Jolly Red Giant
Well-known member
- Jul 11, 2015
- 2,615
Anyone who follows American Football knew that Oher was nothing like he was portrayed in the film - it was well-known that he was an up-and-coming football player long before he met the Tuohys. The reason he ended up in an expensive private school was because of his football talent. He stayed with multiple families during his time at Briarcrest - the Tuohys being the last in a long line of people . There was a reason the NCCA investigated whether the Tuohys were engaged in boosting to get him to play for Ole Miss. And the portrayal of the NCCA investigation in the film is fiction. The book the film is based on was written by Michael Lewis - a former classmate of Sean Tuohy.I'll put this here rather than starting a new thread. I'm sure you've all seen 'The Blind Side', but I was very sad to read this story about Michael Oher:
Michael Oher, subject of The Blind Side, and 'adoptive parents' in legal feud
Ex-NFL star Michael Oher says a couple enriched themselves off his name. They say it's an extortion attempt.www.bbc.co.uk
I loved 'The Blind Side'. I remember at the time having the teeniest of doubts about the story, but I thought Oher must have been ok with it, and the Tuohys, otherwise he wouldn't have gone along with the project. Now it turns out he never liked his portrayal in the film, and he thinks the Tuohys lied to him.
It is also clear that Oher was suspicious of everything that was going on - in his senior yearbook profile he used the quote from a song from a rapper that said - 'If he didn’t become a star, would people still care about him?'
If the lawsuit is accurate then it seems pretty clear that the Tuohys did lie to him if he understood he was being adopted when in fact he was signing a legal conservatorship - and he only found out recently about this conservatorship. The conservatorship apparently prevented Oher from negotiating or entering contracts or making medical decisions by himself. Oher's agent was Debra Branan, a close family friend of the Tuohys and the same lawyer who filed the conservatorship in 2004. Since 2004 the Tuohys have repeatedly stated that Oher is their adopted son - which he is not, never has been - yet they continued to make this claim. The Board of Directors of the 'Making it Happen' Foundation are - Sean Tuohy, Leigh Anne Tuohy, Collins Tuohy, SJ Tuohy and Debra Branan. Leigh Anne Tuohy is reputed to get anywhere from $50k-$100K per event as a motivational speaker. Collins Tuohy is following in her mother's footsteps and reputedly gets between $40K-$75K per event (and like her mother uses her relationship with Oher as the basis for her talk and her profile calls him her 'adopted brother').
If Oher wins this case he will get millions off of them.
Edit: - and I forgot to mention - Oher has always said that he hated the movie and in particular that it the reason for his success at the feet of the Tuohys rather than his own commitment and motivation to succeed.
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