It was an overcast Monday afternoon in late April, and Michael Oher, the former football player whose high school years were dramatized in the movie “The Blind Side,” was driving Michael Sokolove on a tour through a forlorn-looking stretch of Memphis and past some of the landmarks of his childhood.
In the movie, Oher moves into the home of the wealthy white couple Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy. They take him shopping for clothes, help him obtain a driver’s license, buy him a pickup truck and arrange for tutoring that helps improve his grades and makes him eligible to play college football. In real life, Oher went on to play eight seasons as a starting offensive tackle in the N.F.L. and won a Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens.
Now, Oher is suing the Tuohys, claiming that they have exploited him by using his name, image and likeness to promote speaking engagements that have earned them roughly $8 million over the last two decades — and by repeatedly saying that they adopted him when they never did.
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To write this piece and not include the context of race and the relationship between sports communities and how they too often have exploited young black boys makes me think the author didn’t want to thoroughly understand the roots of this issue. I guess he wanted to play it safe and keep it shallow rather than dig deep and expand our consciousness. It’s super easy to put the puzzle pieces together when you lay it out for people. Not well thought out. Not well researched. Not worth the listen. Disservice to Michael… and society.
Rich white evangelicals acting creepy, what a surprise.
The Touhys didn’t steal money from Oher, they took advantage of him as a teenager, and used underhanded tactics to get him to play for Ole Miss. The Touhys used their power, fame, and a legal loophole to bribe Oher, and force him to play for their alma mater. Classic case of rich people taking advantage of poor people for their own entertainment. Disgusting.
@@aldoabruzzi6417 he would never admit that because there’s no money in it. Think about his actual accusations. Why would multi millionaires want to steal $200k from Oher?
@@jko8888 I agree, all his accusations are money-driven. Personally, I think that has been his motivation since day 1. I don’t think they needed underhanded tactics. I think he purposely picked Ole Miss because he knew it would make his sugar-parents happiest. That would keep him in their good graces for at least the next 4 years and keep the Tuohy money-train rolling. Collins was going to Ole Miss and if he went there too, the parents wouldn’t have to split their visits. They would come to every home game, wine & dine him and his buddies, introduce him to all the right people, etc. And when they told him that if he picked Ole Miss, they would have to become his legal guardians… he thought he hit the jackpot.
@@aldoabruzzi6417 Just speculation on my part, but it looks like a typical case of illegal recruiting. They were boosters of Ole Miss. They gave him money and a truck, but pretended to adopt him to loophole the system. The underhanded part is how they “convinced” the judge to approve the conservatorship despite Oher not being mentally disabled or incompetent. Also, they potentially misled a minor. I don’t care about the Oher vs Touhy personal dispute. I just think what they did to recruit Oher was BS.
@@jko8888 I’ve read both the Blind Side book and Michael Oher’s own 2011 autobiography and they both give insight. When he started at Briarcrest as a sophomore, his grades were so bad that they had him on academic probation and he wasn’t allowed to play any sports at all. He meets Sean Tuohy as they both are sitting in the gym watching the boys basketball practice. Sean soon realizes the kid is too poor to afford lunch and the next day goes in and funds a school lunch account for him. The wife takes him shopping for clothes a little while later. So they were already feeding him and clothing him almost a year before they ever saw him play football at all. And this “I was already an All-American when I moved in with them” story he tells now conflicts with what he wrote in his own book. He had his own bedroom there and was only sleeping elsewhere occasionally through much of his junior year.. before he was a football star.
They never “pretended to adopt him”. They discussed the whole thing with him. He couldn’t make up his mind between LSU, Tennessee and Ole Miss and signing day was only 6 months away. If he picks either of the first 2, no problem… but if he picks Ole Miss, the NCAA will have the same suspicions you do… that they are bribing him to play there. So they begin the months-long process of becoming his legal guardians ahead of time, so that they are prepared in case Ole Miss ended up being his pick. Were they hoping he would pick Ole Miss? Absolutely… and they didn’t want to see it leave his list. So he knew why it was being done, and this whole “I thought they loved me and wanted to adopt me” act he’s pulling now is complete nonsense.
As for the conservatorship, that was a toothless sham. It’ was a conservatorship of the *person,* not a conservatorship of the *estate* like Britney was under. They’ve never had control over his money or business contracts… only his healthcare and living arrangements. And the judge made sure to put it right in the court order document:
_”It further appears to the Court that Oher has _*_no known physical or psychological disabilities._*_ “_
So it was the least-controlling type of conservatorship, and he was an 18-year old adult with no disabilities. That means he wasn’t locked into it… it was a voluntary agreement he could end anytime he wanted with a simple petition. Were they playing fast and loose with NCAA rules? Yes, but in 2004 “conservatorship” wasn’t the dirty word it became after 2021.
This feels too much like modern day slavery to me….since day one this story seemed odd to me, maybe it’s my over paranoia and expectation of people to be bad, but seemed obvious to me there was a motive here since day 1. (And it wasn’t to provide for Michael and ensure his wellbeing in the present and future)
A total waste of 44 minutes. Michael Sokolove is the first person to interview Michael Oher in the year since his 2023 lawsuit, and what does he do? Regurgitate the accusations in that document. Anything he says about the Tuohys and Michael Lewis is simply dripping with distain. His bias is so obvious that it’s laughable.
Is the Michael Lewis’ youtube account? The book was full of BS. The Tuohys bribed a poor black man into playing for their alma mater and fabricated a story with Michael Lewis to convince people it wasn’t an attempt to circumvent college bans on paying off players.