{"id":2001300,"date":"2023-08-15T13:31:01","date_gmt":"2023-08-15T17:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-nfl-player-says-the-blind-side-family-never-really-adopted-him\/"},"modified":"2023-08-15T13:32:47","modified_gmt":"2023-08-15T17:32:47","slug":"former-nfl-player-says-the-blind-side-family-never-really-adopted-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-nfl-player-says-the-blind-side-family-never-really-adopted-him\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-NFL player claims &#8216;The Blind Side&#8217; family never truly adopted him."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fformer-nfl-player-says-the-blind-side-family-never-really-adopted-him%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2001300&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>A Shocking \u2063Revelation: The \u2062Truth\u200b Behind &#8220;The Blind Side&#8221;<\/h2>\n<blockquote>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/s-d-governor-launches-national-coalition-to-challenge-policies-on-transgender-participation-in-womens-sports\/\" title=\"S.D. governor launches national coalition to challenge policies on transgender participation in women\u2019s sports\">retired professional football player<\/a> whose\u2062 life story became the basis for the\u2062 Oscar-winning\u200d movie \u200c\u201cThe Blind Side,\u201d says the white, wealthy family \u200bwho \u200ctook him in never actually adopted him, as the \u200cfilm suggests.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Michael Oher,\u200b now\u200c 37, has filed a petition in Shelby County, Tennessee,\u200c probate court, alleging that Sean and \u2062Leigh Anne Tuohy never adopted him\u200c after bringing him into their home when he was a teenager, ESPN <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/38190720\/blind-side-subject-michael-oher-alleges-adoption-was-lie-family-took-all-film-proceeds\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a>. In the 14-page petition, Oher \u2062alleges that less than three \u200bmonths after he turned 18 in 2004, the Tuohys tricked \u2064him into signing a\u2064 document\u2063 that made them his \u200bconservators\u2063 \u2013 not his adopted parents \u2013 thereby giving\u200b them legal authority to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/doj-appeals-to-supreme-court-to-greenlight-student-loan-forgiveness-plan\/\" title=\"DOJ Appeals to Supreme Court to Greenlight Student Loan Forgiveness Plan\">make financial decisions<\/a>\u200c in his name.<\/p>\n<p>Oher also alleges that the Tuohys used their\u200c conservatorship to make millions for themselves\u200b and their two birth children \u2064from \u2063royalties collected from the book and\u2064 movie. In his petition, he says he received \u200cno money for the story,\u2062 which \u200c\u201cwould not \u2062have existed without \u200bhim.\u201d To this \u2064day, the\u2064 Tuohys claim Oher as their adopted son and use \u2064that \u2062narrative\u2064 to promote their foundation and Leigh Anne\u2019s motivational books and speaking tours.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe lie of Michael\u2019s\u2063 adoption is \u2063one upon which\u2062 Co-Conservators\u200c Leigh Anne\u2062 Tuohy and\u2064 Sean Tuohy have enriched themselves at the expense of their Ward, the undersigned Michael Oher,\u201d the \u2062former offensive tackle wrote\u2064 in the petition. \u201cMichael Oher discovered this \u200clie to \u200bhis chagrin and embarrassment in February of \u200c2023, when he learned \u2062that\u2063 the Conservatorship to \u2063which\u2064 he consented\u2064 on the basis that doing so would \u200dmake him a member of\u200c the Tuohy family, in fact provided him\u200d no familial relationship \u200cwith the Tuohys.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Tuohys\u2019 \u2064attorney, \u2062Steve Farese, told ESPN that the family would file a legal response to Oher\u2019s claims within weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Sean Touhy <a href=\"https:\/\/dailymemphian.com\/article\/37925\/sean-tuohy-responds-allegations-michael-oher-blind-side-money\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told<\/a> the Daily \u200dMemphian that the family \u201cdidn\u2019t make any money\u200b off the movie\u201d but did \u200bmake money from the book it was based on, written by Michael Lewis.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re devastated,\u201d Sean told the outlet. \u201cIt\u2019s upsetting to think we would make money off \u2063any of our children. But we\u2019re going\u200b to love Michael at 37 \u2064just like \u2063we loved him\u2062 at\u200d 16.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Oher is \u2063asking the Tennessee court to \u200dend the conservatorship and prohibit\u2062 the Tuohys from \u2064continuing to use his name and likeness, as well as a full accounting of the money they earned from selling his story. He is requesting his share of the profits, as well as compensatory and punitive \u200cdamages.<\/p>\n<p><b data-stringify-type=\"bold\"><\/b><\/p>\n<p>\u201cSince\u2064 at least August\u2064 of 2004, \u2063Conservators have allowed Michael, specifically, and\u200c the public, generally, to believe that Conservators adopted Michael and have used that untruth to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/michael-oher-from-blind-side-claims-tuohys-never-adopted-him-made-millions\/\" title=\"Michael Oher, of 'Blind Side' fame, says Tuohys never adopted him, earned millions.\">gain financial advantages<\/a> for themselves\u2062 and the foundations which they own or which they \u200dexercise \u200dcontrol,\u201d the petition says, according to ESPN. \u201cAll monies made in said manner\u200d should in all conscience and\u200b equity \u2062be disgorged and paid over to the said ward, Michael Oher.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Oher signed the conservatorship papers when he was \u200bstill a senior in high school. He previously wrote\u200b in his best-selling memoir \u201cI\u2063 Beat the Odds\u201d that the\u2063 Tuohys had told him there \u200dreally wasn\u2019t a difference between adoption and conservatorship.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey explained \u200dto \u200bme that\u2062 it means pretty much the exact same thing as \u2018adoptive\u2063 parents,\u2019 but that the laws were just written in a way that took\u200b my age into account,\u201d Oher wrote in 2011.<\/p>\n<p>In reality, conservatorship didn\u2019t\u2062 make Oher a\u2062 legal member\u2064 of the Tuohy family, nor did it \u200ballow him\u200c to make his\u2063 own financial decisions, even as an adult with no physical or psychological disabilities.<\/p>\n<p>Oher alleges\u2064 in \u2063the legal filing that the Tuohys and their two birth children were each paid $225,000 and 2.5% of the film\u2019s \u201cdefined net \u2062proceeds,\u201d which resulted\u200c in millions of dollars from a movie that grossed more than $300 million worldwide, according to\u2062 IMDb.<\/p>\n<p>The Tuohys previously wrote in their own 2010\u200d book \u201cIn a Heartbeat:\u2062 Sharing the Power of Cheerful Giving\u201d \u200dthat they received a flat fee for the story and didn\u2019t receive any profits from the movie,\u200c and\u2062 what\u2062 money they did receive, they shared with Oher.<\/p>\n<p>Oher says in his court petition that he never received\u200c any of this money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A former football player, whose life inspired &#8220;The Blind Side,&#8221; claims the wealthy family who took him in never legally adopted him. Michael Oher, now 37, has filed a petition in Tennessee, stating that Sean and Leigh Anne did not adopt him, contrary to what the movie portrays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":2001301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2001300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2001300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/126"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2001300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2001300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2001301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2001300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2001300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2001300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}