Originally appeared on E! Online
Michael Oher is sharing his perspective.
After filing a lawsuit against the Tuohy family last year, the 38-year-old subject of the Oscar-winning film "The Blind Side," has spoken out about his estrangement from Sean Tuohy and Leigh Anne Tuohy amid the legal battle.
“For a long time, I was so angry mentally,” the former NFL star told The New York Times. “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.”
Oher, who is suing the Tuohy family for exploiting his name, image, and likeness to promote speaking engagements that have allegedly earned them millions, said that he chose not to speak out at the time the 2009 film starring Sandra Bullock and Quinton Aaron was released because he was focused on the start of his professional career with the Baltimore Ravens.
“Pro football’s a hard job,” he said. “You have to be locked in 100 percent. I went along with their narrative because I really had to focus on my NFL career, not things off the field.”
Oher also fought back against claims that he is now suing the Tuohy family because he needs money.
“I worked hard for that moment when I was done playing, and saved my money so I could enjoy the time,” the father of four said. “I’ve got millions of dollars. I’m fine.”
Oher’s story was first documented in Michael Lewis’ book, "The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game." (In his book, Lewis shares he is a childhood friend of Sean Tuohy’s). Oher also said that his depiction in the book and subsequent film led to people labeling him as “stupid.”
“The NFL people were wondering if I could read a playbook,” Oher said, adding of his response to the film, “It’s hard to describe my reaction. 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.”
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. >Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
Oher also addressed the text messages between himself and the Tuohy family, included in a December legal filing obtained by People, in which they claimed he began demanding money, calling them “thieves.”
“I was just still trying to figure things out,” Oher said of the texts. “I didn’t think anything of it.”
Oher claimed that the texts “lit a fuse” and said he began to receive royalty checks for the film for the first time. However, the Tuohys have said that he had already been receiving royalties, a claim he denies.
Oher’s relationship with the Tuohy family has been further strained by the claim that he was adopted despite an adoption never taking place. Oher was placed under a conservatorship, despite not having any disability, and the Tuohys referred to him as their “adopted son.”
In an affidavit obtained by The New York Times, Leigh Anne Tuohy said her use of the word adopted, “was always meant in its colloquial sense, to describe the family relationship we felt with Mr. Oher; it was never meant as a legal term of art.”
Oher’s lawyer Anne Johnson responded to Leigh Anne’s statement at the time, saying, “Adoption doesn’t have a colloquial meaning, and it’s not a word you throw around lightly. As an 18-year-old, he was told that he was made a part of the family. He believed that, but it wasn’t true.”
The conservatorship was terminated in September 2023 with the judge saying she "cannot believe" the arrangement was ever put in place.
Oher also spoke about the impact the Tuohys had on his emotional state growing up without a stable household.
“The first time I heard ‘I love you,’ it was Sean and Leigh Anne saying it,” he said. “When that happens at 18, you become vulnerable. You let your guard down and then you get everything stripped from you. It turns into a hurt feeling.”
He added, “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.”
E! News has reached out to the Tuohys for comment and has not yet heard back.
