Now, what have we here?
Do you remember the movie The Blind Side starring Sandra Bullock? The 2009 movie was written about a downtrodden Black youth named Michael Oher who was “adopted” by a white family called The Tuohys so that he could have a stable place to live while he worked toward his dream of becoming a professional NFL player. In 2009, Oher became a first-round draft pick of the Baltimore Ravens, the second runner-up for Rookie of the Year, and signed a 5-year $13.8 million contract.
Source: Skip Bolen / Getty [Sandra Bullock and Leigh Anne Tuohy]
Fast forward to February 2023 when an ESPN report reveals that Michael allegedly learned that Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy had deceived him and that their deception has cost him millions of dollars. Oher filed a court petition in Tennessee today alleging that the Tuohys tricked him into signing a conservatorship contract as opposed to official adoption papers. In his best-selling 2001 memoir, I Beat The Odds, Oher wrote the following, “They explained to me that it means pretty much the exact same thing as ‘adoptive parents’, but that the laws were just written in a way that took my age into account”.
Source: David Bergman / Getty [Michael Oher and the Tuohy family at the 2009 NFL Draft]
Here’s a portion of the accusatory legal filing:
“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 legal filing says. “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.”
As many of you know, because of Britney Spears’ conservatorship drama, this can be a very sticky legal arrangement to get undone despite the fact that Michael has no physical or psychological disabilities.
Ultimately, Oher wants the conservatorship ended, an injunction issued to prevent them from using his likeness to make money, and an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages paid. Our eyes are trained on this story because it has been almost 25 years since the film came out and we have lots of questions.
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