*Amanda Fruman
Michael Oher, ex-National Football League (NFL) tackle and the inspiration for the movie The Blindside (2009), is making headlines in 2023 as a probate court recently ended his 19-year conservatorship with the Tuohy family.[1] The tensions evident between Oher’s petition and the Tuohy’s acknowledgment that they would release Oher from the conservatorship can point to the deeper implications of the white savior trope portrayed in the film.[2]
The 2009 film starring Quinton Aaron as Michael Oher portrayed the story of Oher, a homeless high school teen living in Memphis, Tennessee with enormous football potential.[3] The film follows Oher through his senior year of high school, where he was “adopted” by the Tuohy family, and depicts the family helping him understand football and navigate college prospects, ultimately landing him a spot on the Ole Miss roster.[4] While the feel-good film achieved immense success, Oher’s lawsuit in the Probate Court of Shelby County, Tennessee,[5] represented a different picture of the relationship between Oher and the Tuohy family.
I. Oher’s Petition
Oher filed a Petition to Terminate Conservatorship, for Accounting, and Other Relief on August 14, 2023.[6] The petition alleged that the Tuohys urged Oher to sign the papers granting the family authority over Oher’s medical and financial decision-making when he was beginning his time at Ole Miss.[7] Oher, who was eighteen at the time, alleges he was under the guise that the conservatorship amounted to adoption.[8] Now, nineteen years later, Oher discovered he was never adopted and further argues he was swindled out millions in profits from The Blindside film.[9] Through their attorney, however, the Tuohy family stated that “[i]n reality, the Tuohys opened their home to Mr. Oher, offered him structure, support and, most of all, unconditional love[.]”[10] Yet the Tuohy family attorney also acknowledged that they would release Oher from the conservatorship amid these allegations.[11] While the Tuohys’ legal argument to justify profiting from Oher’s life story poses interesting questions, this article more thoroughly discusses how closing a conservatorship impacts former conservatees.[12]
II. Tennessee Law
Tennessee law § 34-1-101(4)(B) defines conservatorship as:
A proceeding in which a court removes the decision-making powers and duties, in whole or in part, in a least restrictive manner, from a person with a disability who lacks capacity to make decisions in one or more important areas and places responsibility for one or more of those decisions in a conservator or co-conservators.[13]
Subsection (14) of the statute further defines a “person with a disability” as “any person. . . determined by the court to be in need of partial or full supervision, protection, and assistance.” The subsection further lists “mental illness, physical illness or injury, developmental disability, or other mental or physical incapacity[,]” as disabilities.[14]
A conservatorship is dramatically different from the adoption narrative sold by the film and the Tuohys. Although Oher was eighteen when he signed the conservatorship, Tennessee Law permits adults to be adopted instead of signed into a conservatorship.[15] Adoption does not require adoptees to relinquish their right to make decisions for themselves or require a documented physical or mental disability, whereas conservatorships demand both.[16] Thus, an adopted adult retains the ability to contract and perform adult functions without the consent of the conservators—making adult adoptions often symbolic more so than anything else.[17] In Oher’s case, he argues the conservatorship was tactically used to shield the Tuohy family from involving Oher in business decisions about the film, effectively sidelining him from its profits.[18] And while a conservatorship in Tennessee requires a showing that the conservatee has a proven disability, there is no indication from Oher that he ever qualified as a person with a disability.[19]
III. Case Outcome
In response to Oher’s request, on September 29, 2023, Shelby County Probate Court Judge Kathleen Gomes ended the 2004 conservatorship.[20] Judge Gomes also did not dismiss Oher’s suit against the family seeking accounting information regarding Oher’s finances during the nineteen year period.[21] Judge Gomes further stated her shock that the conservatorship was created, remarking that “[she] cannot believe it got done.”[22] She also shared that she had never seen “such a conservatorship used for someone who is not disabled, and that it should have been dissolved a long time ago.”[23]
IV. Conclusion: Broader Implications of Hollywood’s Portrayal of Oher’s Story
The filings from both parties and subsequent termination of the conservatorship suggest a fraught relationship between Oher and the Touhys, illustrative of how Hollywood’s use of the white savior trope often perpetuates a narrative that victimizes people of color.[24]
Oher’s allegations called to light the true story behind the idealized film, which painted him as unable to read and write as a high school senior, into the spotlight.[25] Yet in reality, Oher maintained his grades throughout high school and completed a college-level degree before joining the NFL.[26]
With the renewed attention surrounding Oher’s story and subsequent film, the termination of the conservatorship serves as a reminder that Hollywood portrayals of real-life events may perpetuate harmful tropes and further encourages viewers to reexamine this film’s narrative.[27]
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*Amanda Fruman is a second-year student at the University of Baltimore School of Law. At school, she enjoys being a Law Review Staff Editor, a member of the Law School’s Honor Board, a University-Wide Conduct Board Member, and a teaching assistant to Professor Amy Sloan. During her first-year summer, Amanda served as a judicial intern to the Honorable Chief Justice Matthew Fader at the Supreme Court of Maryland. In May, she is excited to join Miles and Stockbridge as a summer associate.
