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Former OL Oher Blindsided: Suing Tuohy's Claiming They Never Adopted Him


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Oher Attempted $15 Million Shakedown

 

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The Tuohy family says before Michael Oher made "outlandish," "hurtful" and "absurd" claims about them in court on Monday ... he actually tried to shake them down for $15 MILLION.

 

...

...

 

Singer -- in a lengthy statement to TMZ Sports -- said Oher came to the Tuohys prior to filing his 14-page petition in Shelby County, Tenn. ... and threatened them, saying if they didn't pony up an eight-figure check, he'd "plant a negative story about them in the press."

 

...

...

 

The conservatorship "was established to assist with Mr. Oher’s needs, ranging from getting him health insurance and obtaining a driver’s license to helping with college admissions," Singer said. "Should Mr. Oher wish to terminate the conservatorship, either now or at anytime in the future, the Tuohys will never oppose it in any way."

 

...

...

 

"Over the years, the Tuohys have given Mr. Oher an equal cut of every penny received from 'The Blind Side,'" Singer said. "Even recently, when Mr. Oher started to threaten them about what he would do unless they paid him an eight-figure windfall, and, as part of that shakedown effort refused to cash the small profit checks from the Tuohys, they still deposited Mr. Oher’s equal share into a trust account they set up for his son."

 

...

...

 

Singer continued, "Unbeknownst to the public, Mr. Oher has actually attempted to run this play several times before – but it seems that numerous other lawyers stopped representing him once they saw the evidence and learned the truth. Sadly, Mr. Oher has finally found a willing enabler and filed this ludicrous lawsuit as a cynical attempt to drum up attention in the middle of his latest book tour."

 

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Tuohys dispute Michael Oher claims, allege 'shakedown effort'

 

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In his statement, Singer said agents for Michael Lewis, author of the bestselling book that became "The Blind Side," negotiated a deal in which the Tuohy family "received a small advance from the production company and a tiny percentage of net profits."

"They insisted that any money received be divided equally. And they have made good on that pledge," the statement said. "The evidence -- documented in profit participation checks and studio accounting statements -- is clear: over the years, the Tuohys have given Mr. Oher an equal cut of every penny received from 'The Blind Side.' Even recently, when Mr. Oher started to threaten them about what he would do unless they paid him an eight-figure windfall, and, as part of that shakedown effort refused to cash the small profit checks from the Tuohys, they still deposited Mr. Oher's equal share into a trust account they set up for his son."

 

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Edited by syhuang
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5 minutes ago, syhuang said:

Oher Attempted $15 Million Shakedown

 

---------------------------------------

 

The Tuohy family says before Michael Oher made "outlandish," "hurtful" and "absurd" claims about them in court on Monday ... he actually tried to shake them down for $15 MILLION.

 

...

...

 

Singer -- in a lengthy statement to TMZ Sports -- said Oher came to the Tuohys prior to filing his 14-page petition in Shelby County, Tenn. ... and threatened them, saying if they didn't pony up an eight-figure check, he'd "plant a negative story about them in the press."

 

...

...

 

The conservatorship "was established to assist with Mr. Oher’s needs, ranging from getting him health insurance and obtaining a driver’s license to helping with college admissions," Singer said. "Should Mr. Oher wish to terminate the conservatorship, either now or at anytime in the future, the Tuohys will never oppose it in any way."

 

...

...

 

"Over the years, the Tuohys have given Mr. Oher an equal cut of every penny received from 'The Blind Side,'" Singer said. "Even recently, when Mr. Oher started to threaten them about what he would do unless they paid him an eight-figure windfall, and, as part of that shakedown effort refused to cash the small profit checks from the Tuohys, they still deposited Mr. Oher’s equal share into a trust account they set up for his son."

 

...

...

 

Singer continued, "Unbeknownst to the public, Mr. Oher has actually attempted to run this play several times before – but it seems that numerous other lawyers stopped representing him once they saw the evidence and learned the truth. Sadly, Mr. Oher has finally found a willing enabler and filed this ludicrous lawsuit as a cynical attempt to drum up attention in the middle of his latest book tour."

