'The Blind Side' War Has Gone Thermonuclear as the Tuohys' Lawyer Call Michael Oher a Liar and Claim He Tried to Extort $15 Million From Them

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It's taken just under 15 years for The Blind Side to go from the perfect American story to … well, the perfect American story. From an inspirational tale about what is best about our culture to a cautionary tale about the worst of it. From a saga about love, faith, hope, charity, family and sports triumphing over poverty and conquering the racial divide, to just another courtroom drama about a bunch of people lawyering up and fighting over money. 

In short, it's all just so us. With the added bonus of the way the origin story gave us Sandra Bullock at her MILFy best, Oscar-baiting her way through one scene after another where she gives the bureaucrats, the coaches, the bitchy rich ladies at the Country Club and the drug dealers the what-fer with a dramatic speech:

And now that Michael Oher is suing the Tuohy family claiming the movie was all a lie they concocted to make money, and SJ Tuohy went on Barstool Radio to tell his side of the story:

… it was inevitable that The Blind Side War would escalate. 

In the interview, SJ was measured and conciliatory, saying he loved Michael when he was 16, does at 37 and will at 67. And talked at length about how, even though the movie made $300 million, the confusing Hollywood accounting makes it hard to know who got paid what. Which sounds reasonable enough. I mean, that's one of the issues in the strikes that are going on as we speak.

But the matter is not in his hands. Lawyers are gonna lawyer. And in the Tuohys' attorneys case, they're not interested in fighting a limited war. They broke out the nuclear codes and launched the Weapons of Mass Accusation:

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Source - Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy said that NFL star Michael Oher tried to shake them down for $15 million prior to filing his “absurd” lawsuit against them on Monday, TMZ reported Tuesday. In a statement to TMZ Sports, Tuohy family attorney Marty Singer said that Oher went to the family before filing the suit, threatening to “plant a negative story about them in the press” if they didn’t give him $15 million. Oher’s petition claimed that the Tuohys had tricked him into a conservatorship when he was 18 years old—under the guise of joining the family—in order to profit off his story that was eventually turned into ­The Blind Side movie. Singer vehemently denied those allegations in the statement, claiming that, “Should Mr. Oher wish to terminate the conservatorship, either now or at anytime [sic] in the future, the Tuohys will never oppose it in any way.” The attorney boldly added that it’s not the first time Oher has tried such an extortion. “Unbeknownst to the public, Mr. Oher has actually attempted to run this play several times before–but it seems that numerous other lawyers stopped representing him once they saw the evidence and learned the truth,” Singer said.

And Marty Singer isn't the only family attorney launching an attack. Oher is facing a two-front war:

Daily Mail - Steve Farese Sr., an attorney for the Tuohy family, claimed the petition was fabricated, insisting there is proof the case is a lie. 

'It's completely false,' Farese said on NewsNation's 'CUOMO' Tuesday night. 'And when the proof comes out, everyone will see the truth.

 'You know, numbers don't lie. Paper trails don't lie. And when the proper time comes and we present the truth, I think it will be evident to everyone of what's going on here. …

'And you have to understand, Chris, this story wasn't just about Michael Oher. This story was about a family, about a brother, about a sister, about her mother, about her father. All of them sacrificed for Michael.'

So it would appear this is where the battle lines have been drawn. On the one side, Oher is claiming he was exploited for fame, clout and financial gain. An argument bolstered by this clip resurfacing from 2017, when Sean and Leigh Ann Tuohy charted the opulent, crazy expensive superyacht on Bravo's Below Deck and bragged about how they shopped their story around to Steven Spielberg and Harvey Weinstein:

Which, while there's nothing unethical or wrong about that, doesn't exactly paint them in the light of self-sacrificing caregivers they've always made themselves out to be. 

On the other side, we've got the Tuohys' lawyers running around saying Oher was the one who exploited them, tried to shake them down for 15 million bucks in a kind of protection racket, and by the by, is a big fat liar. 

And all of it perfectly encapsulates our culture in this day and age. It's further proof why we can't have nice things. Not even a celebrated and beloved wholesome family movie about triumphing over adversity. At least we know the sequel is going to be legit. And Blindsided seems like the perfect title. Because that's what this whole sordid mess has done to America.