OT: Remember Michael Oher and the Blindside? It's Britney Spears all over again...
If anyone is unaware, Michael Oher was a high school kid adopted by a white family and went on to play college football at Ole Miss and in the NFL. Turns out he wasn't adopted at all and Oher is now suing the family. Rather, he claims he was tricked into signing a conservatorship which basically gave the family full control over his finances. He wants a share of the millions in earnings the family is alleged to have received from the book/movie. I'm sure there is more.
"The lie of Michael's adoption is one upon which Co-Conservators Leigh Anne Tuohy and Sean Tuohy have enriched themselves at the expense of their Ward, the undersigned Michael Oher," the legal filing says. "Michael Oher discovered this lie to his chagrin and embarrassment in February of 2023, when he learned that the Conservatorship to which he consented on the basis that doing so would make him a member of the Tuohy family, in fact provided him no familial relationship with the Tuohys."
Oher's petition asks the court to end the Tuohys' conservatorship and to issue an injunction barring them from using his name and likeness. It also seeks a full accounting of the money the Tuohys earned using Oher's name, and to have the couple pay him his fair share of profits, as well as unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
Crazy stuff...
August 14th, 2023 at 12:56 PM ^
Ole Miss association 🚩🚩🚩
August 14th, 2023 at 1:15 PM ^
Hugh Freeze association too!
🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩
August 14th, 2023 at 1:19 PM ^
Another job for Tom Mars.
August 14th, 2023 at 1:21 PM ^
I smell a sequel in the works. Possible titles:
The Blindside Part Deux
The Revenge of the Blindside
August 14th, 2023 at 1:25 PM ^
The Dark Side of the Blindside.
August 14th, 2023 at 1:27 PM ^
Blindsided.
August 14th, 2023 at 4:39 PM ^
Pitiful
(by Blindside)
August 14th, 2023 at 1:57 PM ^
Blindside does Oxford
August 14th, 2023 at 2:24 PM ^
Or the British remake, Blindside does Oxford.
August 14th, 2023 at 2:15 PM ^
Spanking the Blindside.
August 14th, 2023 at 2:57 PM ^
Overtaking the Blindside.
August 14th, 2023 at 3:26 PM ^
Blindside 2: Electric Boogaloo
August 14th, 2023 at 4:04 PM ^
The Blind Side 2: Leigh Anne Takes it to the Bank
August 14th, 2023 at 3:48 PM ^
edit: got beat to the punch
August 14th, 2023 at 5:39 PM ^
Mr. Blindside
August 14th, 2023 at 7:23 PM ^
Blindside II: The Reach-around
August 15th, 2023 at 9:28 PM ^
2 Blind 2 Furious
August 14th, 2023 at 6:22 PM ^
The Blindside Strikes Back,baby...
August 15th, 2023 at 12:14 PM ^
Oops, he did it again?
August 14th, 2023 at 12:57 PM ^
From afar, it’s sad their relationship has dissolved to the point where lawsuits are involved. I know that Oher was extremely upset with how the movie “Hollywood’d” things (from his perspective) and I can’t help but wonder if in some way this is retribution for it.
August 14th, 2023 at 1:15 PM ^
From afar, it's sad that these folks convinced this kid to sign away his life story under the guise of a fake adoption. Assuming that easily verifiable claim is true, it's pretty disgusting behavior.
August 14th, 2023 at 1:26 PM ^
Once this plays out - and the press will make sure the unfolding of this juicy story is publicized - we can draw reasonable conclusions. (And if the Ohlers are guilty of what they are accused, they deserve everything they get - sorry, Sandra Bullock.) Until then, there are two sides to every story.
August 14th, 2023 at 3:21 PM ^
Thank you. People are so quick to draw conclusions and condem with incomplete information.
August 15th, 2023 at 5:20 PM ^
Apparently the Touhys have a reputation among service workers and it’s not a good one.
https://apple.news/ASFQgjlNLR4O3Fx0Oqmf3dg
August 14th, 2023 at 4:20 PM ^
I would call this an abundance of caution. This couple led the kid to believe that he was adopted, but they did not in fact adopt him. That's heinous.
August 14th, 2023 at 4:43 PM ^
The facts laid out if true suggest the family were predatory.
- they convinced him to live with them and to sign his rights away (a conservatorship under the guise of adoption) to them after he was already the top ranked OT in HS
- They made a movie that he had zero rights to and in which they looked like heroes and he looked mentally deficient. There are all kinds of problems with that including that they played into a false stereotype. They sound racist.
- He was a very good student and had zero deficiencies that would require a conservatorship despite the false portrayal in the movie.
- The family gave movie shares to their kids, they started a foundation (which they probably pay themselves handsomely out of), and the mom makes a living as a motivational speaker, all based on their convincing him to live with them and signing his rights away.
August 14th, 2023 at 9:41 PM ^
Ah, there it is: “They sound racist”.
Thanks BoFan
August 14th, 2023 at 4:45 PM ^
The Tuohys not the Ohlers.
August 14th, 2023 at 5:26 PM ^
You are welcome to your own opinion. But for my part, I never trusted Sandra Bullock.
