Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze has offered his thoughts on his former player Michael Oher’s recent lawsuit.
When asked at a press conference on Thursday, Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze has recently offered his thoughts on the lawsuit between former Ole Miss offensive lineman Michael Oher and the Tuohy family.
Freeze was the head coach at Briarcrest High School in Memphis, Tennessee, from 1995 to 2004, coaching Oher in 2003 and 2004.
“I love Michael Oher; he’s like part of our family. I love the Tuohys,” Freeze said during his press conference when asked for his thoughts. ‘I think it’s sad, and I certainly don’t claim to understand all the ins and outs of adoption, conservatory, all of that. I know what I witnessed. I witnessed a family that totally took in a young man, and without that, there is no story.”
He would later say, “The facts will come out, but you know, I love both sides of it. Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy did something that probably most families, a lot of us, talk about us doing things. They actually put the shoes on, pulled the boots up, and did something, I think that’s admirable.”
Oher recently claimed in a lawsuit obtained by ESPN that the Touhy family tricked him into signing a conservatorship when he was younger while also claiming that the Touhy family kept all the proceeds that they were to receive from the success of “The Blind Side,” a feature film that was based on Oher’s life story, actress Sandra Bullock would win the Oscar for Best Actress for the movie as she portrayed Leigh Ann Tuohy in the film.
Oher would go on to be a unanimous All-American offensive lineman for the Rebels in 2008 before being drafted in the first round of the 2009 NFL Draft by the Baltimore Ravens. He would spend eight years in the NFL from 2009 through 2016 before retiring at the age of 30-years old.
Normally, a rookie card of a star player in a major sport would be valuable.
In this case? There are other reasons why it’s even MORE valuable.
A 2019 Panini Chronicles Ja Morant rookie card was already a big deal, partially because the Memphis Grizzlies guard became a superstar (we know he’s dealt with some off-the-court issues too), and partially because fans noticed rappers in the background — the late Young Dolph and Key Glock.
With the Tuohys in the news, Action Network reports: “Over 100 of the cards sold, including ungraded cards for roughly $55 per. PSA 10s sold for as high as $550 each. According to data from Sports Card Investor, a PSA 10 could be had for just over $100 on July 31.”
WOW.
Crazy that this Ja Morant rookie card has so much going on in the background lol.
Young Dolph and Key Glock on one side, Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy on the other.
The 2019 Ja Morant Chronicles rookie card with Young Dolph and Key Glock also has THE BLINDSIDE husband and wife (Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy) on the card. pic.twitter.com/n0AG2W3jKd
Patrick Conn and Tyler Nettuno discuss the wild Michael Oher story and react to the preseason top 25 polls.
The Blindside book came out in 2006 and the movie was released in 2009. The story of the Tuohy family taking in Michael Oher and providing him with a happy home is a heartwarming story.
It now appears as if that fairy tale story might not have a happy ending with Oher suing the family for $15 million. Not to mention the family never adopted Oher but instead forced him to sign a conservatorship. That allowed the family to make millions off of the movie deal according to the lawsuit.
We kick off this week’s College 12-Pack by discussing this wild story that has stolen the headlines over the last several days.
With the coaches poll and AP poll being released over the last week, Patrick and Tyler discuss which teams are too high, too low, and who should have made the list. The guys also look at week zero matchups, Johnny Manziel’s untold story, and what Jim Harbaugh’s future looks like.
This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning. Here’s Mike Sykes.
Can you put yourself into Michael Oher’s shoes right now?
He’s 37 years old. He’s played a full NFL career, made millions of dollars and won a Super Bowl trophy despite everything he’s faced in his life.
Yet, what most people know him for is reportedly part of a deliberate lie, according to Oher himself.
Not a lie that he came up with. Not some scheme that he concocted to catapult himself into the zeitgeist and give himself 15 minutes of fame. No, instead, Oher alleges his “story” in The Blind Side, which depicts his journey of being cared for and later adopted by Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy, was rooted in deception.
According to a court petition, the former NFL lineman says he was coaxed into agreeing to a conservatorship — not a legal adoption — with the Tuohys just a few months after his 18th birthday in 2004, per ESPN’s latest from Michael Fletcher, allowing the family to make business deals in Oher’s name.
That’s where the lies first started, Oher alleges, as the Tuohys told him they’d formally adopted him and he was part of their family. The story was so inspirational on the surface journalist Michael Lewis — a childhood friend of Sean’s — wrote a book about it. That book turned into a movie. That movie turned into millions.
Oher says he didn’t see a dime of any of it.
But even if he did, it almost certainly wouldn’t have eased any of the pain that he feels today.
He was betrayed by people he thought loved him. His image was stolen and used to fulfill every racist white savior trope that Hollywood had to offer. In retrospect, it wasn’t hard at all to tell that any of this was a lie.
Hollywood’s take on Oher’s story was that of a rich, white family taking in a young, Black boy out of the kindness of their hearts. When they brought him home, he was a savage who knew nothing but the streets. He had no family. He had no friends. He certainly didn’t have football. Never mind the fact he had all of these things before he met the Tuohys, but that’s not as compelling of a story.