[1] Chris Bumbaca, ‘The Blind Side’ Subject Michael Oher’s Blockbuster Lawsuit Against Tuohy Family Explained, USA Today (Aug. 15, 2023, 12:46 PM), https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2023/08/15/michael-oher-conservatorship-what-to-know-about-blind-side-lawsuit/70594251007/.
[2] See infra text accompanying notes 6–19.
[3] Summary of The Blind Side, IMDB, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0878804/?ref_=ttpl_ov_i (last visited Sept. 4, 2023).
[4] Id.
[5] Brief of Petitioner, In Re: Michael Jerome Williams, Jr., No. C-010333 (Probate Ct. Shelby County, TN 2023).
[6] Id. at 1.
[7] Id. at 7–8.
[8] Id. at 3–4.
[9] Id. at 4–5.
[10] Michael A. Fletcher, Tuohys Dispute Michael Oher Claims, Allege ‘Shakedown Effort’,ESPN (Aug. 15, 2023, 7:43 PM), https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/38199104/tuohy-family-disputes-michael-oher-claims-alleges-shakedown-blind-side-subject.
[11] Id.
[12] See infra Part III.
[13] Tenn. Code Ann. § 34-1-101(4)(B) (West 2023).
[14] Id. § 34-1-101(14).
[15] Id. § 36-1-102(8) (“‘Adult’ means any person who is eighteen (18) years of age or older. An adult may be adopted as provided in this part[.]”).
[16] See generally, id. § 36-1-101.
[17] Id.
[18] Brief of Petitioner at 4–5, In Re: Michael Jerome Williams, Jr., No. C-010333 (Probate Ct. Shelby County, TN 2023).
[19] Brief of Petitioner at 4, In Re: Michael Jerome Williams, Jr., No. C-010333 (Probate Ct. Shelby County, TN 2023).
[20] Ayana Archie, A Judge Orders the End of the Conservatorship Between Michael Oher and the Tuohys, NPR (Sept. 29, 2023, 7:41 PM), https://www.npr.org/2023/09/29/1202776970/michael-oher-tuohys-conservatorship.
[21] Id.
[22] Id.
[23] Id.
[24] See generally Aisha Harris, ‘The Blind Side’ Drama Just Proves the Cheap, Meaningless Hope of White Savior Films, NPR (Aug. 18, 2023, 11:10 AM), https://www.npr.org/2023/08/18/1194535397/the-blind-side-michael-oher-white-savior; Erin Ash, Racial Discourse in “The Blind Side”: The Economics and Ideology Behind the White Savior Format, 35 Stud. in Popular Culture, Fall 2015, at 85–93; Andrew Lawrence, The Blind Side’s White Savior Tale was Always Built on Shaky Ground, The Guardian (Aug. 16, 10:09 AM), https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/aug/16/blind-side-white-savior-story-tuohy-michael-oher-conservatorship.
[25] Lawrence, supra note 20.
[26] Id.
[27] See generally Char Adams, Why Hollywood Embraced White Savior Movies like ‘The Blind Side’, NBC News (Aug. 18, 2023, 2:59 PM), https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/hollywood-embraced-white-savior-movies-blind-side-rcna100413.
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