Michael Oher was blindsided

slugboy

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If this case is true
  • The Tuhey family never adopted him
  • They’ve been grifting from him
  • They made a bunch of money from the movie and book, but he didn’t


It’s the second time that news stories have come out that a motivational speaker played by Julia Roberts was not a nice person in real life. Erin Brockovich has been dogged by allegations that she got rich off of a town’s misfortune. Now, Leigh Anne Tuohy
 
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wrmathis

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If this case is true
  • The Tuhey family never adopted him
  • They’ve been grifting from him
  • They made a bunch of money from the movie and book, but he didn’t


It’s the second time that news stories have come out that a motivational speaker played by Julia Roberts was not a nice person in real life. Erin Brockovich has been dogged by allegations that she got rich off of a town’s misfortune. Now, Leigh Anne Tuohy
Sandra bullock played Leigh Anne tuohy not Julia roberts
 

Papa Foxtrot

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Gee - Hollywood puts out something that doesn't square with the facts? Never saw that coming! :)

Back before I retired, I had a customer in Memphis. One day not long after the movie came out, a group of us had gone out to lunch after a meeting. Someone brought up the movie and my guy smiled knowingly and said, "There's a lot more to that story than is in the movie". Turned out that his sons attended a rival private school in the area. I wrote it off to a rivalry bias at the time.
 

slugboy

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The book was more about the business of sports, but it was a great title.

The Tuohy’s are saying that Oher is suing because he blew all his NFL money.

Gee - Hollywood puts out something that doesn't square with the facts? Never saw that coming! :)

Back before I retired, I had a customer in Memphis. One day not long after the movie came out, a group of us had gone out to lunch after a meeting. Someone brought up the movie and my guy smiled knowingly and said, "There's a lot more to that story than is in the movie". Turned out that his sons attended a rival private school in the area. I wrote it off to a rivalry bias at the time.

There are some memes and jokes about “let’s make the world a better place and adopt a poor kid from the foster program—no, not that one, the big one that’s a good athlete”.
 

Papa Foxtrot

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Well, I decided to go down the rabbit hole this morning and do a little web searching on Michael Oher's net worth. The estimate that I found was approx. $13M after earning approx. $34M during his NFL career. I thought possibly he has a liquidity problem and needs cashflow. Then I discovered, lo and behold, Mike's got a new book out! Surely he wouldn't take cheap shots at his benefactors to raise controversy in order to secure those coveted morning show spots to hawk his book....

 

kg01

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Well, I decided to go down the rabbit hole this morning and do a little web searching on Michael Oher's net worth. The estimate that I found was approx. $13M after earning approx. $34M during his NFL career. I thought possibly he has a liquidity problem and needs cashflow. Then I discovered, lo and behold, Mike's got a new book out! Surely he wouldn't take cheap shots at his benefactors to raise controversy in order to secure those coveted morning show spots to hawk his book....



Both can be true.....
 

slugboy

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Both can be true.....
It’s not like he made up “they said they adopted me, but they didn’t—they set up a financial conservatorship”.

Unless the next sentence is “and they invested all that money for me into a retirement and health care plan for me”, there’s no excuse
 

RonJohn

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It’s not like he made up “they said they adopted me, but they didn’t—they set up a financial conservatorship”.

Unless the next sentence is “and they invested all that money for me into a retirement and health care plan for me”, there’s no excuse
Which money are you talking about in the "next sentence"? Most of the reports I have seen about this include the emotional -- not adoption just a conservatorship -- language but no real accusations of financial malfeasance. I didn't see any accusations of controlling his NFL money with the conservatorship after college. Maybe I missed something. The family stated that royalties from the book/movie were evenly split and amounted to something around than $100k per person. (Don't remember the exact amount.) I don't have all of the financial information, nor all of the accusations of financial impropriety, but what I have seen doesn't look like a lot to base a lawsuit on. Also, the father sold a business, unrelated to Oher, for something around $200 million. I don't think the family needs nor had a need to grift off of anyone. I would question why the conservatorship wasn't ended after he left college. I didn't see any accusations that the family controlled his NFL money or was still controlling anything today.

I will follow that up with making it clear that I highly suspectful of anyone who promotes themselves as being extremely generous. It is a lot like being extremely good at sports, if you are that generous it will be known without you having to tell anyone. Someone who happens to "adopt" or "conserve for" a poor boy, who also happens to be a recruited athlete, and then that athlete happens to attend the college they support raises a lot of questions.
 

Papa Foxtrot

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Both can be true.....
I don't think that I alleged that anything was false...
It’s not like he made up “they said they adopted me, but they didn’t—they set up a financial conservatorship”.

Unless the next sentence is “and they invested all that money for me into a retirement and health care plan for me”, there’s no excuse
Well, right now we're in the legal "dueling banjos" phase where each party's attorneys alternate issuing statements. Hard to know exactly what transpired. I guess that's what a judge is for.

The Touhy's attorneys claimed today that all five family members(including Oher) were paid $100,000 each from the movie and that was the only compensation that they received. Also that the Touhy's had no involvement in Oher's post college financial decisions. He hired his own agent and managed his own finances. The reasoning for the conservatorship was explained that you can't adopt an 18 year old as they're an adult. Also read that Sean Jr. said that Oher had mentioned the conservatorship in his first book, so the allegation that he just became aware of it this year would appear to be dubious.

My main point above is that the timing of the legal action simultaneous with a book release smells.
 

slugboy

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Finally getting solid reporting on the case:

 
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