Michael Oher and The Blindside

Parents Forum Parent Cafe
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No one has said anything like this, and in my opinion these things don’t have anything to do with the issues at hand. I don’t understand why you come up with these staw-men arguments, while you continue to avoid addressing Oher’s actual claims as set out by his attorney in his Petition.

As for potential NCAA restrictions, I am not well-versed on rules, but his attorney seems to think that because Oher would not have been remunerated until after his NCAA eligibility expired the deal would not have affected his NCAA eligibility. This seems strange, but again I don’t know the old (or new) NCAA rules.

This is pure speculation on my part, but perhaps the potential NCAA eligibility issue could explain how Oher’s signature might have ended up on a the “Life Story Agreement” with Fox, even though the agreement allegedly provided him no compensation. According to the Petition, the movie couldn’t go forward without the signature. Maybe Tuohy thought that making a deal where Oher wasn’t compensated would preserve his NCAA eligibility while allowing the movie to go forward. To my mind this would have been unethical on multiple levels, but given the sketchy conservatorship arrangement, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit.

So far as I know, the Tuohy’s haven’t denied that they negotiated the deal without his consent or involvement, and you don’t seem to be suggesting that he had any real involvement either.

I have at least a rudimentary understanding how Hollywood accounting works, so I’m not at all shocked that the compensation so far has only been $750-950K. Wouldn’t have surprised me had it been less.

Bottom line is, I don’t think it really matters whether the payout was $750K-950K (so far) or “millions.” The question to me is whether the Tuohy’s violated their fiduciary duty to Oher by making a deal to which he did not consent and in which he may not have been fairly compensated relative to the rest of the family, and whether they continued to violate their fudiciary duty by continuing to use his name and likeness thereafter.

A couple observations on the recent press release by the production company. First, the company was financed by the Tuohy’s friend and neighbor (founder of FedEx), whose daughter used it as a platform to break into the movie industry. It shouldn’t be considered a neutral party with regard to whose side they are on.

Second, the company noted that it paid “approximately $767,000 to the talent agency (CAA) that represents the Tuohy family and Michael Oher.” But Michael Oher is not represented by CAA and the agreement indicates his share should have been through “Aunt Debbie.” In other words, it is not clear from the production company’s statement that Oher actually received any of this money.

Third, the company mentions a “charitable contribution” but Oher describes this as a $200K payment in Sean Tuohy’s name, subject to an Amendment to the Life Rights Agreement, and claims that he was left out of this as well. Seems like a way for someone to avoid paying taxes, but I’m not sure who. (The production company claims they tried to give a charitable matching gift to Oher but he turned down the money. Without more, info. this strikes me as very odd.)

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Well I haven’t seen any statement from either side that I would consider factually confirming the particulars of the ‘negotiating’ but I’m actually suggesting that its just as likely they did in fact have conversations about it with him but it wasn’t a high priority for him at that point in time in his life with what he had going on so they were insignificant, and that through his current lens of regret that now looks like ‘without his consent’.

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Oher is very clear on the matter, but you don’t have to believe him, I guess.

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If he didn’t want to play at Ole Miss, there would have been no need for the conservatorship, for which the main purpose was to make him part of the Tuohy family, which I don’t think it did but it satisfied the NCAA. He could have gone to a different school. It doesn’t seem that Ole Miss was considered for basketball and that Sean was helping him look at lower D1 schools or other divisions. Again, no conservatorship needed. but he decided on football at Ole Miss and for that he needed to be part of the Tuohy family.

I think that’s the reason the payments went to Aunt Debbie, to be held in trust. In 2005, the players couldn’t take payments from anyone, even for work. They couldn’t get money for signing autographs, endorsing products, personal appearances.

The Tuohys appear to have signed two agreements, one for their family and another as Oher’s conservator. This is similar to parents signing for minor children for movies, music deals, and any other contracts.

