Ex- NFL lineman Michael Oher discusses lawsuit against Tuohy family and 'The Blind Side'
Former NFL lineman Michael Oher is speaking about his life on and off the field, discussing a lawsuit against the family that took him in as a teenager and the subsequent movie "The Blind Side" that thrust him into the public spotlight.
The 38-year-old Oher sued Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, the Memphis couple who took him in. This led to a quick termination of the two-decade-old conservatorship.
In the lawsuit, Oher says the Tuohys and their two children made around $8 million off his name, image, and likeness by promoting speaking engagements and claiming to have adopted him. The Tuohys have denied those claims.
Oher says there is a difference emotionally between Black families and white families.
“The first time I heard ‘I love you,’ it was Sean and Leigh Anne saying it. When that happens at 18, you become vulnerable,” Oher told the New York Times Magazine. “You let your guard down and then you get everything stripped from you. It turns into a hurt feeling.”
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“I don’t want to make this about race, but what I found out was that nobody says ‘I love you’ more than coaches and white people. When Black people say it, they mean it.”
But Oher, who played eight seasons in the NFL with the Baltimore Ravens, Tennessee Titans and Carolina Panthers, says the 2009 movie, "The Blind Side," which is based on the Michael Lewis book of the same name, portrayed him in a negative light.
“It’s hard to describe my reaction,” Oher said. “It seemed kind of funny to me, to tell you the truth, like it was a comedy about someone else. It didn’t register. But social media was just starting to grow, and I started seeing stuff that I’m dumb. I’m stupid. Every article about me mentioned ‘The Blind Side,’ like it was part of my name.”
Oher says he did not attend the premiere of the movie but watched it a month after its release.
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Nowadays, Oher is married with five children and has established a foundation to raise money for scholarships for children in Nashville.
“For a long time, I was so angry mentally,” Oher said. “With what I was going through. I want to be the person I was before ‘The Blind Side,’ personality-wise. I’m still working on it.”