Carolina Panthers’ Michael Oher speaks to the media throughout their NFL soccer offseason conditioning program in Charlotte, N.C., on April 20, 2015. Oher, the previous NFL sort out identified for the film “The Blind Side,” filed a petition Monday, Aug. 14, 2023, accusing Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy of mendacity to him by having him signal papers making them his conservators, not his adoptive mother and father, in 2004.

Chuck Burton/AP

cover caption

toggle caption

Chuck Burton/AP

Carolina Panthers’ Michael Oher speaks to the media throughout their NFL soccer offseason conditioning program in Charlotte, N.C., on April 20, 2015. Oher, the previous NFL sort out identified for the film “The Blind Side,” filed a petition Monday, Aug. 14, 2023, accusing Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy of mendacity to him by having him signal papers making them his conservators, not his adoptive mother and father, in 2004.

Chuck Burton/AP

Michael Oher, the topic of the hit 2009 film The Blind Side, has alleged {that a} central a part of his story — that he was adopted by a rich household — is fake. Instead of adopting him, he stated, the Tuohy household established a conservatorship, wherein they profited from his title, picture and likeness.

Oher, 37, filed a petition Monday within the Shelby County, Tenn., probate courtroom asking for the conservatorship to be dissolved.

A conservatorship is a authorized appointment permitting a celebration to deal with the monetary and private affairs of one other.

Oher can also be requesting that the Tuohys account for his belongings, as required by the conservatorship; pay him any cash he was owed over time, with curiosity; pay his legal professional charges and punitive damages; and be sanctioned for violating the phrases of the conservatorship.

Oher met the Tuohy household whereas in highschool

Oher, spent eight years as an offensive sort out within the NFL. But he started enjoying soccer at Briarcrest Christian School within the Memphis space in 2003.

During his senior 12 months there, he performed within the the Tennessee All-State Game for soccer and basketball, and the Army All-American Bowl recreation. He had a number of soccer scholarship presents, the petition stated.

At the time, he was a ward of the state and infrequently spent the night time on the properties of his classmates.

The summer season after his junior 12 months, Oher started intermittently staying with Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy and their two kids, Sean Jr. and Collins. The Tuohys invited Oher to stay with them in July of that summer season, in line with the petition.

Oher stated Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy informed him they beloved him, and inspired him to name them “mom” and “dad.” They additionally stated they might undertake him, he recounted.

“Where other parents of Michael’s classmates saw Michael simply as a nice kid in need, Conservators Sean Tuohy and Leigh [Anne] Tuohy saw something else: a gullible young man whose athletic talent could be exploited for their own benefit,” the petition stated.

Shortly after transferring in, Oher stated the Tuohys introduced him with the conservatorship as a result of he was over 18 years of age. However, he was informed that the doc was “for all intents and purposes, an adoption,” in line with the petition.

The doc stated the Tuohys would have “the full co-legal custody, guardianship and conservatorship of the said Michael Jerome Williams, Jr…” and that Oher couldn’t enter or negotiate contracts or make medical selections by himself.

Oher stated he came upon in February of this 12 months that he had no authorized, familial relation to the Tuohys.

Oher says he by no means acquired cash from The Blind Side‘s success

Journalist and creator Michael Lewis wrote a ebook about Oher’s life, known as The Blind Side: Evolution of the Game, which was revealed in 2006. The Tuohys started negotiating a film adaptation of the ebook with twentieth Century Fox later that 12 months, the petition stated.

The Blind Side went on to make a minimum of $300 million on the worldwide field workplace. The Tuohys made tens of millions, whereas Oher acquired nothing, the petition alleged.

Requests for remark from Leigh Anne Tuohy and the Tuohy household’s nonprofit group, Making It Happen, weren’t instantly returned.

Oher additionally alleged his title was signed on a 2007 doc that might give twentieth Century Fox “without any payment whatsoever, the perpetual, unconditional and exclusive right throughout the world to use and portray Michael Oher’s name, likeness, voice, appearance, personality, personal experiences, incidents, situations and events” tied to the ebook and film that led as much as the 2008 NFL draft, in line with the petition.

He stated he does not know if the doc was cast or not, however that he by no means signed it.

Oher stated within the petition if the Tuohys cast the doc, they need to surrender all the cash they produced from the film, together with curiosity, and pay Oher punitive damages.

Oher moreover accused the Tuohys of violating the phrases of the contract by failing to file annual accounts of Oher’s belongings, saying they need to be sanctioned.

According to the 2004 submitting for the conservatorship, Oher wished the Tuohys to be his authorized guardians a minimum of till the age of 25 or till it was dissolved by a courtroom earlier than that time. But Oher’s petition filed Monday stated, “This Conservatorship is unnecessary as Michael Oher is capable of handling his own affairs.”