‘Blind Side’ Tuohy family accuses ex-NFLer Michael Oher of $15M ‘shakedown’ before bombshell court filing
Michael Oher, the ex-NFL star whose story inspired the Oscar-winning film “The Blind Side,” allegedly asked his adoptive family for $15 million not to go public with claims they swindled him, according to the family’s attorney.
Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy said through their legal representative there is no credence to Oher’s claims he was fooled into a conservatorship and rubbished claims the couple made millions off his life’s story.
Their lawyer told TMZ Sports Oher was instead the principal offender who has repeatedly threatened to “plant a negative story” about the Tuohys in the press if they didn’t cough up an eight-figure check.
“Over the years, the Tuohys have given Mr. Oher an equal cut of every penny received from ‘The Blind Side,’” attorney Marty 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 alleged Oher had been dropped as a client by other lawyers, but “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.”
A representative for Oher, a member of the 2013 Baltimore Ravens Super Bowl winning team, did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Oher, 37, filed a lawsuit in Shelby County, Tenn., court Monday, alleging he only recently learned he wasn’t officially adopted by the Tuohys and that he was signed into a conservatorship which allowed them to retain legal power over him.
Oher claims that through the conservatorship, the Tuohys made millions of dollars thanks to “The Blind Side,” which grossed $300 million in the box office, while he didn’t receive a single cent.
Singer denied the allegations, saying the Tuohys only “received a small advance from the production company and a tiny percentage of net profits.”
Oher’s lawsuit claims the couple, along with their two birth children, made $225,000 each from the movie, plus 2.5 percent of the “defined net proceeds.”
Singer also asserted the Tuohys had no reason to scam Oher given that they are millionaires in their own rights thanks to their fast food franchise dealings, which had netted them $213 million.
“The notion that a couple worth hundreds of millions of dollars would connive to withhold a few thousand dollars in profit participation payments from anyone — let alone from someone they loved as a son — defies belief,” Singer told TMZ.
