Thanks - the interview transcript was interesting.
Learned some new things, including this:
“The Tuohy family, before they met Michael Oher, had had several poor black kids who had come through their children’s private school, the Briarcrest Christian School. And Sean, because he had the experience of being the poor kid in the rich school when he was growing up, had made a point of seeking them out and seeing if they needed anything. All those kids had mothers who were functioning grandmothers, or someone who was taking care of them. And they had a home to live in and a bed to sleep in and all the rest. Michael was unusual in that he was so exceptionally needy. The other kids needed help—maybe needed Sean to buy them lunch or something, but they didn’t need the total infrastructure. So the Tuohy kids had seen these other kids come through, and they’d come over for dinner.”
I agree, and the Tuohys are moving to end the conservatorship so they’re not contesting that aspect at all.
The accounting I assume will take longer, but as I mentioned upthread it seems like a complete, factual accounting should be readily available from the studio.
Things are rarely so simple when it comes to studios accounting for profits/loss. To put it gently, it is a can of worms that they aren’t likely going to voluntarily open to help settle a dispute between third parties.
More to the point in this particular situation, how did the studio/producers acquire the rights to make a movie about Oher in the first place?
Maybe it was braggadocio, but Sean Tuohy indicated that he secured the rights to “approve” or “un-approve” the script before he would sign over “the rights to use our name.” Whose name, exactly? Did he sign over the rights to use Oher’s name/likeness/story without even involving Oher in the negotiations? If so, that seems extremely sketchy.
We’re talking about two entirely different things. The amount the studio paid out to the Tuohys and Oher is plain fact and on their books, and that accounting should be sufficient to settle a claim that the Tuohys allegedly kept some of Oher’s share.
You’re referring to how the studios decided how much to pay out. That’s not the issue here, but it’s something the Tuohys and Oher could take up directly with the studio in a separate lawsuit if they feel they were underpaid.
Studios won’t hand over that type of information lightly, but the Tuohy’s and/or Oher should have records of any payments.
IMO a key question is whether Oher had any say in the arrangement with the studio, or whether the Tuohy’s signed away his rights without Oher having any real say in the process.
I love the narrative that Sean Tuohy was the “poor” kid in a rich school. He was the son of 2 college educated parents. His childhood wasn’t that of a kid who missed meals or didn’t have shoes. Did classmates have more money? Maybe, but saying you were poor is disingenuous.
These people just rub me the wrong way. Oher has been saying for years that the book and movie don’t represent who he is and he bristles at the notion that the Tuohy’s were the only ones who helped him out.
Just even that interview with Michael Lewis from years ago rubbed me the wrong way. Basically implying that Michael was some “feral” dumb 6’5 350 pound black kid from the ghetto that the Tuohy family took in and saved. Michael has said other families, beyond the Tuohy’s, were helpful to him along the way, including the Franklin family.
I’m sure all the details will ultimately come out, and unfortunately in public. Oher was under conservatorship at that point, so Tuohy’s did have control of Oher’s finances, decision making, ability to sign contracts, etc.
We have no idea why Tuohys were granted a conservatorship…as many posters have stated it doesn’t seem like Oher met the conditions to warrant needing a conservator. Clearly, we are missing critical pieces of information, and some of the things that both sides have said are not consistent with previous statements and/or things written in books or movies.
The Michael Lewis who also said, when asked about how Oher was doing academically in college “ Google him now, he’s on the dean’s list at Ole Miss, which says a lot about the dean’s list at Ole Miss,” Lewis said, leading to laughs from the Mountain View audience.”
[quote=“Mwfan1921, post:148, topic:3644155”]
We have no idea why Tuohy’s were granted a conservatorship…as many posters have stated it doesn’t seem like Oher met the conditions to warrant needing a conservator. Clearly, we are missing critical pieces of information, and some of the things that both sides have said are not consistent with previous statements and/or things written in books or movies.
[/quote].
He needed the conservatorship to appease the NCAA so he could play at Ole Miss (and maybe other schools). He may also have needed it for the high school as some don’t like 18 year olds living on their own to be in the same schools as minors (it is unclear if his mother was still signing things for him, if he was still living with her (even if staying at friend’s homes on school nights). The decision had to be approved by a judge (or magistrate). It was probably all done by paper filings and not court appearances. At the time Michael Oher had no income or assets and was a high school kid. No warning flags for the judge.
The conservatorship was requested by the subject and his mother. He was an 18 year old without a high school diploma about to make some pretty big decisions like where to accept a scholarship worth $100k to $300k. I don’t think at the time he had a driver’s license.
Maybe they tricked him just to get him to go to Ole Miss and saw the possibilities of making a lot of money off him. I really doubt that (the money part, not the ole miss part).
He did not need a conservatorship to play at Ole Miss, there could have been other structures that got around the NCAA rules. And yes this all had to be approved by a judge.
