On Monday, former NFL tackle Michael Oher filed a lawsuit against Sean and Leigh Ann Tuohy, alleging that they lied about adopting him in order to trick him into signing conservatorship papers.
“We’re devastated,” Sean Tuohy told the Daily Memphian. “It’s upsetting to think we would make money off any of our children. But we’re going to love Michael at 37 just like we loved him at 16.”
Sean Tuohy also contends that Oher, who played for the Ravens, Titans, and Panthers, did receive payment from the movie based on his experience with the family, The Blind Side.
“We didn’t make any money off the movie,” Sean Tuohy said. “Well, Michael Lewis gave us half of his share. Everybody in the family got an equal share, including Michael. It was about $14,000, each. . . . We were never offered money; we never asked for money. My money is well-documented; you can look up how much I sold my company for.”
(Apparently, $213 million.)
“The last thing I needed was 40 grand from a movie,” Sean Tuohy said. “I will say it’s upsetting that people would think I would want to make money off any of my children.”
The issue doesn’t seem to be about money as much as it is control. And Sean Tuohy seemed to agree that, as Oher alleges, the family did not actually adopt him.
“Michael was obviously living with us for a long time, and the NCAA didn’t like that,” Tuohy said. “They said the only way Michael could go to Ole Miss was if he was actually part of the family. 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.”
Per the Memphian, Tennessee law does allow adult adoption. Sean Tuohy says he was told that it is not.
Sean Tuohy called Oher’s allegations “insulting,” and that he would be willing to end the conservatorship.
Apart from ending the conservatorship now is the question of whether Oher can recover monetary damages for past actions, such as the alleged failure to give him a fair share of the revenues from The Blind Side. The wording of the lawsuit suggests that Oher and his lawyers are bracing for a defense based on the applicable statute of limitations, which could short-circuit the claims before they’re ever developed in court.