At the time, NCAA D1 football players got tuition, fees, books and a meal plan paid for. I think they could also get a Pell grant if they qualified for it. That was it. No one could buy them pizza or beer, not even coaches unless it was a team event. If they got caught selling their football tickets, jerseys, shoes? Big trouble. No paid interviews, endorsements, or no-show jobs. The Tuohys could give him money, pay for his tutors, buy him a car, but only because he was ‘family.’ If they weren’t his family, they couldn’t provide anything because they were Ole Miss boosters (everyone admits that).

Now with NIL, basically anything is allowed. Players also get a stipend to pay for incidentals. Michael could have sold his endorsements, story, tiktoks, signature. Bronny James makes $5M per year.

Did he sign it for no compensation or did Sean sign it as his conservator? A contract without consideration is not enforceable. It may have been tied to the ‘money’ contract so he was getting compensation. All of the parties (and attorneys) would have known about the conservatorship, so they shouldn’t have had Michael sign anything without having it also signed by Sean.

That’s the purpose of the conservatorship, to act on his behalf. If they had terminated the conservatorship, say after freshman year, it would have put the Tuohys back into the position of a booster giving aid to an athlete. The NCAA might have overlooked them providing Christmas dinner, but not a tutor, a car, car insurance, clothing, food, or an allowance. He’d have been back to being a poor college student with no transportation home for holidays (to what home?), no car, no private tutor.

I think the Tuohys absolutely became his conservators so he could play at Ole Miss. There really was no need for it otherwise (unless they just wanted to help him, and no one seems to want to accept that they did want to help him for reasons other than to recruit him for Ole Miss) Did they want to adopt him? I don’t know as he’d been in their home for less than a year and that’s a big step to do a trans racial adoption of an adult.

Did they discuss the book and movie deals with their kids? Did they do it in a meaningful way, explaining the good and the bad? Who knows. I bet there was excited discussions like “Oh wow, they want to do our story” and that sounds fun and exciting at the time.

The person in a conservatorship is often not consulted.
Do you really think the story was more Michael’s story than the rest of the families? Could he have sold his story, either in 2006 or after his NFL career, without the Tuohys’ part of the story? There are plenty of NFL rags to riches stories, stars raise by single mothers or where the players had to sleep on the floor and where there wasn’t enough food in the house. Plenty of books written about the experiences. Not sure any became this popular even if the players were a lot better known than Michael Oher.

And thousands more who never made it to college, the NFL, or the NBA.

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Seems like SNL was before its time

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Payton needs to learn how to say “thank you”. Can’t believe how ungrateful he was!!

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Here’s an interesting take from an adoptee. I had never realized that the high school Oher was brought into was a segregation academy. Gift link.

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Great article!

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1 100% think the story was more Michael’s story.

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Read the article. Hollywood and the movie studios wrote and approved the story that ultimately made it to the big screen; via Mr Hancock who wrote and directed the movie. Did they take liberties. Yes, they did. I would venture their job was to entertain and craft a story… once the rights were sold … the input from the Tuohys, Michael Oher, or the books author were also sold.
My daughter was a D1 athlete. Yes, many many athletes take easy majors full stop. Athletics at the college level is a full-time job. And maintaining eligibility is crucial if a student wants to play. Given that Michael had struggled academically AND his ultimate job was probably the NFL it is understandable he might be encouraged to take an easier major.

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Sean Thuoy had script approval - per his own admission. So he approved of Micheal’s portrayal in the film. And the book’s portrayal wasn’t much kinder - the writer used the word “feral” more than once to describe Oher in interviews.

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What was the context for Sean Tuohy saying he had script approval?

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Do you really think the story was more Michael’s story than the rest of the families?

Absolutely, positively yes.

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I can understand why Michael would be upset about being portrayed as ignorant in the movie/book. One of the kids teaching him about football with a ketchup bottle, when he was already a very skilled player (that was why he was there, obviously). How insulting.

