Michael Oher, the ex-NFL star whose story inspired the Oscar-winning film “The Blind Side,” shocked the nation by claiming his family faked his adoption for financial gain amid other allegations.
Oher has accused the Tuohy family of tricking him into signing a document that made them his conservators. Sean Tuohy, meanwhile, claims conservatorship was the only option in order to ensure that Oher could play college football at Ole Miss.
That is not the only thing they are alleging in a back-and-forth that is getting nasty.
An attorney representing Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy claimed in a bombshell statement that the former Super Bowl champion threatened to “plant” a negative story in the press about the Tennessee family unless they paid him $15 million.
He stated that Oher “has actually attempted to run this play several times before — but it seems that numerous other lawyers stopped representing him once they saw the evidence and learned the truth.”
Martin Singer has denied allegations leveled against the Tuohy family in Oher’s petition to end their conservatorship, calling them “hurtful and absurd.”
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The Tuohy lawyer says the claim that the family tried to profit from Oher is “offensive” and “ridiculous,” and that the allegation “defies belief.”
“Anyone with a modicum of common sense can see that the outlandish claims made by Michael Oher about the Tuohy family are hurtful and absurd. The idea that the Tuohys have ever sought to profit off Mr. Oher is not only offensive, it is transparently ridiculous.”
Singer continued: “Through hard work and good fortune, Sean and Leigh Anne have made an extraordinary amount of money in the restaurant business. The notion that a couple worth hundreds of millions of dollars would connive to withhold a few thousand dollars in profit participation payments from anyone — let alone from someone they loved as a son — defies belief.”
Oher, who was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in the first round of the 2009 NFL Draft, also dropped huge news that he learned in February 2023 that the family had never legally adopted him and he never received any money from the Blind Side.
Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy stated that they negotiated a deal with 20th Century Studios giving them and their two children a lump sum and profit participation from the movie but say that they willingly split the proceeds with Oher. The Tuohys say that they’ve given Oher “an equal cut of every penny” received from The Blind Side.
The family denies making any money as Oher’s conservators.
