'Gullible' and 'exploited' — former NFL star Michael Oher filed legal paperwork this week that may change how the world thinks of Sandra Bullock's 'The Blind Side' forever

• On Monday, Michael Oher, the inspiration behind "The Blind Side" filed legal paperwork claiming he was never adopted.
• The ex-NFL star said Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy put him under a legal conservatorship without his informed consent.

The 2009 Oscar-winning film "The Blind Side" chronicled the feel-good story of Michael Oher, a talented athlete who made it to the NFL against the odds, thanks, in part, to help from a family of wealthy strangers.

If it sounds too good to be true, we're learning this week, that's because it might have been.

Oher made headlines on Monday when he filed a legal petition claiming Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy put him under a legal conservatorship in the summer of 2004 without his informed consent. His petition alleges that the conservatorship gave the Tuohys "total control" over Oher's ability to "negotiate for or enter any contract," and claims that the Tuohys and their children millions of dollars in royalties from "The Blind Side."

According to the petition, Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, who invited Oher to live with them in July 2004, saw Oher as a "gullible young man whose athletic talent could be exploited for their own benefit."

Further, Oher alleges he never saw any profit from "The Blind Side," which "would not have existed without him," though the film made more than $300 million dollars worldwide.

Instead, Oher's petition claims that the Tuohys negotiated "a contract price of $225,000 plus 2.5% of all future 'Defined Net Proceeds' for themselves and their natural-born children with Twentieth Century Fox. The filing also states that Oher gave away his life rights to the production company without payment because "nobody ever presented this contract to him with any explanation" of what he was doing.

Per Monday's filing, Oher is seeking an end to the conservatorship, which was meant to end when he was 25 years old. The 37-year-old is also seeking compensation plus interest based on the money he believes the Tuohys received from the success of "The Blind Side" and the sale of his life rights, along with compensatory and punitive damages.

But the Tuohys dispute Oher's accounting.

On Monday, Sean Tuohy told The Daily Memphian that the Tuohy family didn't make "any money" from the film adaptation of 'The Blind Side.' He said that Michael Lewis — who wrote the book upon which the film was based — gave the family half of what he made from the book, and they split the money five ways, giving Oher "about $14,000."

Regarding the conservatorship, Sean Tuohy said that it was put in place to satisfy the National College Athletic Association so that Oher could play football at the University of Mississippi. He said attorneys told him he couldn't adopt Oher at the time because, at 18, he was considered a legal adult.

On Wednesday, a lawyer for the Tuohys told reporters that the couple is ready to end the conservatorship and plans to enter into a consent order to end it, the Associated Press reported.

The Tuohys say Oher's allegations have been "devastating." and lawyers for the couple called the petition a "shakedown."

Lawyers for the family said on Thursday that the family would not need to exploit Oher for money. "They don't need his money," Tuohy lawyer Steve Farese told the AP. "They've never needed his money. Mr. Tuohy sold his company for $220 million," he said, referring to Sean Tuohy's fast-food franchise business.

Regardless of how Oher's petition is resolved, Oher disputes his representation in "The Blind Side" and has long been critical of how the film portrayed him.

Here's a look back at the history of "The Blind Side," the blockbuster triumph that might end up fracturing a family beyond repair.

The true story of 'The Blind Side' begins on the streets of Memphis

The current rift is a far cry from where Oher's relationship with the Tuohy's began.

Oher was one of 12 children born to Denise Oher, who was addicted to drugs, the Shelby County court document explains. At 10, he was removed from his mother's custody, and custodial rights were given to the Tennessee Department of Human Services.

He was put into the foster care system, which did "little to help" him, according to his recent petition. Oher lived on the streets of Memphis, near the Hurt Village Housing Projects, where gangs were common.

"It was extremely hard being around all the violence that -- you know, the drugs," Oher told ABC News in 2009. But he had dreams of being in the NFL, so he diligently avoided trouble.

As a teen, Oher met Tony Henderson, who ran a local athletic program and allowed Oher to live in an extra room in his home. In 2002, Henderson enrolled Oher at his son's private school, Briarcrest Christian, and alerted coaches and administrators to the young man's dedication to creating a better life, his intelligence, and his athletic prowess.

