“That’s my heartbreak right there,” the 38-year-old who inspired The Blind Side said. “It was as soon as I got there, I was defined.”
Former NFL star Michael Oher has broken his silence since filing a lawsuit against Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy in 2023.
Oher — who was the football star that inspired The Blind Side — alleged that the Memphis-based couple who took him in as a teenager misled him into believing they were adopting him, before placing him in a conservatorship and exploited his likeness for money according to NBC News.
While the lawsuit is ongoing, the filing ultimately led to the termination of the conservatorship.
In a new interview with The New York Times Magazine, Oher opened up about why he believed the couple deceived him.
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“The first time I heard ‘I love you,’ it was Sean and Leigh Anne [Tuohy] saying it. When that happens at 18, you become vulnerable,” he told the publication. “You let your guard down and then you get everything stripped from you. It turns into a hurt feeling.”
“I don’t want to make this about race, but what I found out was that nobody says ‘I love you’ more than coaches and white people. When Black people say it, they mean it,” he continued.
However, despite the lawsuit, Oher admitted the time he spent with the family was “great” — saying, “I had a bed to stay on. I was eating good. They got me a truck.”
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The film led by Sandra Bullock — a performance of which earned her an Academy Award — was released two months into Oher’s first NFL season in 2009.
“That’s my heartbreak right there,” Oher said. “It was as soon as I got there, I was defined.”
Of the movie itself, he said, “It seemed kind of funny to me, to tell you the truth, like it was a comedy about someone else. It didn’t register. But social media was just starting to grow, and I started seeing stuff that I’m dumb. I’m stupid. Every article about me mentioned The Blind Side, like it was part of my name.”
“For a long time, I was so angry mentally,” he added. “With what I was going through. I want to be the person I was before The Blind Side, personality-wise. I’m still working on it.”
The Tuohys declined to talk to the magazine about the interview. Oher also denied filing the lawsuit because he needs money, adding, “I worked hard for that moment when I was done playing, and saved my money so I could enjoy the time. I’ve got millions of dollars. I’m fine.”
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Oher has previously stated he felt people’s perception of him is incorrectly influenced by the film and he didn’t like the way he was portrayed.
“I felt like it portrayed me as dumb instead of as a kid who had never had consistent academic instruction and ended up thriving once he got it,” he said.
“Quinton Aaron did a great job acting the part, but I could not figure out why the director chose to show me as someone who had to be taught the game of football,” he continued. “I watched those scenes thinking, ‘No, that’s not me at all! I’ve been studying — really studying — the game since I was a kid!'”
“That was my main hang-up with the film,” Michael wrote in his memoir I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness, to The Blind Side, and Beyond.
