According to the Tuohy family, Michael Oher, the 2013 Superbowl champion, has been trying to extort over $15 million from them. Oher is a former member of the Tuohy family, and they have been fighting a legal battle.
Oher believes the family owes him earnings from the 2019 hit movie, “The Blind Side,” and has demanded that the Tuohys provide it. Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy adopted Michael Oher as a young teenager. But not even that history has dissuaded Oher from his legal pursuit.
The struggle between the Tuohys and Oher existed between only them. Until August 2023, when the former NFL star confessed to a Tennessee judge that the family never adopted him.
It was shocking news to the world. The film clearly depicts the Tuohys adopting the teenager, but as far as Oher is concerned, the family used the story to make millions of dollars. And he wants that back.
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The Tuohys are adamant they owe him nothing. And last year, the family claimed Oher threatened them, sending them various text messages demanding a payout of $15 million. The alternative was for him to take matters into his own hands by informing the press of their crimes.
According to Court documents obtained by the Us Weekly, which shed light on the alleged messages. Oher tagged the family “thieves” and asked them to pay him a large sum of money.
He allegedly wrote, “If something isn’t resolved this Friday, I’m going to go ahead and tell the world how I was robbed by [supposed] to be parents. That’s the deadline.”
The $15 million Oher reportedly demands was initially $10 million. He increased it after giving them the option to “negotiate” with his lawyer. His former family is not planning to entertain his desires.
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In court filings, the Tuohys argue that Oher “should be denied” any sort of temporary injunction. They claim they are “not engaged in a commercial use of” Oher’s name. They even went as far as removing all mentions of the former footballer from their website last year.
The “Blindside” earnings they allegedly fight over is $138,309. An amount both the Tuohys and Oher earned. Aside from that, Oher also demands compensation as he believes the Tuohy family played him into making them his conservators.
This allowed the family to make business deals in his name with legally binding power. Oher convinced a judge to revoke the 2004 conservatorship earlier in 2023.
In their defense, Sean Tuohy claims that the conservatorship was necessary. According to Sean, for Oher to attend the University of Mississippi and play football, he had to sign the conservatorship.
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Oher, who suggests the family pay him his fair share of the profits and compensatory and punitive damages, reportedly started demanding money after his career ended.
“Around that time, perhaps because he was no longer making a significant amount of money as a professional athlete, Mr. Oher became increasingly estranged from the Tuohys, believing incorrectly that they had not paid him the money he was owed,” court filings allege.
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