Yesterday, we were hit with the bombshell news that Michael Oher, the man whose story was depicted in the 2009 hit movie The Blind Side, was filing a lawsuit against the Tuohy family, who (from what we assumed) took him in and raised him throughout his high school years and beyond.
Oher, the 37-year-old who was a star offensive lineman for Ole Miss, and then in the NFL, filed the lawsuit in Shelby County, Tennessee, stating that he recently learned that he wasn’t actually adopted by the Tuohy family, but was tricked into signing a conservatorship. This would mean that the family could profit off his name, image, and likeness, and they didn’t have to pay him anything.
The lawsuit also states that the family has made tons of money off of his story, and he hasn’t received any money from it.
However, the father, Sean Tuohy, has finally responded to the lawsuit, telling the Daily Memphian that the claims have “devastated” the family.
Tuohy, who is a booster at Ole Miss, said the conservatorship was created to make sure Oher would be eligible to play football at the school:
“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.’
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.”
Tuohy also denied the claims that the family has profited a ton of money from the movie:
“We didn’t make any money off the movie. Well, Michael Lewis, the [author of the book on which the movie was based] gave us half of his share.
Everybody in the family got an equal share, including Michael. It was about $14,000, each.”
He said he sold his fast-food franchises for $200 million, and was offended by the idea people would think he was trying to profit off of Oher:
“I will say it’s upsetting that people would think I would want to make money off any of my children.”
He also noted that the family and Oher had remained close, until about a year and a half ago when he began to notice the relationship deteriorating:
“No question, the allegations are insulting. But, look, it’s a crazy world. You’ve got to live in it. It’s obviously upset everybody.”
However, there is more…
The biological son of Sean, Sean Tuohy Jr., also backed up his father’s statements while making an appearance on Barstool Radio, saying:
“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.
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.”
Tuohy Jr. also disputed the claims that Oher found out about all of this back in February of 2023:
“If he says he found out in February, I find that hard to believe.
I went through my family group texts today to see what had been said. There were things in like 2020 or 2021 that said, ‘If you guys give me this much, then I won’t go public with things.’
I think everybody learned about conservatorships in the past year because of Britney Spears, so maybe that’s the case.”
Tuohy Jr. also acknowledged Oher’s frustrations for not making much money for The Blind Side, but added that he hasn’t made much money either, making only around $60,000 to $70,000 in royalties over the past 14 years.
He continued:
“You’re not gonna hear me talk bad about him because I truthfully think very highly of everything.”
He also noted that he still has great memories with Oher, like when he bought him a Dodge Challenger as his first car, and when he moved to Baltimore for college so he could be closer to Oher while he was playing for the Ravens.
