The Blind Side 2: This Party’s Oher
I never bothered to actually watch The Blind Side. If you’ve seen one tearjerker Hollywood biopic you’ve seen them all and one viewing of the trailer pretty much gave everything away that you needed you know. I knew most of the stuff in the movie would be false in presentation and detail because real life is rarely so well structured for a screenplay. I just never felt like I had to watch it. I did pay attention to Oher’s comments on the situation though, and he said more or less what I expected. The movie wasn’t very true to his story, he didn’t like how it portrayed him as basically a poor simpleton who didn’t even know what football was, etc.
Well, apparently it was even worse. I will do my due diligence here and make it clear that this is all ALLEGED, so keep that in mind. This is a he said/she said situation at the moment.
A report by ESPN came out on Monday about Oher apparently taking the Tuohy’s to court. Oher claims that, unbeknownst to him, the Tuohy’s never actually adopted him as everyone (including himself) thought, but actually tricked him into signing away rights in a conservatorship. If you are unfamiliar with what that is, google the last 10 years of Brittany Spears. Basically the Tuohy’s gained the legal right to make business decisions in his name. They would then go on to market the whole Oher story into The Blind Side, with the book and the movie and all that jazz, and Oher never saw a cent of it. Not gonna lie, if this is true, this is deeply fucked up. A guy got taken in by people he thought were being kind to him, and they basically exploited him. He thought he was part of the family when he signed the paper, and he just recently learned that apparently, he is not.
Since he’s not legally adopted, he has no power over his financial affairs. Pretty bullshit. His life became an award-winning movie and he got no residuals or anything from that, outside the notoriety, notoriety he wasn’t fond of because the image the movie portrays of him he felt was unfair. One of my first questions when this story dropped was how he never figured any of this out until recently, but apparently, his agent is a close family friend of the Tuohy’s, so she might just be part of the scam. The story noticed that he hired a lawyer after retirement who helped him uncover all of this.
For the other side, the Tuohy’s obviously dispute the claims. They claim he’s tried to bring this issue to court multiple times already. Time will have to play this new one out. Frankly I’m dubious about any conservatorship on principle and if Oher really was never adopted by the family when the adoption is such a big part of the story, that’s messed up.
For whatever it’s worth, looking up the Tuohy’s on social media or in comments sections will offer a slew of stories about how they are obnoxious people. That I buy. Leigh Anne Tuohy exudes Karen energy.
Until very recently I was a conservator for my mom, and I can assure you, in many cases they are absolutely necessary and provide a great benefit for someone who can no longer take care of their own affairs. I’m not a lawyer, and I won’t pretend I know jack squat, but given how the process worked for us, I’m a little confused. The state appointed my mom an attorney, who explained the entire situation to my mom at every step of the way.
I’m not sure if a minor would or should be able to choose their own attorney, maybe they told him to pick the family friend who furthered the lie, but my mom didn’t have a say in the matter out here in Connecticut. Maybe they run things differently wherever they did it.
I’m certainty open to having my mind changed, and it’s possible CT’s process is just vastly different, but you don’t just sign a paper and get conserved, not out here at least. There are hearings and the attorneys have to meet with you and write reports on what they said and what your response is. At first blush, I’m HIGHLY skeptical he could have been conserved without having it fully explained to him. Very high chance he didn’t understand what he was being told, especially if he was a kid, and if there is a place where you can sign one paper and get conserved, that’s f-d up.
Oher was over 18 (by 3 months) when he signed the Conservatorship. And he already had a lawyer who “explained” the situation to him. That lawyer is the same family friend who would become his agent.
She also was his agent for the movie/book stuff while the rest of the Tuohy family were represented by an entertainment lawyer who specializes in those kind of deals. Supposedly they had a deal including 250k for each of the parents and 2 kids, plus a residual, while Oher got basically (or maybe even literally) nothing.
To make the claims even more likely he already talked about the conservator situation in a book over a decade ago. Michael says in there that it was explained to him as being the same as adoption, but had a different name because of some state rules (probably him being over 18 was used as the excuse). He never looked into it more because he never felt he needed to.
Oher was also already a successful and heavily scouted high school lineman when the Tuohys took him in as a junior. If you are looking for a reason this family would take him in and scam him like that, that’s probably the reason. They saw NFL in his future.
I also would not be shocked if Tennessee has looser conservator restrictions than Connecticut too
Well, when you phrase it like that… yea, you’re probably right.
Based on how my experience went, I definitely think to avoid shady scenarios like this, there should be – regardless of state – a hearing, with two lawyers, one to represent them, and one to represent him, and if their lawyer was feeding him a pack of lies, the judge and the appointed attorney would have the opportunity to set him straight so there’s 0% chance of him not understanding what he was signing on for. *IF* it happened as he claims… that’s messed up. The judge or someone should have asked the obvious question… “Why is a fully capable and intelligent adult signing up willingly for a conservatorship?” They’re designed for people who are mentally or physically incapable of taking care of themselves.
If he’s telling the truth, that would be so disappointing, because it probably means there are a not-small number of other conservatorships being deceptively instituted like this. I had to jump through hoops to prove my nearly-80 year old mother who was confined to a wheelchair required a conservatorship, and I’m glad they made me in hindsight. They should require that of everyone.
Flemlo Raps made 2 really good YouTube vids on the situation.
Ah The Blind Side. I’ve seen this movie more times than I’d like to admit since my dad absolutely loves it (I can’t it, though). But it’s funny seeing people learn that Michael Oher himself wasn’t a fan of the film nor its depiction of him. All that said, I didn’t think the situation was this f’ed up. To think Michael didn’t get any money from that film is crazy and I can’t imagine how the guy feels about it, assuming what he’s saying his true.
“This situation can’t be fucked up; that would be fucked up!”
I didn’t say that it couldn’t be f’ed up. I said I didn’t realize it was as bad as it actually is.
I just don’t see a situation where the Tuohys come out looking decent. Best case scenario they misled Oher about being formally adopted.
Another thing to note: The Tuohys are huge Ole Miss boosters, who happened to take in a star prospect under their care during his senior year. His high school coach at the time was Hugh Freeze.
Naturally, Oher committed to Ole Miss, and some 3 weeks later, Hugh Freeze became the Ole Miss head coach. NCAA investigation didn’t “find anything” that constituted violations specifically regarding Oher’s commitment to the school, but they did charge Freeze with recruiting violations for other prospects.
Obviously, there’s no definitive proof one way or another, but in light of the entire conservatorship debacle, there’s every likelihood that the Tuohys may have influenced where Oher played high school and college football in their own interests.
This is the only thing their guilty of.
1. In TN, you can’t be adopted after 18, which he was. They told him that then. He admits that in his book. He’s always known he wasn’t adopted.
2. The $300 million the movie “made” is the gross figure. Close to 50% of that goes to the individual movie theaters. Plus, production and advertising costs come out of the $300 million. I’d be willing to bet the Touhys did not make a fraction of the amount people think when he throws that $300 million figure out there.
3. The Touhy’s are independently wealthy. They sold their family business for around $200 million. They didn’t adopt/conserve him to get wealthy off his NFL contract.
All of these facts are easily found on the internet. My take is he is still mad, because he thinks the movie made him look dumb. In reality, they got him a tutor because he was behind, due to infrequent attendance not intellect, prior to them stepping in.