To save time on his commute from Hurt Village to Briarcrest, he would often stay overnight with his classmates. Two of those classmates were Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy's children, Collins and SJ.

He moved in with the Tuohys in July 2004. He was 18 when he was invited by Sean and Leigh Anne to sign the conservatorship, which he was told was the legal equivalent of adoption for an adult. According to Oher, he wasn't aware until February 2023 that the documents he signed provided him with no legal familial ties to the Tuohys.

Oher diligently studied and graduated from Briarcrest in 2005, and Michael Lewis published a book based on his life called "The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game" in 2006 after the author heard the story firsthand from Sean, Forbes reported. Oher graduated with a degree in criminal justice from the University of Mississippi in 2009, and in April of that year, he was a first-round pick of the Baltimore Ravens in the NFL draft.

Just as his NFL career began to take off, Oher's life appeared on the big screen. Director John Lee Hancock's film adaptation of "The Blind Side" premiered in November 2009, with actor Quinton Aaron starring as Oher, Sandra Bullock as Leigh Anne, and Tim McGraw as Sean Tuohy.

Oher has been critical of 'The Blind Side' for over a decade

"The Blind Side" became an instant commercial and critically-acclaimed hit, earning Bullock a best actress Oscar in 2010. But Oher has often voiced criticisms of his portrayal.

In his 2011 autobiography, "I Beat The Odds," cowritten with sports reporter Don Yaeger, Oher said he resented being portrayed as a "dumb" kid who didn't know how to play football.

"I felt like it portrayed me as dumb instead of as a kid who had never had consistent academic instruction and ended up thriving once he got it," he wrote. One of his main issues with the film " was the fact that there were a few scenes that implied he had to be taught the game of football," which hadn't been the issue with Lewis's account.

"I watched those scenes thinking, 'No, that's not me at all! I've been studying — really studying — the game since I was a kid!'" he wrote. Oher also felt that Tony Henderson and his family, along with some of his biological siblings, hadn't received proper credit for getting him to the NFL.

Oher was playing for the Ravens the year they won the Super Bowl in 2013, and ahead of the big game, he told the world he was "tired of the movie" and "here to play football," per the Los Angeles Times. "Football is what got me here and the movie, it wasn't me," he told the press.

The athlete told ESPN in 2015 that he felt like "The Blind Side" negatively impacted his football career because people would watch the movie and make assumptions about his skills. They "don't really see the skills and the kind of player I am." He said that, in his opinion, that's the reason why he'd been "downgraded" throughout his career.

Three years before filing the legal paperwork, Oher tweeted a cryptic response to someone who tagged him in a tweet saying they were watching "The Blind Side."

"When they call you family but rob you," he wrote.

Oher was signed to the Carolina Panthers in June 2016 and was put on its injured reserve list in November after sustaining an unnamed injury, People reported. Per the site, he married his college sweetheart Tiffany Roy in November 2022 with their four children there to witness the union. The Tuohys were reportedly not in attendance.

The future of Oher's relationship with the Tuohys is unclear

Oher's relationship with the Tuohy family is unclear in the wake of his legal action on Monday. Per reporting by NPR, the Tuohys are "heartbroken" by the new allegations, the family lawyer said in a statement. They believe Oher is trying to get $15 million from them in a "shakedown effort."

In a statement released to NPR on Thursday, the Tuohy family lawyer Martin Singer said: "The notion that a couple worth hundreds of millions of dollars would connive to withhold a few thousand dollars in profit participation payments from anyone – let alone from someone they loved as a son – defies belief."

Leah Anne Tuohy told Oprah.com in 2009 she was moved to file the conservatorship after attempting to add Oher to her children's trust and being unable to.

"I wanted to make sure Michael got a third of what we had if something happened," Leigh Anne told the outlet. "And I just said, 'Well, this is just ridiculous.'"

The dispute over Oher's adoption status coincides with the release of Oher's new book, "When Your Back's Against the Wall: Fame, Football and Lessons Learned through a Lifetime of Adversity."

In an excerpt published by ESPN, Oher said that while he felt grateful for some of the things that happened in his life because of "The Blind Side," the film had also been the "source of some of my deepest hurt and pain over the past 14 years."