Last month, former NFL offensive lineman Michael Oher filed a petition aimed at ending a conservatorship arranged by the Tuohy family more than a decade ago. Earlier this week, the Tuohys filed their response to the initial paperwork.
In the filing (via the Associated Press), the Tuohys admit that they never adopted Oher, explaining that they used the term “in the colloquial sense and they have never intended that reference to be viewed with legal implication.”
After Oher initiated the case, Sean Tuohy said Oher wasn’t adopted because lawyers told them they could not adopt someone over the age of 18. That has been shown to be inaccurate; under Tennessee law, they could have adopted him.
So they admit they didn’t adopt him. The question, then, is why didn’t they?
The bigger issue is the notion that the Tuohys allegedly took advantage of the relationship to shortchange his portion of the revenue from the film version of The Blind Side, which focused on the relationship between the Tuohys and Oher. The Tuohys deny any accusation of impropriety in the distribution of money to Oher.
They also point out that Oher admitted in his 2011 book that he knew the relationship was a conservatorship and not an adoption. Although we’ve yet to see the actual filing, that’s likely part of a defense based on potential expiration of the applicable statute of limitations for initiating the action.
Regardless of how this unexpected drama works out, it’s becoming more and more clear that the whole thing quite possibly was aimed at giving the Tuohys a way to legitimately steer Oher toward the college football program they preferred and supported. From their filing: “When it became clear that the [Oher] could not consider going to the University of Mississippi . . . as a result of living with the [Tuohys], the NCAA made it clear that he could attend Ole Miss if he was part of the Tuohy family in some fashion.”
So they could have adopted him. For some reason, they didn’t. For some reason, Oher didn’t do anything about the situation until now, years after he became aware that they used a different device than adoption for making him part of the family.
The whole situation continues to be sad. If there’s a true sense of family among the Tuohys and Oher, this should be quickly resolved. Or, more accurately, it never should have gotten to this point.