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

[unbillievable]

Why was a conservatorship granted?

 

Doesn't it require a Doctor or Psychologist along with a Judge signing off on it?

 

What was wrong with Oher that the Tuoys were given adult guardianship?

Edited August 14, 2023 by unbillievable

[ColoradoBills]

5 hours ago, co_springs_billsfan said:

Give the people what they want!!

 

Great movie.  I need to watch it again.

[LeGOATski]

5 hours ago, hondo in seattle said:

 

It's weird because the Tuohy's are wealthy and so is Oher (I would think).  Neither side needs the cash.  So why cheat, lie, and fight?  

There's this thing called greed....

[AuntieEm]

12 minutes ago, mrags said:

 No. Shane Falco was real but Clipper Franklin was definitely made up. 

 

 Clipper Franklin? Think you mean clifford Franklin.  I had to google clipper Franklin....no such person.

[SoTier]

 

1 hour ago, Augie said:

 

2 hours ago, CookieG said:

The allegations, if true, present some pretty sticky legal issues.

 

If they obtained a conservatorship, the Touhey's (sp.) are under a legal duty to act in HIS best interest regarding his assets.  Those assets would include his name and his story. It is an independent duty created by the legal nature of the conservatorship.

 

If they simply gave away the monetary rights to his name and story...as court appointed conservators, they will have some questions to answer. Thy are not appointed to waste assets of the ward.  In fact, a conservatorship is created to prevent wasting of the ward's assets.

 

It gets worse if they personally profited from an asset of his that he never received a cut from.

 

 

How much did they make? And how much did he make? Did everyone sign off on this? Did someone fail to perform according to the agreement in any way? 

 

There is a lot of moral outrage here. If someone could give us the Cliff Notes on the facts and the contracts, that would be helpful. 

 

According to the ESPN article, the conservatorship is still in effect, and ending it is the primary reason for the lawsuit.  If Oher is broke -- as several posters on this thread have claimed -- that seems to be the Touheys' fault since they have been in charge of his finances for nearly 20 years.  The court filing also claims that the Touheys not only profited from the movie, but they have continued to profit from claiming that they adopted Oher, from foundations that they ran to books to motivational speaking tours, etc.   Moreover, Oher's sports agent was a close friend of the Touhey's, and the same lawyer who filed the conservatorship papers.  This entire situation stinks to high heaven.

 

 

1 hour ago, WotAGuy said:

One thing we learned from the Manziel documentary is that all sides are greasy when it comes to NCAA football; the schools, the leagues, the families and the kids. There’s too much money involved for it to be squeaky clean. 

 

As a former grad student at a large Midwestern university that was a football powerhouse (ie, National Champion) in the 1970s when I attended, I will attest to this.  Grad students without scruples could earn big bucks by "tutoring" football players so they could maintain their eligibility.

 

The New York Times article quoted by Syhuang in his/her post suggests that the Touheys were hardly altruistic in helping Oher.  It seems that they viewed helping him get NCAA acceptance as an "investment" in getting him to the NFL which lead them to help him skirt the intent of the NCAA rules.  If Oher's GPA was too low, he could have attended a junior college for a couple of years where he could have improved his grades in order to transfer to a NCAA school.  That was both Cam Newton's and Josh Allen's route to the NFL (although not necessarily for poor HS GPAs).

Edited August 14, 2023 by SoTier

[Billy Claude]

1 hour ago, Augie said:

 

How much did they make? And how much did he make? Did everyone sign off on this? Did someone fail to perform according to the agreement in any way? 

 

There is a lot of moral outrage here. If someone could give us the Cliff Notes on the facts and the contracts, that would be helpful. 

 

From New York magazine: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/08/michael-oher-claims-tuohys-scammed-him-of-blind-side-money.html#:~:text=According to the filing%2C The,million at the box office.

 

This is what Oher claim in his filing.   If it goes to court it should be easy to check:

 

The 2009 movie, based on a book by Michael Lewis, won Sandra Bullock the Academy Award for Best Actress. According to the filing, The Blind Side netted the Tuohys and their two children $225,000 each plus 2.5 percent of the “defined net proceeds” — a substantial sum for a movie that made $309 million at the box office. But Oher claims that a contract signed in 2007 waived his rights to any proceeds “without any payment whatsoever.” He says he has no memory of signing such a contract; even if he did, he says he was not informed of its ramifications.

 

If this is true, its hard to figure out why Oher didn't get at least the same share as the children.  Maybe their relationship was already on the outs at that time.  Oher was fairly quick to say that the movie wasn't accurate at the time.

 

 

[mrags]

12 minutes ago, AuntieEm said:

 

 Clipper Franklin? Think you mean clifford Franklin.  I had to google clipper Franklin....no such person.

