Update, Aug. 16, 2023 at 10:06 AM:
Jason Whitlock ripped former NFL player Michael Oher for trying to “shakedown” his adoptive parents, Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy.
Oher was portrayed in the 2009 Oscar-winning movie “The Blind Side” about a Black boy who was adopted by a wealthy white couple and went on to play in the NFL.
He recently filed a legal petition, claiming the Tuohys lied about adopting him. He said they made him sign a conservatorship to exploit him for financial gain, according to ESPN.
“What he’s doing to the family is despicable,” said Whitlock on his Fearless With Jason Whitlock podcast. “He’s telling an obvious lie that he knows most of the media will be too afraid to question because he’s black,’ Whitlock added.
Oher, 37, earned $34.5 million over 9 seasons in the NFL after “The Blind Side” was released in 2009.
According to the Tuohys’ attorney Marty Singer, Oher demanded $15 million from the Tuohys before filing the petition to end their conservatorship over him.
However, Oher praised the Tuohys in an interview the day before filing the petition.
Oher said he was “grateful” to the Tuohys for taking him in when he was 18 and a senior in high school.
“But you have to understand, I was an All-American football player before I moved in with them. You have to understand what it took for me to get to that point,” he said in the interview.
“Michael Oher wants credit,” Jason Whitlock said on his podcast. “I get it, I really do. He wants to be the star and hero of his own movie. Most people do. Oher lacks self-awareness, humility and, quite possibly, intelligence. Making $34 million as an average professional athlete will certainly create some delusion.”
Whitlock added: “Plus, the media is lazy; it’s easy to repeat allegations than to question and/or research the legitimacy of this. It’s also easier to just feel sorry for Michael Oher; he’s broken. The first 15 years of his life are a tragedy – that’s not my opinion – read his (2011) book, it’s his own words. His mother was addicted to crack cocaine and birthed a dozen children with a variety of men.”
Whitlock called Oher arrogant, delusional and naive for trying to shakedown the Tuohys.
“He’s still naive. He believes this desperate attempt to shake down the family that welcomed him into their home is a good look, and is going to lead to a financial windfall. It’s not. As lazy as the media, as lazy as reporters and pundits are, they’re going to have to deal with the truth.
“The Tuohys were wealthy when they took legal guardianship of Oher. They sold their family business for $200 million. They had no financial motive to exploit Oher. They exercised no control over his professional career.”
Whitlock, a popular sports columnist and podcaster, is a former NFL football player and a former sports writer for ESPN, among other outlets.
Originally published on: Aug 15, 2023 at 10:41 AM:
Michael Oher’s “adoptive” parents hit back at claims they stole millions from the former NFL player.
Oher, 37, played in the NFL for eight seasons and won a Super Bowl ring with the Baltimore Ravens.
He was portrayed in the 2009 Oscar-winning movie “The Blind Side” about a Black boy who was adopted by a wealthy white couple and went on to play in the NFL.
Oher filed a lawsuit against Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, claiming they made him sign a conservatorship, according to ESPN.
Oher was 18 when he signed the conservatorship making them his legal guardians for business interests in his name.
Oher was born in Memphis, Tennessee to a drug-addicted mother. He was one of 12 children. His father was killed in prison when Oher was in high school.
By age 7, he was placed in foster care and moved between various foster homes.
After playing football during his freshman year at a public high school in Memphis, he applied for admission to Briarcrest Christian School and was eventually accepted.
Oher continued to live with foster families. In 2004, the Tuohys, a couple with a daughter and son attending Briarcrest, invited Oher to live with them and adopted him.
In 2006, Oher was one of the subjects in Michael Lewis’ book titled The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game.
Sandra Bullock (pictured with Leigh Anne Tuohy) starred in “The Blind Side” based on the book in 2009. The feel-good movie grossed over $309 million at the worldwide box office.
Oher claims he never received a penny of the movie’s profits.
He filed a lawsuit in Shelby County, Tennessee on Monday alleging the movie was based on a lie and the Tuohy family used him to enrich themselves.
“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,” said an attorney in the legal filing obtained by ESPN.
“Michael trusted the Tuohys and signed where they told him to sign. What he signed, however, and unknown to Michael until after February 2023, were not adoption papers, or the equivalent of adoption papers,” according to the lawsuit.
“They explained to me that it means pretty much the exact same thing as ‘adoptive parents’, but that the laws were just written in a way that took my age into account,” Oher wrote in his 2011 best-selling book, I Beat the Odds.
Speaking with the Daily Memphian newspaper, Sean Tuohy scoffed at the claim that he and his wife earned $300 million from Oher’s name and likeness.
Tuohy said the conservatorship was drawn up so Oher would be eligible to play football at the University of Mississippi.
“We’re devastated,” 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.”
Oher, a married father-of-4, is asking a judge to end the conservatorship with the Tuohys. He is also seeking “a full accounting” of money earned by the Tuohys using his name and likeness.