Again, we have no idea of the details behind any of this…just what was in two books (Lewis’ and Oher’s) and the movie, and the recent press. For example, Oher mentioned in his book (2011) that Tuohys were his conservators, and now he says he just realized that this February? Lots of inconsistencies on both sides, making it impossible to speculate what happened, and or know what is going on now.
Not sure where this is coming from, I didn’t say nor elude to Tuohys tricking him or behaving badly.
The popular pull from his book is his acknowledgement of the conservatorship. What is left out is his saying that they told him they couldn’t adopt him because of his age, but that this was just like adoption. They presented it to him as his legally becoming a member of the family.
I can see why Michael may not like how the movie portrayed him. The “young Michael” is not the same person as the honor graduate, professional football player. My guess is that most of us would not like to be reminded of our earlier selves especially given an extremely sad childhood. 20/20 hindsight and all. Agreeing to the movie and the reality of what his life had been is a difficult thing to process. I hope that the loose ends get tied up for him.
At the time, the NCAA would have disallowed him playing at Ole Miss because of the help the Tuohys gave him as the NCAA considered the Tuohys as boosters unless there was a familial relationship, and the was accomplished by the conservatorship. IMO, they went that route because it was the fastest. An adoption might have taken years.
For the timelines in the books and in the reports I’ve read over the last few days, Michael turned 18 years old in May of 2004. The Tuohys asked him to live with them for his senior year. They did the conservatorship about three months after he turned 18, so summer 2004. Recruiting would have been going strong at that time, so they might not have had time to do a different legal arrangement to satisfy the NCAA before signing day, which would have been the first week of February 2005.
What are the conditions to warrant needing a conservator? He was 18, had no way to support himself, was going to make some big decisions that involved his future and money and needed someone to help him.
I agree that normally 18 year olds don’t get conservators but the NCAA seemed to accept this device to establish a familial relationships (which it really doesn’t as anyone can be a conservator and a conservator isn’t responsible for the finances of the subject). IMO they did it to expedite the process. I don’t know if foster care automatically ends at 18 in TN or if he was even in foster care at that time (or still a ward of the state). If he were, TN could have appointed him guardian but that may have required home inspections, fingerprints, processing, etc and that all takes time. His mother agreed to the conservatorship, but since he was 18 she might not have needed to do that.
I just see this as a way that they could comply with the NCAA rules. They knew they were boosters and what they were prevented from doing. They couldn’t give him room, board, clothing, a car, pay for his tuition to BYU. They could do those things if he were in their family, and they needed to do something quickly if he was to live in their home and start recruiting at Ole Miss in the fall of 2004.
The whole situation is sad. He was heavily recruited and had many other options besides Ole Miss. At those schools it would have been less likely that the Tuohys would have had to do anything like a conservatorship.
This does not typically meet the hurdle of conservatorship.
Regardless, I think it’s unlikely that he would have gotten to where he did without the Tuohy’s support. He definitely was not on a path to a 4 year college, and without GPA repair would have had to play community college, best case.
As a Mississippi resident, lawyer, and southeastern conference sports fan, I am going to weigh in on a few things I am confident about in this ongoing saga:
Michael Oher was a football phenomenon well know in SEC circles from early in his Briarcrest high school career. He would have gotten into college and been “taken care of” and a football success no matter what college he chose. The Tuohys just were there first, along with Hugh Freeze, his high school coach, who parlayed the recruitment into his own college coaching career at Ole Miss.
Despite being a Sandra Bullock and college football fan, I refused to see the movie, knowing of all the allegations of recruiting improprieties that took place around the recruitment. Also, the idea of Leanne Tuohy teaching him to play the position was laughable.
Despite all the goodwill/Christian values credited to the Tuhoys, I am unaware of any help they provided to any of the ten younger Oher siblings, nor of any adoptions attributed to them, either before or after Michael.
Anyone relying on the moral certitude of Hugh Freeze, the high school coach, needs to do a deep read into all the allegations against him, for which he was given a one year ban by the NCAA. Of course, he has now risen again to be the new coach at Auburn, showing that anything goes in the world of college football.
I do not personally know Michael Oher or either of the Tuohys. I do personally know lawyers from each side, who are skilled at their trade. My hope is that the truth does, in fact, come out and that there is not an undisclosed settlement in which case the true story remains unknown. For years, the Blindside has been promoted as an inspirational, uplifting story, with a young man’s success all attributable to the innate goodness of one family. I personally have never bought into that story.
I am a LA lawyer not a MS lawyer but a petition is what we call the first pleading in a lawsuit in state court! The demands you describe are all demands made in a lawsuit.
Right, I believe Michael Oher was a 5 star recruit. The Tuohy, Hugh Freeze, Michael Lewis stuff are all interesting things that are resurfacing because of this petition. And Briarcrest Christian has its own interesting history.