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The Blind Side was a lie!

RaidersAreOne

By RaidersAreOne
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nugpimpen

nugpimpen

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, AFlaccoSeagulls said:

For those who don't want to read the article, here's the gist:

The Tuohy family promised Michael they would adopt him when he turned 18. Instead, once he turned 18 they had him sign a document making them conservators over him and never legally adopted him (which he didn't know). That conservatorship allowed them to sign the movie deal which gave their entire family (not Oher) millions in royalties for the movie. Additionally, they continue to refer to Michael as their "adopted son" in additional things to promote Leigh Ann's personal ventures (speakerships, foundations, etc.) despite Oher not being legally adopted by them in any way.

He allegedly found out about all of this in February of this year, that's why the suit is happening now.

1. This whole thing sucks.

2. If the movie came out a decade or so ago, how is Michael just figuring out he wasn't getting royalties 

3. Were his agent and attorney asleep at the wheel? I know they didn't sign on until draft time but how did they never get these documents?

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MWil23

MWil23

Posted
Posted
55 minutes ago, nugpimpen said:

1. This whole thing sucks.

2. If the movie came out a decade or so ago, how is Michael just figuring out he wasn't getting royalties 

3. Were his agent and attorney asleep at the wheel? I know they didn't sign on until draft time but how did they never get these documents?

Could be that he was under the impression that they were handling that for him since they were allegedly his parents.

They said they’d adopt him at 18, which in and of itself lends itself to that type of thought process. Unfortunately.

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Tugboat

Tugboat

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Posted

In what reality is agreeing to "adopt someone at 18" not some sort of weird scam?  That's the most wild part of it.  That's clearly just taking advantage of a kid who didn't have any way of knowing any better.  Yeah, yeah...we'll defs adopt you once you reach the age of majority totally.  😆

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-Hope-

-Hope-

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, 4thandInches said:

Sandra Bullocks should be forced to return her Oscar.

people have been joking about this, but i honestly am side-eyeing michael lewis, author of the book that inspired the movie. dude went to school with sean tuohy and has been doing speaking engagements with him and whatnot. gotta wonder how he didn't look into this further.

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Malfatron

Malfatron

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Malfatron said:

They need to make a Blindside 2 off of this new info

The movie starts with the ending few minutes from Blindside 

Pan out and you realize that we are in a movie theater at the premiere of Blindside. Thats right, the whole first movie was an in-universe movie of Blindside 2

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ronjon1990

ronjon1990

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, nugpimpen said:

1. This whole thing sucks.

2. If the movie came out a decade or so ago, how is Michael just figuring out he wasn't getting royalties 

3. Were his agent and attorney asleep at the wheel? I know they didn't sign on until draft time but how did they never get these documents?

To preface, there's a lot of issues, legal and moral. I've always hated when people jump someone's bones just because something was technically not illegal. 

I preface this because there are a few nuances to your points 2 and 3, some of which some people may or may not agree with. Put simply, your first point sums it up greatly: This whole thing sucks. 

Anyway, onto the meatier stuff. 

I don't think it's Oher just now realizing he's not getting royalties, rather he wasn't aware that the Tuohy's were getting them. That said, I'm skeptical and can't wait to see where that goes. Their whole relationship is sort of weird. They were super close and then not and then close again, so on so forth. I find it difficult to believe he had absolutely no clue about both the royalties or his apparent conservatorship as alleged. It's not impossible, but I find it highly improbable that someone with an agent that spent almost a decade in the NFL across 3 separate teams and 4 contracts was totally in the dark over something like that- particularly the conservatorship. Those things aren't exactly just easily overlooked. 

Now, the Tuohy's always struck me as a bit slimy for plenty of reasons. The dad has a history with Isodore Newman high school in New Orleans, and let's just say my overall opinion of the place is....let's just say there's an aire to the place and folks associated with it I'm not a huge fan of. Michael was apparently 18 when whatever paperwork was signed was signed. He's an adult. He's expected to be able to read and understand what he's signing, or, be of sound mind enough to retain some sort of representation. Did the Tuohy's pull a fast one? Maybe. Morally, they probably screwed up. But legally? I get it, Oher probably didn't have the resources at 18 to hire an attorney to look it over. That sucks, but I wouldn't be making huge legal exceptions for it, either. 

The Tuohy's did indeed provide him a home and assistance in getting into school in the first place- something that, even based on his own admission, probably wouldn't have ever happened for him otherwise. That isn't to say he must always be unconditionally grateful and they can do no wrong, only to say he benefitted greatly from then as well, adding another layer onto the morality of the situation as a whole. It's not as if he didn't benefit in any way, so my sympathy is minimal for him while being rock bottom for the Tuohy's. 

Oher strikes me as a weird dude, if we're being honest. I never totally understood his beef with the movie. Was it 100% accurate? Nah. Neither was Lincoln. Neither was The Passion. Neither are documentaries for the most part. I get it, being his life story. But I remember him being pretty critical based on it somehow hurting his career potential- bro, you were a 1st round pick to one of the best run franchises in the league and made a ton of money, that movie didn't harm your brand at all. If anything, it made you a bigger deal than you arguably wound up being. Again, royalties aside, he benefitted. Why beef at all? But whatever. That brings us up to post Ole Miss...

Yeah, I have the same question about his agent and representation, and as I mention earlier, I'm skeptical. The Blind Side released in November 2009, after Oher was drafted and he would have had representatives going through things like his image and likeness and something like a conservatorship. Sure, pre-production on the film probably started well before Oher would have had his agents, and royalty deals were probably already in place, but for none of that to come to light for years after with all of his career in the meantime? I don't know man. That would be pretty amazing. 

My guess is the facts of this will change as time goes on. Slimy as they are, I wouldn't put it past the family to have made some under the table deals regarding royalties and such. His conservatorship claim is where things go wonky for me. I've certainly seen stranger occurrences, but they typically aren't tied to something with the fanfare the movie and its subjects received. Right now, for me, all parties look a bit sketchy, dumb, and slimy, but I can't say anyone looks like the definitive bad guy- legally speaking- quite yet. Morally? They're as bankrupt as K-Mart. But we'll see. 

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