'Blind Side' Writer Says Michael Oher's Lawsuit Shows Major 'Change of Behavior' Caused by Football
The man who wrote “The Blind Side” says recent accusations from the NFL player featured in it may be the direct result of head injuries sustained while playing football.
Former offensive tackle Michael Oher filed a lawsuit in August against Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy alleging that they had tricked him into voluntarily entering into a conservatorship with him that gave them control of his finances while claiming they had adopted him.
He claims they made millions from the film adaptation of “The Blind Side,” while he received nothing.
Michael Lewis, the author of the book on which the film was based, told The Guardian in a wide-ranging interview published Tuesday that the Tuohys had “only earned a few hundred thousand” from the film, and that the player’s accusations may be more based in neurology than history.
“What we’re watching is a change of behaviour,” Lewis said, after describing how shy Oher had been when he had spoken with him while writing “The Blind Side.”
“This is what happens to football players who get hit in the head,” he said. “They run into problems with violence and aggression.”
Lewis defended the Tuohys in general, and the interviewer described the family as “old friends of his.”
He also praised Hugh Freeze, a former coach of Oher’s, who had also recently come to the defense of the Tuohy family.
“It’s this cancel culture thing,” Lewis said. “It takes an act of courage to stand up to the mob.”
Sean Tuohy, whose family took in Oher before his successful careers at both the University of Mississippi and in the NFL, called allegations the offensive tackle was taken advantage of “insulting” in a recent interview.
“The Blind Side” portrays the Tuohy family, who are white and wealthy, as a caring group that welcomed a then-homeless black teen into their home. With encouragement from the family, Oher played for the Ole Miss Rebels before he later won a Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens in 2013.
The rest is history — or it was until recently, when the 37-year-old filed the lawsuit in Tennessee claiming the family took advantage of him.
“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,” an attorney for Oher argued, according to ESPN.
“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,” the lawsuit claims.
Sean Tuohy disputed Oher’s recounting of the events of him joining the family in an interview with The Daily Memphian. He called the lawsuit “insulting” and said on behalf of his family, “We’re devastated.”
“It’s upsetting to think we would make money off any of our children,” he said. “But we’re going to love Michael at 37 just like we loved him at 16.”
Tuohy disputed any notion that his family welcomed Oher into their home for money. He said he had cashed out of the restaurant business and made somewhere in the neighborhood of $200 million.
“We didn’t make any money off the movie,” Tuohy told the Memphian. “Well, Michael Lewis gave us half of his share.”
Tuohy concluded, “Everybody in the family got an equal share, including Michael. It was about $14,000, each.”
But as far as him, his wife or his children hoping to profit from taking Oher in, Tuohy said it simply isn’t true.
“We were never offered money,” he said. “We never asked for money. My money is well-documented. You can look up how much I sold my company for.”
Tuohy added that the lawsuit has hurt him deeply.
“I will say it’s upsetting that people would think I would want to make money off any of my children,” the Ole Miss booster concluded.
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