The author of The Blind Side, Michael Lewis, has defended the family depicted in the book against allegations that they deceived former NFL player Michael Oher.
Oher filed a petition in a Tennessee court earlier this week claiming that Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy did not adopt him, as claimed in the best-selling book, but instead deceived him into naming them his conservators shortly after he turned 18 years old.
Oher, who is Black, grew up in abject poverty before being adopted by the Tuohys, who are affluent whites, according to Lewis’s book. He ultimately had a prosperous NFL career, capturing a Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens. The book was adapted into an Oscar-winning film, and Oher’s petition alleges that as conservators, the Tuohys were able to secure deals that earned them and their two birth children millions of dollars but excluded Oher.
Thursday in an interview with the Washington Post, Lewis defended the Tuohys and blamed the entertainment industry for their actions.
“Everyone should be angry with the Hollywood studio system,” said Sean Tuohy’s close school friend Lewis. Michael Oher should participate in the writers’ strike. It is scandalous how Hollywood accounting works, but the Tuohys do not have the money.”
Defending the Tuohys: Michael Lewis Speaks Out
Lewis told the Washington Post that the Tuohys earned relatively modest sums from The Blind Side, which grossed over $300 million worldwide. After taxes and agent fees, he and the Tuohys made approximately $350,000 from the film, which they shared with Oher. However, according to Lewis, Oher began declining royalty payments, and the Tuohys deposited those funds into a trust for the former NFL player’s son.
“What I regret most is that I witnessed the entire event up close,” Lewis said. They lavished him with resources and affection. The fact that he is suspicious of them is astounding. I feel sorry for him because of the state of mind required to do something like that.
If Oher had been adopted by the Tuohys, he would have been in charge of his film-related finances. Oher, as a person under conservatorship, ceded control to the Tuohys.
Oher stated in his 2011 autobiography that the Tuohys informed him that conservatorship and adoption were nearly identical. “They explained to me that it essentially means the same thing as ‘adoptive parents,’ but that the laws were written to take my age into consideration,” he wrote.
There is no mention of the term conservatorship in The Blind Side.
Lewis told the Post that he believes the Tuohys chose conservatorship over adoption because it was speedier. The Tuohys, who have frequently referred to Oher as their adopted son, have stated that, because he was over 18 at the time, they chose conservatorship over adoption.
We contacted solicitors who informed us that we could not adopt a child over the age of 18; the only option was to establish a conservatorship,” the Daily Memphian reported on Monday. We ensured that [Oher’s] biological mother appeared in court out of concern that everything was aboveboard.
However, Tennessee family counsel Elizabeth Psar told ESPN this week that Oher could have been adopted after he turned 18.
Controversial Conservatorship vs. Adoption Debate
“Adults can be adopted in Tennessee, but the adults must give their consent,” she explained. It would have been simple to submit [the adoption documents] like any other paperwork.
Under Tennessee law, conservatorships are for individuals with mental or physical conditions that prevent them from making their own decisions. Oher initially struggled in high school because his difficult upbringing caused him to forgo earlier educational opportunities. After catching up with his classmates, he graduated from secondary school and earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice.
Tennessee attorney Barbara Moss, who has dealt with conservatorships, deemed the Tuohys’ and Oher’s arrangement “bizarre.”
She told the Washington Post, “I’ve never witnessed anything like that occurring.” According to my knowledge of Michael Oher, he would not have qualified.
Beyond “The Blind Side”: Impact and Controversy
Tuesday, Martin Singer, an attorney for the Tuohy family, stated that “the notion that the family ever sought to profit from Mr. Oher is not only offensive but transparently absurd.”
The statement also claims Oher threatened to go public if the Tuohys did not pay him $15 million.
In actuality, the Tuohys offered Mr. Oher structure, support, and most importantly, unconditional love, according to the statement. They have unfailingly treated him as one of their three children and a son. He responded by threatening them, stating that he would plant a negative narrative about them in the media unless they paid him $15 million.”
While the film was a massive success, many critics claimed that it devolved into a “white savior” story and perpetuated negative racial stereotypes. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw described it as “a bland, parochial, and stereotypically acted Photoshopped image of reality.”
Oher has stated that the film’s portrayal of him as an idiot negatively impacted his NFL career.
Oher told ESPN in 2015, “People look at me, and they take things away from me because of a movie.” They do not recognize my abilities and the type of player I am.
In recent years, conservatorships, also known as guardianships in some states, have been in the spotlight due to Britney Spears’ highly publicized involvement with the legal arrangement. After 14 years, her conservatorship was ultimately terminated in 2021.