Exactly. He was made up 

[EasternOHBillsFan]

7 hours ago, Big Turk said:

Seems like a money grab after the fact. They had no way of knowing he would be in the NFL when they took him in.

 

I mean maybe there is some wrong on their side that occurred after the fact once big time money got involved with the movie tho...

 

Maybe he FINALLY found out he was never adopted (maybe when he was married), and then after further investigation, found out that he never was legally adopted and he had been lied to about a LOT of things?!!

 

Betrayal cuts deep, but thinking this is a money grab is utterly ridiculous.

1 hour ago, unbillievable said:

Why was a conservatorship granted?

 

Doesn't it require a Doctor or Psychologist along with a Judge signing off on it?

 

What was wrong with Oher that the Tuoys were given adult guardianship?

 

He was tricked into signing papers thinking they were adoption papers... that's why. He agreed to it in writing supposedly.

3 hours ago, mannc said:

Does it seem rotten to you that they made millions off the movie and Oher didn't get a dime (allegedly)?

 

Evidently in Utah taking people's money or land is just being smart and proactive.

[unbillievable]

16 minutes ago, EasternOHBillsFan said:

He was tricked into signing papers thinking they were adoption papers... that's why. He agreed to it in writing supposedly.

 

From what I read, He doesn't just sign random papers. There has to be a hearing of some kind where professionals are involved, a doctor and judge usually, with proof of an inability for an adult to handle their responsibilities.

 

Life isn't like the Little Mermaid movie.

[Mark Vader]

Will he sue Sandra Bullock? If anything for constantly having to shove awful movies at us? That would be awesome!

 

 

 

 

[unbillievable]

1 minute ago, Mark Vader said:

Will he sue Sandra Bullock? If anything for constantly having to shove awful movies at us? That would be awesome!

 

Blindside was nominated for Best Movie of the Year!

[Mark Vader]

1 minute ago, unbillievable said:

 

Blindside was nominated for Best Movie of the Year!

Didn't she win Best Actress for that movie too? Guess she better give that Oscar back.

Edited August 15, 2023 by Mark Vader

[unbillievable]

2 minutes ago, Mark Vader said:

Didn't she win Best Actress for that movie too? Guess she better give that Oscar back.

 

Fun Fact:

 

Bullock won best actress for "Blindside" the same year she won worst actress for "All about Steve." 2009

[Mark Vader]

2 minutes ago, unbillievable said:

 

Fun Fact:

 

Bullock won best actress for "Blindside" the same year she won worst actress for "All about Steve." 2009

That's right. She even showed up to receive her award at The Golden Raspberries.

 

Then in true classless Sandra Bullock form, she admonished the people who make the Raspberry awards.

[Since1981]

I have no doubt Touhys described it as adoption. Not in family ensures  full ride finaid $$ Alabama.
 

Adult conservatorship should be insanely hard to acquire. Adult has a choice to blow money. “pursuit of happiness” and all that founding fathers jazz.

 

It’s pretty lame they didn’t adopt him

Edited August 15, 2023 by Since1981

[Since1981]

They were very wealthy franchisees. Sean Tuohy does say at 18 yrs old there’s not much they could do.  “ Tuohy says he was in no need of cash after he had sold his fast-food franchises for over $200 million.”

https://www.tmz.com/2023/08/14/sean-tuohy-calls-michael-oher-claims-insulting-says-family-made-no-money-off-blind-side/

Edited August 15, 2023 by Since1981

[Joe Ferguson forever]

7 hours ago, Rico said:

I saw the movie, he wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed.

inhere seems pretty smart.  He was reportedly very upset at how he was portrayed in the move in regards to his intelligence.

[hondo in seattle]

51 minutes ago, Since1981 said:

They were very wealthy franchisees. Sean Tuohy does say at 18 yrs old there’s not much they could do.  “ Tuohy says he was in no need of cash after he had sold his fast-food franchises for over $200 million.”

https://www.tmz.com/2023/08/14/sean-tuohy-calls-michael-oher-claims-insulting-says-family-made-no-money-off-blind-side/

Elsewhere, I read he sold for $213 million.  And he still owns 11 Taco Bells which probably nets him roughly $2 million/year. He's not hurting for money. 

 

It's hard to imagine him, with the kind of financial resources he has, throwing his morals and values to the wind to screw his 'adopted' son for a little more money that he doesn't really need.  

[Mango]

Man. This has to be a TBD record. 7 pages and 80% of responses didn’t read the article. Some of you willfully won’t.
 

Wild. 
 

 

[transient]

6 hours ago, mrags said:

You should watch The Draft instead. Much more realistic to yell at Brandon Beane looking like a douche in a movie. 

That was Russ Brandon, and he can’t help it that he has resting douche face.