 

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Honestly I feel bad for the dude. Sounds like someone tried to convince him there was a lot of money there, and there isn't.

 

Any lawyer worth his salt doesn't put out this much info, unless it's all true. They're even going to look at the dates for the trust.

 

If the acct is freshly opened and a lump sum dropped in there, he'd be setting the family up to get roasted in the media, which is likely a bigger concern then the $$

 

As far as the conservatorship, doesn't sound like the family ever controlled his NFL $$. He bought a $1.4m house in 2014, and Ohers lawyer woulda blasted them If they were keeping his money from him or taking anything.

 

So conservatorship sounds like it's in name only. It absolutely makes sense that keeping this title in place was an emotional sentiment. His tie into the family as being one of them. Why go through a legal divorce of sorts if that's the case?

 

If he'd wanted out he could've asked or we woulda heard news that he was fighting his way out of it, a la Spears. This whole thing sucks for all parties. Would be shocked of anything malicious comes out, at all, more than happy to admit it here of it does.  

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1 hour ago, syhuang said:

Oher Attempted $15 Million Shakedown

 

---------------------------------------

 

The Tuohy family says before Michael Oher made "outlandish," "hurtful" and "absurd" claims about them in court on Monday ... he actually tried to shake them down for $15 MILLION.

 

...

...

 

Singer -- in a lengthy statement to TMZ Sports -- said Oher came to the Tuohys prior to filing his 14-page petition in Shelby County, Tenn. ... and threatened them, saying if they didn't pony up an eight-figure check, he'd "plant a negative story about them in the press."

 

...

...

 

The conservatorship "was established to assist with Mr. Oher’s needs, ranging from getting him health insurance and obtaining a driver’s license to helping with college admissions," Singer said. "Should Mr. Oher wish to terminate the conservatorship, either now or at anytime in the future, the Tuohys will never oppose it in any way."

 

...

...

 

"Over the years, the Tuohys have given Mr. Oher an equal cut of every penny received from 'The Blind Side,'" Singer said. "Even recently, when Mr. Oher started to threaten them about what he would do unless they paid him an eight-figure windfall, and, as part of that shakedown effort refused to cash the small profit checks from the Tuohys, they still deposited Mr. Oher’s equal share into a trust account they set up for his son."

 

...

...

 

Singer continued, "Unbeknownst to the public, Mr. Oher has actually attempted to run this play several times before – but it seems that numerous other lawyers stopped representing him once they saw the evidence and learned the truth. Sadly, Mr. Oher has finally found a willing enabler and filed this ludicrous lawsuit as a cynical attempt to drum up attention in the middle of his latest book tour."

 

---------------------------------------

 

Tuohys dispute Michael Oher claims, allege 'shakedown effort'

 

---------------------------------------

In his statement, Singer said agents for Michael Lewis, author of the bestselling book that became "The Blind Side," negotiated a deal in which the Tuohy family "received a small advance from the production company and a tiny percentage of net profits."

"They insisted that any money received be divided equally. And they have made good on that pledge," the statement said. "The evidence -- documented in profit participation checks and studio accounting statements -- is clear: over the years, the Tuohys have given Mr. Oher an equal cut of every penny received from 'The Blind Side.' Even recently, when Mr. Oher started to threaten them about what he would do unless they paid him an eight-figure windfall, and, as part of that shakedown effort refused to cash the small profit checks from the Tuohys, they still deposited Mr. Oher's equal share into a trust account they set up for his son."

 

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The story keeps getting sadder and sadder.  

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1 hour ago, BillsShredder83 said:

Honestly I feel bad for the dude. Sounds like someone tried to convince him there was a lot of money there, and there isn't.

 

Any lawyer worth his salt doesn't put out this much info, unless it's all true. They're even going to look at the dates for the trust.

