(HorizonPost.com) – After former NFL player Michael Oher, the subject of the 2009 film “The Blind Side,” alleged that Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy profited off of his name and likeness, the family is speaking out against the claims, NPR reported.
In a petition to dissolve the Tuohy family’s conservatorship filed in a Tennesee court last Monday, Oher accuses the Tuohy family of making millions off of him by establishing the conservatorship instead of adopting him. But the family says that Oher’s claims amount to a “shakedown effort” to extort nearly $15 million from them.
In a statement to NPR, the Tuohy family’s attorney Martin Singer said the family was “heartbroken” by the claims and called Oher’s allegation that they profited from him “transparently ridiculous.”
Singer pointed out that the Tuohys are worth “hundreds of millions of dollars,” and said it “defies belief” to think they would “connive to withhold” thousands in profit participation payments from someone they loved like a son.
Singer said the family hopes that Michael Oher will come to “regret his recent decisions” and the two parties will reconcile. But in the meantime, Singer said the family will defend itself against “this shakedown” and defeat the “offensive lawsuit.”
In a statement to ESPN, Don Barrett, one of the attorneys representing Oher said the legal team was confident in the justice system.
The 37-year-old Oher, who played offensive lineman for both the Carolina Panthers and Baltimore Ravens, argued in his petition that the Tuohys convinced him to sign the 2004 conservatorship making them his legal guardians until he turned 25 or until the conservatorship was terminated by the court.
Sean Tuohy told The Daily Memphian last Monday that Oher’s claims are false. He said the family made no money off of the 2009 film starring Sandra Bullock, nor were they ever offered money for the film.
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