Michael was brought up in poor project housing that was consumed by drugs, alcohol, and gangs. He was pushed in and out of foster homes forcefully being separated from his mother and siblings. As the movie showed in harsh flashbacks, Michael is deeply affected by the forceful separation from his mother.
What does Michael Oher struggle with in The Blind Side?
Social Issues In The Blind Side
Oher grew up in the projects in Memphis to a drug-addicted mother and an absent father. Michael was eventually taken by family services and was placed in a number of different foster homes. He ran away from each home placement and eventually became homeless.
A probate judge in Memphis ended an unusual legal arrangement on Friday between Michael Oher, a former National Football League player and the subject of the hit movie “The Blind Side,” and the people who took him in when he was a teenager, which had given them broad authority over Mr. Oher's affairs.
What was the unusual legal agreement behind The Blind Side?
They asked a court to give them wide authority over Oher's affairs, including power of attorney, control of his medical decisions and the right to approve financial contracts on his behalf. The arrangement, they believed, would satisfy the N.C.A.A. Oher, then 18 and legally an adult, agreed to it.
With the help of the kind and generous Touhy family, he'll be able to go to college and play football, but only if he can get a GPA of 2.5 or higher. Personality… sweet, shy and gentle. Michael is a beast on the gridiron, but off the field he's a gentle giant who often proves to be wiser than he seems.
"The Blind Side" didn't tell all of Michael Oher's story. Now, he tells us the rest.
Did Michael Oher have trust issues?
Oher had problems with trusting people, because of so much experience with neglect over the years. Oher felt betrayed because no one asked him what he wanted or how he felt.
Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy hit back at former NFL star Michael Oher in a new court filing Thursday, saying they never intended to adopt him and denied enriching themselves off his name. The Tuohys took in Oher, now 37, when he was in high school.
The Blind Side film received mixed reviews and also soon found itself at the center of controversy. Critics argued that the portrayal of Oher played into Uncle Tom stereotypes about Black people as submissive to white authority.
First, the current rule on illegal blindside blocks as written in Rule 12-2-7: It is a foul if a player initiates a block when his path is toward or parallel to his own end line and makes forcible contact to his opponent with his helmet, forearm, or shoulder.
In 2019, the league instituted a specific rule banning "blindside blocks." The term "blindside" is an absolute misnomer, though, as the rule bans all blocks made when a player is moving parallel to the line of scrimmage or back toward his own goal line.
Oher said in a court filing in August that the Tuohys misled him into thinking they adopted him when they entered into a conservatorship agreement with Oher in 2004, when he was 18. In September, Shelby County Probate Judge Kathleen Gomes ended the conservatorship, which allowed the Tuohys to control Oher's finances.
A Tennessee judge signed an order Friday ending Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy's conservatorship over Michael Oher, a month after the former NFL player accused the couple of representing themselves publicly as his adoptive parents and using him for financial benefit.
The Tuohys said the conservatorship was the tool chosen to comply with NCAA rules that would have kept Oher from attending Ole Miss, where Sean Tuohy had been a standout basketball player.
Based on court documents obtained by NBC News, Oher said that the film's portrayal of him as a Black teenager experiencing homelessness and drifting from school to school was accurate. But the premise of the movie — that he was adopted — is inaccurate, according to Oher. Instead, he entered into a conservatorship.
Michael was released by the squad in July 2017 after a failed physical, having suffered a concussion the prior season. He then retired from the NFL at the age of 30. Michael is a published author, writing the 2011 best selling memoir, I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness to The Blind Side and Beyond.
An illegal crackback block occurs when an offensive player comes from more than two yards outside the offensive tackle, or from the backfield, and makes contact below the waist, above the neck, from a blind side, or from behind.
Rule 9-4-3n of the NFHS rules, in regards to a blindside block: “a block against an opponent other than the runner, who does not see the blocker approaching,” Further: “involves contact by a blocker against an opponent who, because of physical positioning and focus of concentration, is vulnerable to injury.
If the crackback is in front or side and above the waist, it is a legal block. Crackback blocks are usually initiated by players who are outside the zone. Accordingly, a crackback block below the waist is an illegal block. Likewise, any crackback from behind is also illegal."
The car accident was on a different street. But the scene where Michael Oher stops an air bag from hitting their son wasn't embellished. "That's 100 percent accurate,” Sean said. "The car behind them was someone from the basketball team.
Sean Tuohy and Leigh Anne Tuohy's net worth in 2023 (estimate): $100 million. Sean Tuohy and Leigh Anne Tuohy's combined net worth in 2023 is $100 million. This is according to reputable outlets such as Celebrity Net Worth.
Personal life. Tuohy married his wife, Leigh Anne, in 1982 and the couple have two children together. They have one son, Sean Jr., who played guard for the Loyola Greyhounds. They reportedly adopted former NFL player Michael Oher when he was 17.
Oher's 14-page petition details his entering the foster care system at 11. During high school, Oher was homeless but lived with friends and classmates including Sean Tuohy, Jr. — the son of Sean and Leigh Anne.
Lewis said that after taxes and agent fees, he and the Tuohy family received about $350,000 each from “The Blind Side” movie. According to The Washington Post, “Lewis said the Tuohys planned to share the royalties among the family members, including Oher, but Oher began declining his royalty checks, Lewis said.
“There was never an intent to adopt him,” the Tuohys say, denying Oher's claim that referring to him as a family member had caused “any irreparable harm” to him. Michael Oher and Sean Tuohy.