 

If the acct is freshly opened and a lump sum dropped in there, he'd be setting the family up to get roasted in the media, which is likely a bigger concern then the $$

 

As far as the conservatorship, doesn't sound like the family ever controlled his NFL $$. He bought a $1.4m house in 2014, and Ohers lawyer woulda blasted them If they were keeping his money from him or taking anything.

 

So conservatorship sounds like it's in name only. It absolutely makes sense that keeping this title in place was an emotional sentiment. His tie into the family as being one of them. Why go through a legal divorce of sorts if that's the case?

 

If he'd wanted out he could've asked or we woulda heard news that he was fighting his way out of it, a la Spears. This whole thing sucks for all parties. Would be shocked of anything malicious comes out, at all, more than happy to admit it here of it does.  


it’s starting to look like he’s blown his nfl money and is pulling this ***** to get some cash. 

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7 hours ago, BillsfaninSB said:

 

Exactly!   It wouldn’t matter if I was homeless or had 10 homes.  I wouldn’t just giveaway the rights of my story for pennies just so a large movie studio and actors can get even richer.   It doesn’t add up.

 

I’m not knowledgeable on how much authors get for movie rights but $120K seems very low for major productions. 

 

 

Well, I'm with you in not being knowledgeable about movie rights, but I think maybe when there's a book based on a true story and then someone wants to base a movie on it, and the book already has some kind of signed releases from the people involved, the studio only has to pay for the rights to the book, and not pay the people to use their story.

 

But like I said, this isn't my lane.  We got all kinds of people who know stuff on this site so maybe someone will educate us.

 

However, I did enquire of my friend Mr Google and found this:

https://beverlyboy.com/filmmaking/how-much-do-book-authors-receive-for-film-rights/
 

Quote

Generally speaking, the price that a production company will be willing to pay you for your book to film adaptation rights is about 2-3 percent of the production budget.

So, say the production company has a budget of $10M to produce your book adaptation. That’s considering you have an incredibly popular book like a NY Times Bestseller. Then you’ll be offered 2-3% or $200,000 on the first day of principle photography.

However, most of the time the agreement will also consider a cap. Perhaps the budget is $10M but the cap for rights to the book is set to $225,000.

That means, even if the film budget increases, to say $100M? You’re still only going to get $225,000 for the rights, which is still a rather substantial amount of money.

 

I found that the production budget was $29M, so if that article is correct and the book author gets 2%, that would be $580,000 (though it mentions there being a cap sometimes, ie if the original budget was $10M, the payout might cap at $200k).

 

So let's say that the Tuohys are correct that the author of the book gave them half of what he was paid, and they divided it equally so everyone got $14,000 as Sean Tuohy has said.  That would be the Tuohys, their 2 kids, and Oher so 6 x $14,000 or $70,000; that would mean the author of the book was paid $140,000.

 

Which seems low, but not orders of magnitude low - and maybe the $140k was after a 15% agent fee and taxes?

 

2 hours ago, syhuang said:

In his statement, Singer said agents for Michael Lewis, author of the bestselling book that became "The Blind Side," negotiated a deal in which the Tuohy family "received a small advance from the production company and a tiny percentage of net profits."

"They insisted that any money received be divided equally. And they have made good on that pledge," the statement said. "The evidence -- documented in profit participation checks and studio accounting statements -- is clear: over the years, the Tuohys have given Mr. Oher an equal cut of every penny received from 'The Blind Side.' Even recently, when Mr. Oher started to threaten them about what he would do unless they paid him an eight-figure windfall, and, as part of that shakedown effort refused to cash the small profit checks from the Tuohys, they still deposited Mr. Oher's equal share into a trust account they set up for his son."

 

---------------------------------------

 

This pretty much tracks with the above if Lewis sold the movie rights to his book for a smaller original sum and then a percentage of the net profits.

 

The part about the "trust account they set up for his son" is a little odd because apparently Oher has 4 children, 2 of them sons.  But maybe it was set up after the first son was born but before the others.

