An attorney for the Tuohy family responded to allegations made by former NFL offensive lineman Michael Oher on Monday, in which he said the family never actually adopted him but instead convinced him to sign a conservatorship with them to make money off his name. The Tuohys’ attorney, Martin Singer, called the move “outlandish” and said it was a “shakedown effort” in a statement to ESPN on Tuesday.
Singer said Oher threatened to go public with the story unless the family paid him $15 million. The Tuohys famously took Oher into their home as a 17-year-old and supported him while in high school before he became a star on the football field. The story was told in the Oscar-winning 2009 movie The Blind Side. But now, Oher has filed a 14-page petition in a Shelby County, Tenn., court that said Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy coerced him to sign a document so they could become his conservators shortly after he turned 18 in 2004.
“In reality, the Tuohys opened their home to Mr. Oher, offered him structure, support and, most of all, unconditional love,” Singer’s statement read. “They have consistently treated him like a son and one of their three children. His response was to threaten them, including saying that he would plant a negative story about them in the press unless they paid him $15 million.”
