Family Responds as ‘Blind Side' Subject Michael Oher Says His Adoption Was a Lie

Tackle Michael Oher (73) of the Carolina Panther addresses the media prior to Super Bowl 50 at the San Jose Convention Center/ San Jose Marriott in San Jose, Calif., on Feb. 2, 2016. Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

The family of Michael Oher, the retired NFL star whose adoption out of poverty was the inspiration behind the 2009 film “The Blind Side,” has fired back at Oher’s claims they swindled him in more than one way.

Both Sean “SJ” Tuohy Jr. and his father, Sean Tuohy, have spoken out publicly since Oher, 37, on Monday filed a lawsuit in Shelby County, Tennessee court, which said he only recently learned Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy didn’t officially adopt him and that he was instead duped into a conservatorship, which allowed the family to take in millions of dollars in royalties from the movie about his life.

Tuohy Jr. appeared on Barstool Radio and said that while he understands why Oher was upset, he also disagrees with his account of how events transpired when and after he was welcomed into the Tuohy family.

His father, Sean Tuohy, told the Daily Memphian that the claims have “devastated” the family. Tuohy Sr. said the conservatorship was drawn up to ensure that Oher was eligible to play football at the University of Mississippi.

“I’m gonna preface this by saying that I love Mike at 16, I love Mike at 37, and I [will] love him at 67,” Tuohy Jr. said of Oher.

“There’s not gonna be any dossier or thing that happens that is going to make me say, ‘Screw that guy.’ That’s not the case.”

(Left) Leigh Anne Tuohy and Sean Tuohy at Sunset Tower in West Hollywood, Calif., on Feb. 2, 2011. (John Shearer/Getty Images For Children Awaiting Parents); (Right) Tackle Michael Oher #74 of the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on Dec. 5, 2010. Larry French/Getty Images

Tuohys Never Legally Adopted Oher But Still Profit Off That Story

Oher’s lawsuit 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 convinced him to sign a document making them his conservators, giving them the legal right to control his finances and any business deals in his name. He has said he is now suing to get what is his.

“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 ex-NFL player’s lawsuit 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.”

Further, Oher claims that the family members told him they never made much money from the film or the book the film was based upon. But his attorneys say that this is not true.

“According to the legal filing, the movie paid the Tuohys and their two birth children each $225,000, plus 2.5 percent of the film’s defined net proceeds,” ESPN reported.

According to the outlet, the movie earned in excess of $300 million. The deal the Tuohys made allowed them to profit from the film, but the separate 2007 contract Oher supposedly signed appears to “give away” to 20th Century Fox Studios the life rights to his story “without any payment whatsoever,” Oher’s lawsuit states.

Additionally, in the years since, the Tuohys have continued to call Oher their adopted son and have used that assertion to promote their foundations, along with Leigh Anne Tuohy’s work as an author and motivational speaker.

Lawsuit Calls For End to Making Money Off Oher’s Name and Likeness

Oher’s lawsuit asks a court to end the ability of the Tuohys to make money off his name, story, and likeness and demands that they pay him a fair share of the profits they have earned during all these years.

Oher also noted that the Tuohys told him he was adopted and that the paper he signed made that legal, but that he has since learned there are major differences between an actual adoption and the conservatorship document he signed. In an actual adoption, he would retain the right to handle his own financial affairs while under the conservatorship; those rights were specifically signed away to the Tuohys.

“I get it, why he’s mad. I completely understand. It stinks that it’ll play out on a very public stage,” Tuohy Jr. told the Barstool hosts. “You will never hear me say anything bad about Michael Oher in any capacity other than I’m upset that he feels the way that he does. I think some of the things that were mentioned in the probate or book or whatever I don’t necessarily agree with and or remember happening like that.”

He also suggested the football player knew about his parents being his conservators before this year.

Tuohy Sr. negated the notion that the family profited generously from the film.

“I sat Michael down and told him, ‘If you’re planning to go to Ole Miss—or even considering Ole Miss—we think you have to be part of the family. This would do that legally,'” Tuohy said. “We contacted lawyers who had told us that we couldn’t adopt over the age of 18; the only thing we could do was to have a conservatorship. We were so concerned it was on the up-and-up that we made sure the biological mother came to court.”

Oher was a teen football player for a top private high school in Memphis, Tennessee, when the Tuohy family first met him. Despite standing out from his achievements in sports, he had a chaotic home life with a mother who struggled with drug addiction. The Tuohys took him in and helped support him as he became a college football star and eventually an NFL player.

Negative Film Depiction

For his part, Oher said that he feels that the movie negatively affected his NFL career because, although he was academically successful in school, he was portrayed as not very bright in the film, which caused NFL coaches and bosses to assume he was not smart enough to be a leader.

The 2009 movie became a critically acclaimed blockbuster, reportedly grossing more than $300 million at the box office and tens of millions of dollars in home video sales. The film also earned an Oscar nomination for Best Picture, and Sandra Bullock won a Best Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of Leigh Anne Tuohy.

While Oher said that he is still grateful for what the family and film did for him, he also expresses feeling betrayed.

“There has been so much created from ‘The Blind Side’ that I am grateful for, which is why you might find it as a shock that the experience surrounding the story has also been a large source of some of my deepest hurt and pain over the past 14 years,” Oher wrote in his new book “When Your Back’s Against the Wall.”

“Beyond the details of the deal, the politics, and the money behind the book and movie, it was the principle of the choices some people made that cut me the deepest.”