Edited by Beck Water
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1 hour ago, aristocrat said:


it’s starting to look like he’s blown his nfl money and is pulling this ***** to get some cash. 

 

That would be sad.  Spotrac estimates that Oher made $34M in his 9 season career.

 

But people have run through bigger sums of money if they develop an addiction to drugs or gambling or trust the wrong investment advisor or simply spend like they have no limits.

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6 hours ago, BillsShredder83 said:

Id be feeling silly right about now if i was calling these people scum and "white saviors".  Dislike that term anyways, its a lose lose assumption.  So rich people have a chance to help a kid in a bad situation out, and don't, what do we call that? If they do step in, take a kid off the streets, theyre "white saviors".  Thats a really crappy label to throw around for any reason at all.

 

Even if it turns out these people took advantage of him, that label doesnt make sense when theres things like "fraudsters" and "con-artists" out there.  What good is coming from using that crappy label?  A white person should give pause before helping out someone different looking from them?  People should only adopt same race kids? What a nasty, fabricated label that is to hand out

huh?

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12 hours ago, Beck Water said:

 

Well, I'm with you in not being knowledgeable about movie rights, but I think maybe when there's a book based on a true story and then someone wants to base a movie on it, and the book already has some kind of signed releases from the people involved, the studio only has to pay for the rights to the book, and not pay the people to use their story.

 

But like I said, this isn't my lane.  We got all kinds of people who know stuff on this site so maybe someone will educate us.

 

However, I did enquire of my friend Mr Google and found this:

https://beverlyboy.com/filmmaking/how-much-do-book-authors-receive-for-film-rights/
 

 

I found that the production budget was $29M, so if that article is correct and the book author gets 2%, that would be $580,000 (though it mentions there being a cap sometimes, ie if the original budget was $10M, the payout might cap at $200k).

 

So let's say that the Tuohys are correct that the author of the book gave them half of what he was paid, and they divided it equally so everyone got $14,000 as Sean Tuohy has said.  That would be the Tuohys, their 2 kids, and Oher so 6 x $14,000 or $70,000; that would mean the author of the book was paid $140,000.

 

Which seems low, but not orders of magnitude low - and maybe the $140k was after a 15% agent fee and taxes?

 

 

This pretty much tracks with the above if Lewis sold the movie rights to his book for a smaller original sum and then a percentage of the net profits.

 

The part about the "trust account they set up for his son" is a little odd because apparently Oher has 4 children, 2 of them sons.  But maybe it was set up after the first son was born but before the others.

One thing is for sure: In a civil lawsuit like this, it's very easy to obtain records showing exactly how much everyone made from the movie rights and where that money went.  If, as has been reported, the movie grossed more than $300 million, then the numbers involved are probably much higher than you've indicated above. 

 

One last point: the notion that Oher tried to "shake them down" for eight figures before the lawsuit was filed is silly.  It's standard practice before filing a lawsuit like this to make a pre-litigation demand.  It's not extortion, or even immoral. 

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38 minutes ago, mannc said:

One thing is for sure: In a civil lawsuit like this, it's very easy to obtain records showing exactly how much everyone made from the movie rights and where that money went.  If, as has been reported, the movie grossed more than $300 million, then the numbers involved are probably much higher than you've indicated above. 

 

One last point: the notion that Oher tried to "shake them down" for eight figures before the lawsuit was filed is silly.  It's standard practice before filing a lawsuit like this to make a pre-litigation demand.  It's not extortion, or even immoral. 

That depends HOW he demanded it. If it was threw an attorney your right, but by the way this was written he was trying to blackmail them to pay by threatening to hurt their reputation. 

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Just now, PatsFanNH said:

That depends HOW he demanded it. If it was threw an attorney your right, but by the way this was written he was trying to blackmail them to pay by threatening to hurt their reputation. 

Have you seen the communication?

