a father of four, also stressed the implication of the film on his children.
“If my kids can’t do something in class, will their teacher think, ‘Their dad is dumb—is that why they’re not getting it?’” he lamented.
Despite the film coming out in 2009, Oher chose to not speak out at the time as he needed to focus on starting his professional career with the Baltimore Ravens.
“For a long time, I was so angry mentally,” the former NFL star said. “With what I was going through. I want to be the person I was before The Blind Side, personality-wise. I’m still working on it.”
“Pro football’s a hard job,” he said. “You have to be locked in 100%. I went along with their narrative because I really had to focus on my NFL career, not things off the field.”
Oher addressed anew the text messages between himself and the Tuohy family that were revealed in a December legal filing obtained by People, where they claimed the athlete demanded money and called them “thieves.”
“I was just still trying to figure things out,” he said. “I didn’t think anything of it,” he continued, adding that the texts “lit a fuse,” and he started receiving checks for the movie for the first time, denying Tuohys’ lawyers' claim that he had been receiving royalty checks.
Despite the strife, Oher recalls his time with the couple as “great.”
"I had a bed to stay on. I was eating good. They got me a truck,” he continued,” he said, adding that they have also provided him a tutor so he would be eligible to play in college football.
ICYDK, Oher grew up poor until the affluent Tuohy family “adopted” him, eventually leading to his life story's depiction in the award-winning 2009 movie.
In August 2023, Oher filed a lawsuit in the Probate Court of Shelby County in Tennessee alleging that the Tuohys lied about adopting him and exploited him by using his name, image, and likeness for their benefit over the last decade.
He claimed the Tuohys urged him to sign a conservatorship, thinking it was required in the adoption process.
Conservatorship is an arrangement in which a court removes at least some "decision-making powers and duties" from "a person with a disability who lacks the capacity to make decisions in one or more important areas."
A conservator (or co-conservators), then, gains those decision-making powers. The 2004 order that granted Oher’s conservatorship stated that he appeared to have “no known physical or psychological disabilities.”
Oher claimed that he unknowingly signed away the rights to his life story to 20th Century Fox in 2007 and alleged he got nothing despite the movie earning over $300 million (P17 billion) worldwide.
He is now seeking the termination of his conservatorship on top of the money he says he should've earned from the movie and an injunction preventing the Tuohys from using his name and likeness.