One of the biggest storylines in the NFL this off-season has actually been off the field. Michael Oher, the ex-NFL star whose story inspired the Oscar-winning film “The Blind Side,” discovered he was never legally adopted.Michael Oher formally petitioned to remove the conservatorship Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy control over him.
Oher, who was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in the first round of the 2009 NFL Draft, filed a petition in a Tennessee court on Monday to end the 2004 conservatorship. From the sounds of it, however, this situation is going to get a lot uglier before it gets better.
Michael Oher Alleges He Was Offered $15 Million To Keep Quiet (NFL)
An attorney for Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy has issued a response to Michael Oher’s petition against them, which alleged that the couple deceived Oher into making the pair his conservators at age 18 and that he has not shared in the revenue from the feature “The Blind Side,” which drew from his life story. Oher allegedly asked his adoptive family for $15 million not to go public with claims they swindled him, according to the family’s attorney.
Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy said through their legal representative there is no credence to Oher’s claims he was fooled into a conservatorship and rubbished claims the couple made millions off his life’s story. Sean Tuohy recently spoke out after the lawsuit to reveal why the family was unable to adopt Oher:
“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,’” Tuohy said.
“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.”
“At no point did the Tuohy’s inform Michael that they would have ultimate control of all his contracts, and as a result Michael did not understand that if the Conservatorship was granted, he was signing away his right to contract for himself.
Michael was falsely advised by the Tuohy’s that because he was over the age of eighteen, that the legal action to adopt Michael would have to be called a ‘conservatorship’ but it was, for all intents and purposes, an adoption.”
“No question, the allegations are insulting,” Tuohy said of the suit. “But, look, it’s a crazy world. You’ve got to live in it. It’s obviously upset everybody.”
Moreover, the attorney’s statement said that Sean and Leigh Anne “will never oppose” the termination of the conservatorship, “either now or at anytime in the future.”
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