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1 hour ago, mannc said:

One thing is for sure: In a civil lawsuit like this, it's very easy to obtain records showing exactly how much everyone made from the movie rights and where that money went.  If, as has been reported, the movie grossed more than $300 million, then the numbers involved are probably much higher than you've indicated above. 

 

One last point: the notion that Oher tried to "shake them down" for eight figures before the lawsuit was filed is silly.  It's standard practice before filing a lawsuit like this to make a pre-litigation demand.  It's not extortion, or even immoral. 

 

How much the movie made is typically irrelevant to a writer who sold a story.  Usually its just a percentage of the budget or a capped number.  If they get a writing credit they might be able to negotiate some percentage of it.  He likely paid them to use their story in his book, and a percentage of proceeds from the book and any movie rights deal was a part of that contract.

 

Residuals likely wouldn't apply since... Michael Lewis didn't write the script or have any involvement in production of the film.  He was paid for the story he wrote, and some of that money might have trickled down to the family (sounds like it did, and it sounds like Oher probably has it).  Oher doesn't get all of that money either, since while it is his story - its their story as well.  It's possible they negotiated that into some original contract with Lewis, but I doubt theres a huge bucket of movie money sitting around.  Usually the movie money goes to the people in the movie, who wrote it, produced it, made it, and obviously the production company, distribution who bought it, etc.  

 

If it was "pay me 15 million or ill drag you through the media" it would still come across to me as a threat - legal or otherwise. I thought their response was pretty fair though.  I think they're more likely getting royalty checks from the book than the movie though.  

Edited by Bleeding Bills Blue
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The facts of this adventure are becoming fuzzier by the minute

Sounds more like a publicly stunt to sell a freaking book or make yet another movie.

Stay tuned The Reverand Allen Sharpton should be on the scene soon

Edited by HOUSE
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On 8/14/2023 at 1:51 PM, essential said:

 

 

Did either of you read it?  Basically, when he signed the "conservatorship" papers he thought he was signing "adoption" papers.  Also, he only found out about this in Feb 2023, so he didn't wait till now, he learned about it a few months ago. 

 

Didn't read through entire thread just yet so sorry if it's been addressed already, but question regarding the "conservatorship"......If it was a true conservatorship, wouldn't that mean they would have had some sort of control, involvement etc in the NFL contract that was signed with Ravens as a rookie? I'm not exactly sure so could be mistaken....

 

But if not, in that case I don't see how he learned about it recently. He would have known then at that point right? Correct me if I'm wrong here.....

Edited by Patrick Duffy
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A lot of this info, or info like it, came out years ago when Oher originally made his discontentment with the movie known. That's why I said this case is bologna. Oher is getting used by sketchy lawyers. This all stems from him thinking he should have gotten more money from the movie than he did, and thinking, wrongly, that the family got a huge payout from the movie and kept it from him. He is just wrong and lawyers are happy to profit off of it.

6 minutes ago, Patrick Duffy said:

 

Didn't read through entire thread just yet so sorry if it's been addressed already, but question regarding the "conservatorship"......If it was a true conservatorship, wouldn't that mean they would have had some sort of control, involvement etc in the NFL contract that was signed with Ravens as a rookie? I'm not exactly sure so could be mistaken....

 

But if not, in that case I don't see how he learned about it recently. He would have known then at that point right? Correct me if I'm wrong here.....

I'm sure it was all explained to him at the time he signed it, but he likely did not fully understand, because it was all over his head and he is not the sharpest tool in the shed.

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4 minutes ago, MJS said:

I'm sure it was all explained to him at the time he signed it, but he likely did not fully understand, because it was all over his head and he is not the sharpest tool in the shed

 

Well, I'll say it's possible, but you'd think at age 23 drafted into the NFL and all those involved in details/signing of his contract..... I don't see how 

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38 minutes ago, Patrick Duffy said:

Well, I'll say it's possible, but you'd think at age 23 drafted into the NFL and all those involved in details/signing of his contract..... I don't see how 

He probably just let his agent do everything. Many NFL players just focus on football and sign the papers their agents tell them to sign.

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