As we previously reported, on Monday, Michael Oher, the one-time NFL player whose story was dramatized in “The Blind Side,” filed a lawsuit alleging that the Tuohy family lied and tricked him into a conservatorship shortly after he turned 18 years old.
Other not only claimed that the family tricked him into signing an agreement, giving them authority to make his business decisions and allowing the family to profit from his life story with “The Blind Side,” which earned $309 million at the box office but claims he had no idea clear idea or understanding of the conservatorship at the time. In legal documents filed in Tennessee, Oher claimed that he only found out about the conservatorship in early 2023 … a move his attorney alleges the Tuohys pulled to gain “total control over Michael Oher’s ability to negotiate for or enter any contract.”
Despite that, days after allegations surfaced claiming that Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy profited off the name, image, and likeness, the family is hitting back at the former NFL offensive lineman’s claims but agreeing to end the conservatorship. Local attorneys representing Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy say Michael Oher’s allegations are false, and they are happy to terminate the conservatorship. Attorney Randy Fishman said,
“Forty-eight hours ago, a bomb dropped on our clients. To say they were devastated by these allegations is truly an understatement.”
Fisherman added, “This conservatorship was set up for the purpose that I indicated earlier – so that if he chose to go to Ole Miss, it would not be an issue about Sean being a booster. And that was the sole reason,” said Fishman. To note, the Tuohy family took in Oher, now 37, when he was in high school playing football for Briarcrest Christian School in suburban Memphis. Oher later went on to a career in the NFL.
RELATED: The Tuohy Family Claims Michael Oher Attempted $15 Million Shakedown Before Explosive Lawsuit
In the family’s defense it has pointed out that that Oher was in fact aware of them being conservators as he mentioned it in his book, “I Beat The Odds: From Homelessness to The Blind Side, and Beyond.” In his 2011 release, he wrote, “It kind of felt like a formality, as I’d been a part of the family for more than a year at that point. Since I was already over the age of eighteen and considered an adult by the state of Tennessee, Sean and Leigh Anne would be named as my ‘legal conservators,'” Oher said.
Oher continued, “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. Honestly, I didn’t care what it was called. I was just happy that no one could argue that we weren’t legally what we already knew was real: We were a family.”
Attorney Steve Farese added that the family does not “need his money. They never needed his money. Mr. Tuohy sold his company for $220 million.”
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