As it turns out, the 2009 sports drama "The Blind Side" had some blind spots.
Some linebacker-sized ones, in fact.
This is how the movie missed the mark.
"The Blind Side" gives much of the credit for Michael Oher's rise from poverty to NFL
star to the Tuohy family, who took him in and helped him get into college.
"Do you have any place to stay tonight?
Don't you dare lie to me."
But it took many people from other parts of Oher's life to provide the support and opportunities
he needed to achieve athletic stardom.
In his book "I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness to the Blind Side and Beyond," Oher credits
some of his 11 siblings with protecting him when he was a child.
He was his mother's sixth child.
He also says that even though he and his siblings feared social workers because they didn't
want to be separated, he now appreciates that his case worker did their best to not let
him slip through the cracks.
Although some of Oher's foster homes were "less than ideal," as he put it in the book,
some provided at least a measure of security.
That said, he would still try to run away to find his mom.
The movie does show that before Oher met the Tuohys, he was staying with an athletic coach
from his public housing complex in Hurt Village.
Tony Henderson, whose last name is Hamilton in the movie, helped Oher get into a private
high school.
In real life, it was Briarcrest Christian School, not Wingate.
To be fair to "The Blind Side," most of the movie takes place after Oher has entered Wingate.
But that focus still pulls attention away from the other people in his life who did
try to help him, including his own family and people from his community.
Michael Oher has one main issue with the Hollywoodized version of his life.
Namely, it's the film's implication that he's unintelligent, rather than, quote, "a kid
who had never had consistent academic instruction and ended up thriving once he got it," as
he wrote in his memoir.
In real life, Oher pointed out, he was already playing and studying football, and multiple
other sports, when he met and moved in with the Tuohys.
In "The Blind Side," Oher meets the Tuohys shortly after getting into Wingate, through
a friendship with their young son S.J..
It takes a demonstration from S.J. and Leigh Anne Tuohy interrupting practice with a family-based
metaphor for Oher to figure out blocking.
In reality, by the time Oher and the Tuohys connected, he was already running track and
playing basketball — the sport he originally thought he'd go pro at — as well as football.
The two parties met at various athletic events, and it was the Tuohy patriarch, Sean, who
noticed Oher was couch-surfing without a stable home.
Sean started paying for Oher's school meals, and then offered him a place to stay for one
or two days at a time.
Oher was invited to Thanksgiving, and finally, Leigh Anne asked him to stay permanently.
According to Oher, the greatest help that the Tuohys offered him didn't come in the
form of football tutorials, but their ability to take care of his most basic needs.
While speaking with People Magazine in 2021, Oher talked heavily about the positive impact
that being taken in by the Tuohys had on him.
Specifically, Oher said that it was the stability that the Tuohys provided for him that allowed
him to thrive and grow into the person he's become.
Oher told People,
To the credit of the "Blind Side" creative team, the 2009 film does shine a spotlight
on the Tuohys' efforts to provide Oher with more clothes, food, and shelter.
"An extra t-shirt in a plastic bag does not a wardrobe make."
However, the film's decision to rewrite Oher's football education results in it turning its
focus away from the greatest ways that his adoptive family helped him.
Oher told People,
Since Oher retired from the NFL in 2017, he's set up a foundation called Beat the Odds Inc.,
which helps children from underprivileged backgrounds achieve their own dreams.
He also launched an app, Good Deeds, which helps to connect people with resources to
those who need them.
Michael Oher has never been shy about all the ways "The Blind Side" exaggerated -- if
not outright fabricated -- elements of his life, his career, and his relationship to
the Touhy family.
But things took an even more shocking turn in August 2023 when it was revealed that Oher
filed a lawsuit claiming, among other things, that Sean and Leigh Anne Touhy never adopted
him like the movie depicted.
"He's gonna be 18 in a few months, doesn't make sense to legally adopt."
In the lawsuit, Oher says that the Touhys instead manipulated him into giving them power
of Conservatorship over him just after he turned 18, which put them in the position
to control his business deals, because he was led to believe it would make him a legal
member of the Touhy family.
Oher then explains that they used that power in signing the deal to make "The Blind Side,"
all but cutting him out of the millions in royalties that the rest of the Touhy family
earned from the hit film.
"There are wonderful kids all over this country and this world that want a forever family.
We believe there are no unwanted kids, just unfound families."
The legal filing states that Oher only just learned in February 2023 that he in fact had
no legal familial ties to the Oher family, despite Sean and Leigh Anne having continued
to refer to Oher as their adopted son and continuing to use that for their own professional
and financial gain.
He seeks to end the Conservatorship and to force the Touhys to disclose all of the money
they have earned by using his name and license -- as well barring them from doing so in the future.