Retired NFL player Michael Oher was not adopted by a rich white family as depicted in the 2009 movie "The Blind Side," according to a Tennessee court filing obtained by ESPN on Monday. Instead, they allegedly manipulated him to become more wealthy at his expense.
The petition was reportedly filed in Shelby County, Tennessee, probate court. In it, Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy are accused of taking Oher into their home as a high school student under a conservatorship they tricked him into, which granted them legal authority to make business deals on his behalf.
Oher, 37, is reportedly asking the court to end the Tuohy family's conservatorship, stop them from using his name and likeness and provide a full account of their earnings from using his name. In addition to unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, he is also reportedly seeking a "fair" share of profits.
The Tuohys are also accused of using that power to negotiate a deal that made them, including their two birth children, millions of dollars in royalties from the Oscar-winning film. They began negotiating a movie deal about their relationship with Oher shortly after the 2006 release of the book "Blind Side: Evolution of the Game," according to the filing.
Members of the family were each allegedly paid $225,000, plus 2.5% of the film's "defined net proceeds." The film earned more than $300 million.
An additional 2007 contract allegedly gave 20th Century Fox Studios the rights to Oher's story without any payment, according to the filing. He alleges that he doesn't recall signing any such contract or was misled to think he was agreeing to something else.