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He was on some tv show having dinner and was asked how the movie came about. He said he demanded script approval. Was he blowing smoke? Who knows. But we do know a friend wrote the book, a neighbor and friend produced the movie and other friends had their fingers in the pot.

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Given the reporting coming out now from the movie’s producers and financial disclosures; it is highly unlikely Sean Tuohy had much if any input into The Blindside script. It appears the Tuohys, Michael Oher, and the books author sold the rights and beyond that had no other input.
Perhaps if this case goes to trial more specifics will be released.
One thing is for sure the movie, story, and influence of the Tuohy’s and Michael Oher have been ruined by all of the controversy. Unfortunate for all of them.

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I wonder if they have actually been ruined? All the controversy, now I kind of want to see it.

Funny, initially I thought Michael was merely trying to scam the family for money, but the more I read, makes me wonder if he’s just disgusted about his portrayal, has been fuming about it and wants some payback and to shine a light on what he feels is true.

Adopting an adult that you don’t know (unlike a nephew or someone who actually is already a relative) seems like it would be an odd thing to do, even if they thought they could, why would they? Sounds like this was all for him to legally play for their favorite school and allow them to help him without running afoul of the rules. Did they get overly caught up in the “we are family” bit, and maybe they would have been better off not going to that extreme?

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I’m no expert, but it’s my impression that script approval is very rare even for famous authors, e.g. Stephen King. Studios have professional screen writers and the director has his own vision, so it seems like they’d be extremely reluctant to risk their project and vision by giving an author (or the real life movie subject) script approval.

I suspect Sean Tuohy maybe had some informal agreement via the personal connection, but not contractual “script approval”.

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I saw the movie but am now kindof curious to read the Oher books… which possibly was part of the litigation timing (free publicity).

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The movie, like many about real people, is ‘based on a true story.’ Hugh Freeze, the hs coach, had a different name in the movie yet everyone in Memphis knows who was Oher’s coach at Briarcrest. I bet the English teacher and bio teacher were changed too. Hoosiers (IMO one of the best sports movies ever made) changed a lot of the names and bios, even though there really was a team from small town Indiana that won the state championship.

Michael Lewis was already a successful author and had sold the rights to Moneyball after it was a best seller, so he knew more about it than the Tuohys. I’m guessing he approached the Tuohys when he heard their story. Lewis probably wanted to sell the movie rights too, so if/when approached by someone he knew, he sold it. He had sold the movie rights to an earlier book that was never made into a movie.

I saw an interview with a guy from Forbes talking about the deal Lewis and the Tuohys made. The interviewer (don’t remember the media outlet) was really trying to get him to say that there were millions that should have gone to Oher, and this industry financial expert said everyone thinks that but it isn’t the way it works. The book rights are sold and the investors are taking the risk that the movie might fail, so they get the gains if it succeeds. It only cost $29M to make and gross profits were $330M, but the Tuohys and Lewis only get a percentage of NET profits.

That’s what the Tuohys’ attorneys said (attorneys at the time, attorneys now). The conservatorship was granted on Dec 7, 2004. He signed his NLI on Feb 2, 2005. The lawyers said that the conservatorship paperwork was only filed when Oher indicated that he wanted to go to (or wanted the possibility to go to) Ole Miss. He’d taken his 5 overnight visits, and the last three schools in the running were LSU, Tennessee, and Ole Miss. Until Nov/Dec, the lawyer said, they all thought he was going to go to Tenn and he wouldn’t have needed any paperwork to make the NCAA happy. The NCAA was okay with the conservatorship to make Michael ‘part of the family’ (which IMO it didn’t but I’ve often just done whatever paperwork the authority asked for if it is the easiest way).

If Oher can prove the Tuohys breached their fiduciary duties in negotiating the book deal or movie deal (although that seems to have been Lewis’ deal), Oher may get a big pay out, but he has a really hard job to prove that they should have known the book and movie were going to be worth a lot more than similar deals were.

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