Michael Oher was paid more than $138,000 in proceeds from the book and movie “The Blind Side,” the couple the former NFL player accused of misleading him said in a court document Wednesday.
An accounting document filed by Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy lists payments going back to 2007, a year after the book was released, up to the most recent payment this April. The book and Oher's life would become the basis of a 2009 film.
A statement of accounting by the couple’s lawyer, filed in probate court in Shelby County, Tennessee, said members of the family, including Oher, agreed to divide the proceeds of both five ways.
Oher, a former NFL offensive tackle, in August filed a court document alleging the Tuohys misled him into believing they adopted him when they took him in as a teenager.
Instead, they placed him in a conservatorship, a petition to terminate the conservatorship says.
The petition said Oher made no money off the film, which was released after he completed his college career and would not have affected his NCAA eligibility.
According to the petition, Oher does not recall signing the agreement for the rights to his life story. The document has a signature that appears to be his, but “nobody ever presented this document to him with any explanation,” the filing says.
A representative for Oher did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
A representative for the Tuohys said the couple had no comment beyond what was in the Shelby County court filings.
The preliminary statement to accounting says the Tuohys "have never received any money as conservators on behalf of Michael Oher and further never had control over any funds or dealings on behalf of Mr. Oher during the entire term of the conservatorship."
The Tuohys took in Oher, now 37, when he was in high school. He went on to stardom playing for the University of Mississippi and then in the NFL, a story documented in the book and movie “The Blind Side.”
The Tuohys have said they never they never intended to adopt Oher and denied enriching themselves off his name.
A judge agreed to end the conservatorship in September. The conservatorship started in 2004 when he was 18.
Sandra Bullock, who played Leigh Anne Tuohy in the film, won an Oscar for best performance by an actress in a leading role. The film was also nominated for best picture but did not win.
Oher was All-America when he played at the university, known as Ole Miss, and he was a first-round pick by the Baltimore Ravens in the 2009 NFL draft. He played there for five seasons, and he also played for the Tennessee Titans and the Carolina Panthers.