We were told the Tuohys saved this boy. They taught him everything he knows. They helped him adapt and thrive. And, according to them, they wanted nothing in return for it. (Except for him to play for Ole Miss, I guess.)
By making Oher into someone who had nothing, the story made space for the Tuohys to give him everything. In reality, it looks like the Tuohys might have taken everything instead, namely his humanity. If it’s true they never legally adopted Oher and led him to believe they did, why should he — or anyone familiar with Oher’s story — trust anything the Tuohys did for him in the first place?
Here’s the kicker: With this story dropping now, everyone is suddenly championing Oher for finally coming out and telling the truth. But this isn’t new. At all. Oher has been telling us that he hated The Blind Side for years. He only ever talked about what the movie took away from him and how it made people perceive him. They thought he couldn’t be a leader and that he couldn’t learn. It was almost like they didn’t see him as human.
But when he first told us this back in 2015, nobody wanted to listen. All everyone talked about was what fame the movie granted him and how grateful he should be.
“At the end of the day, bro, you are a millionaire, you’re famous, you are a Super Bowl champ, you have an amazing family that loves you, friends, fans and teammates. Who gives a damn about what people say or think who wanna criticize your game, bro, that shouldn’t matter. Somebody is always gonna have something to say that you’re not gonna like.”
That was that. We didn’t really hear from Oher after that. And can you blame him? He shared his deepest pains with the world only for the world to simply tell him he was complaining too much.
I ask you, again, can you put yourself in Michael Oher’s shoes? Imagine living a lie created by people who are supposed to love you and then having people tell you that you’re lucky to have been lied to in the first place.
I don’t know about you, but that would ruin me. It’s a miracle that it hasn’t ruined him. We should be thankful for that.
And, hopefully, the next time someone tells us that things aren’t OK, we listen to them instead of first pointing out all the good things in their life. No amount of money or fame can heal being betrayed by people you love. And no one should have to wait nearly 20 years to get the closure they deserve.
Quick hits: Baseball’s playoff picture … The Jets’ awkward running back room … and more
The inspiring story is apparently a fabrication. Here’s what we’ve learned.
Everything you thought you knew about the inspiring football story told in The Blind Side might have been based on a lie.
According to an ESPN report by Michael A. Fletcher, former NFL offensive tackle Michael Oher — the main subject of The Blind Side — filed a petition with a Tennessee court Monday alleging Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy never legally adopted him and exploited him and his story for their own financial benefit.
As this story continues to develop, here’s everything we know so far.
Former Panthers OT Michael Oher alleges his adoption, made famous by the 2009 Oscar-winning film ‘The Blind Side,’ was a lie.
Michael Oher may have been blindsided.
As detailed in a report from ESPN senior writer Michael A. Fletcher on Monday, the retired offensive lineman and former Carolina Panthers left tackle has petitioned a Tennessee court alleging that his adoption—made famous by the popular 2009 film The Blind Side—was a lie. Oher claims Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy tricked him into signing documents for a conservatorship and never legally adopted him.
The 14-page petition also alleges that the couple and their two birth children profited millions of dollars stemming from a deal connected to the Oscar-winning film—which made almost $310 million at the box office. Oher, meanwhile, did not receive any royalties despite being the inspiration of the story.
As noted by Fletcher, part of the legal filing reads as such:
The lie of Michael’s adoption is one upon which Co-Conservators Leigh Anne Tuohy and Sean Tuohy have enriched themselves at the expense of their Ward, the undersigned Michael Oher. Michael Oher discovered this lie to his chagrin and embarrassment in February of 2023, when he learned that the Conservatorship to which he consented on the basis that doing so would make him a member of the Tuohy family, in fact provided him no familial relationship with the Tuohys.
Under guidance from the Tuohys, Oher attended the University of Mississippi from 2005 to 2008. He was then selected in the first round of the 2009 NFL draft by the Baltimore Ravens.
After five seasons in Baltimore and a short stint for the Tennessee Titans, Oher signed a two-year deal with the Panthers prior to the 2015 season. He started all 19 games at left tackle during the team’s run to Super Bowl 50.
We take a look back at each of the Baltimore Ravens’ drafts to find the best selection the team made.
The Baltimore Ravens have long been considered one of the best teams in the league when it comes to scouting, drafting, and developing players. The Ravens have been a part of 25 NFL drafts since being founded in 1996 and have earned their reputation by finding some real gems at a variety of rounds. In that time, Baltimore has drafted 31 players who have been to a Pro Bowl, 14 players who were named to the All-Pro team, and three players currently enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
However, not every pick or even draft year has been outstanding for the Ravens, with some selections having clearly been better than others. But instead of looking at which players were the best overall, we want to break it down year-by-year to find the best player Baltimore grabbed in every draft throughout franchise history.
Let’s kick it off with that inaugural 1996 season . . .