August 14th, 2023 at 10:19 PM ^
I think the important takeaway here is that regardless of how predatory or abhorrent the Tuohy's alleged actions were, it will NOT stop me from masturbating to Sandra Bullock.
August 14th, 2023 at 2:16 PM ^
Yeah, talk about being blindsided. People pretend to love you, then exploit you. And then you find out they didn't really make you a member of their family? That, if true, would hurt quite a bit. In fact, you might be the rest of your life sorting that one out emotionally.
August 14th, 2023 at 3:02 PM ^
I mean wasn't it pretty obvious from the get go that they were interested in him for his NFL potential?
It's not like they "adopted" a bunch of poor kids and one just happened to make the NFL. They targeted someone they thought was a good lotto ticket.
August 14th, 2023 at 1:25 PM ^
He was VERY upset with the movie. I don't blame him. They leaned as heavily into the "white savior" trope as any movie of the last 20 years or so.
Plus, word on the street is that you don't instantaneously go from being a mediocre left tackle to a D1 blue chip prospect just because some lady tells you the quarterback is your family. It actually takes years of grinding, coaching, and learning technique. I've heard.
August 14th, 2023 at 1:33 PM ^
White celebrities adopting kids from Africa(Madonna, Angelina Jolie) is the pinnacle of “White Savior Complex”.
August 14th, 2023 at 2:08 PM ^
Bruno was a comedy ahead of its time.
August 14th, 2023 at 4:46 PM ^
I am not a fan of Madonna or Jolie, but this is a stupid analogy.
In blindside the family makes a living by taking advantage of a kid that will be a celebrity.
With Madonna and Jolie, they are the celebrities with money that, despite what narcissistic tendencies there may be, are adopting kids out of poverty
August 14th, 2023 at 5:32 PM ^
I wasn’t comparing the two. What I was doing is illustrating “white savior complex” which is precisely what these celebs are doing.
The Touhys were exploiting Oher. There was no “saving” being done.
August 15th, 2023 at 10:17 AM ^
That's some fancy dancing, sir!
Your mere observation, or illustration, that one example of white savior complex occurs when celebrities adopt children from poverty-stricken areas such as Africa... was presented in the middle of a discussion about a rich white family exploiting a poor African-American child that they allegedly purported to adopt.
Intended or not, the analogy is pretty plain to see. If you intended a non sequitur, it was pretty bad.
August 15th, 2023 at 12:19 PM ^
Firstly, I am not the one who brought “white savior”. Secondly, I made a distinction between Oher, who was being exploited, and the children who were adopted by white celebrities out of paternalistic desire to “save” black people.
You ignored this distinction while writing this response. That’s pretty bad.
August 14th, 2023 at 1:55 PM ^
Yeah, the real story is that he got into the private school as an incoming sophomore, and was then coached for 3 years by Tim Long, an NFL vet, and Hugh Freeze, who despite his personal failings, is a pretty decent football coach.
August 14th, 2023 at 3:54 PM ^
Yes. But the film Green Book says, "Hold my beer."
August 14th, 2023 at 2:35 PM ^
I can’t help but wonder if in some way this is retribution for it.
Yep, while the family may 100% be in the wrong, I also don't think it should be ruled out that this is just a heartless money grab by Oher now that he's out of the NFL
August 14th, 2023 at 3:30 PM ^
He made just over $30M in career earnings from his time in the NFL. I doubt it’s a “heartless money grab”. I’d also be pissed if they portrayed me that way in a film and found out they signed away any rights you had to your life story by not being truthful with you when you were a vulnerable 18 year old.
August 14th, 2023 at 5:25 PM ^
“He made just over $30M in career earnings from his time in the NFL.”
I have no comment on his personal financial situation, but the quoted sentence doesn’t mean a thing. The 30 for 30 episode “Broke” exists for a reason.
August 14th, 2023 at 6:37 PM ^
I'm not saying it's for sure a money grab, but athletes can burn through money and he's now been out of the league for 6-7 years. The timing and how we're just hearing about this 2 decades after the fact is a little suspect imo. With that said, we will likely know the answer soon
August 14th, 2023 at 8:55 PM ^
The timing is because he didn’t learn about the conservatorship until Feb 2023
August 15th, 2023 at 9:20 AM ^
The world is full of vulnerable 18yr olds taken advantage of daily by predatory people.
This is done all the time in HS football. A former hs coach was found to have legal guardianship of more than 40 players on his roster with his home address listed as the living residence of said players. This has happened at football factories across the country. What Gerry Faust was the only one to do it at Cincinnati Moeller? South, East, MidWest, West..
Also from Michael's perspective at that point in his life. You know he's looking at it like I get to go to a private school, get a family to pay my way and be coached by these people. If I do that, I go D1, NFL and do all these things.
So, while I am not at all defending the family, there is a lot to unpack. As for the conservatorship, he was 18, that is something the family will have to really answer for as it seems like it was not necessary at all. Not sure why the family wouldn't have shared money with him selling the story. But people are greedy these days. Also, didn't the relationship sour before the movie came out? IIRC they weren't on good terms before the movie.