Inside the Blind Side Battle

ALMOST 14 YEARS AFTER MICHAEL OHER'S LIFE STORY BECAME A HIT MOVIE, A SHOCKING RIFT EMERGES BETWEEN THE FOOTBALL STAR AND THE FAMILY WHO TOOK HIM IN

- ANDREA MANDELL

To millions of moviegoers, The Blind Side was the ultimate feel-good story. The 2009 film, starring Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw and Quinton Aaron, was based on the life of Michael Oher, a Memphis teen who overcame poverty to become a football standout and Super Bowl champion.

But the inspiring story took an unexpected turn on Aug. 14, when Oher, now 37, filed a shocking legal petition claiming that when he was 18, Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy, the wealthy couple who had taken him under their wing, tricked him into believing they were adopting him but instead placed him under a conservatorship. He claims that the Tuohys withheld “millions” in earnings from the movie—which they deny—and saw him as a “gullible young man whose athletic talent could be exploited for their own benefit.”

Sean and Leigh Anne, both 63, first met Oher when he was attending Briarcrest Christian School in Eads, Tenn., where their daughter was a student. After they learned that Oher, who had been in the foster care system, didn’t have a consistent place to stay, they took him into their home. Oher went on to play football at Sean’s alma mater, the University of Mississippi, then in the NFL.