Michael Oher’s attorney rips author Michael Lewis’ claim that the ex-NFL star’s lawsuit against the Tuohy family is the result of traumatic brain injuries: ‘His goofy comments make me wonder if he’s the one with a head injury’

Michael Oher’s attorney had a sharp response for Michael Lewis after the best-selling author claimed the retired NFL star’s lawsuit against his former guardians was the result of repetitive head trauma.

‘Lewis’ crazy comments make me wonder if that’s true He is the one with a head injury,” lawyer Don Barrett told Mail Sport in an email on Wednesday.

Barrett responded to Lewis’ interview with The guardin which the celebrated author criticized Oher’s ongoing lawsuit against the Tuohys – the couple portrayed as Oher’s adoptive parents in Lewis’ 2006 bestseller, The Blind Side.

In August, Oher revealed that he was never adopted by Sean and Leigh Ann Tuohy, claiming he was instead lured into a conservatorship with the couple, who inappropriately used the arrangement to profit from his story.

“This is what happens to footballers who get hit on the head: they get into trouble with violence and aggression,” said Lewis while promoting his latest book.

Michael Oher’s lawsuit against his wealthy former guardians is the result of repetitive head trauma caused by years of playing football, according to author Michael Lewis (left)

The Tuohy family has denied lying to Oher and denying him millions in film rights

A Tennessee judge ended the conservatorship last month, saying she was disturbed that such an agreement was ever reached because Oher was 18 when it was signed in 2004 and did not have a disability that would necessitate the pact.

Lewis, a former high school classmate and longtime friend of Sean Tuohy, published The Blind Side in 2006. The book chronicles Oher’s path from an impoverished childhood in Memphis to the Tuohy household, and ultimately Ole Miss – the couple’s alma mater.

At the time, the conservatorship agreement was publicly portrayed as an adoption, and it later became the particular focus of the award-winning 2009 film.

Oher, 37, claims that the conservatorship allowed Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy to profit from his story while he was denied film rights, but Lewis has pushed back on these accusations, insisting that the wealthy restauranteurs made barely anything from The Blind Side.

Lewis previously emphasized that the Tuohys only made a few hundred thousand dollars from the film, rather than the millions Oher claims. (Oher, through his lawyer, has demanded a full accounting of the Tuohys’ income from the film and book)

However, Lewis admitted to The Guardian that the family’s profits from the film are complicated by the fact that the Tuohys’ daughter, Collins, married Cannon Smith, who helped finance the 2009 film.

The Tuohys are depicted as Oher’s adoptive family in the 2006 bestseller, The Blind Side

Now, according to The Guardian, Lewis speculates that Oher sued the Tuohys because he was convinced to do so by lawyers. Furthermore, Lewis believes, Oher was convinced to file a complaint against the Tuohys because he realized that people would “stand behind him if he made these accusations.”

Oher’s lawyers claim he only discovered the existence of the conservatorship in February, according to the documents obtained by Mail Sport last week.

However, in his 2011 memoir, “I Beat The Odds,” Oher referred to Sean and Leigh Anne as “my legal conservators.”

Meanwhile, the Tuohy family continued to portray themselves as Oher’s adoptive parents. In fact, the family’s charity website still refers to Sean as “Michael’s adoptive father.”

Regardless, Tennessee attorney Timothy Street told the New York Post that he believes Oher could have ended the conservatorship years earlier.

“If you have enough financial knowledge to sign a multi-million dollar contract with the NFL, you should also have enough financial knowledge to know whether or not you want to stay in a conservatorship,” Street said. “They don’t let you sign a contract like that when you’re drooling over yourself.”

Oher’s lawyers obviously see things differently.

“At no time did the Tuohys inform Michael that they would have ultimate control over all of his contracts, and as a result, Michael did not understand that if the Conservatorship was awarded, he would be waiving his right to contract for himself,” Barrett and Oher. other attorneys wrote in the complaint.

“Michael was wrongly told by the Tuohys that because he was over eighteen, the legal action to adopt Michael should be called a ‘conservatorship,’ but it was for all intents and purposes an adoption.”

Oher’s conservatorship with the Tuohy family was recently terminated by a Tennessee judge

Oher has also questioned the authenticity of 2007 documents in which he apparently signed away his life rights to Blind Side producers.

“Michael Oher believes that the signature on this document is very similar to his own, and he does not know whether the signature is forged,” his attorney wrote in the Aug. 14 complaint, obtained by Mail Sport.

The Tuohy family could find themselves in legal jeopardy if it emerges that they were hiding money from Oher, who recently filed a motion seeking the couple’s financial records.

“If they misallocated a lot of money and they had a fiduciary duty to protect him, they’re not going to have the light of justice,” Street said.

Through their attorney, Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy have alleged that Oher tried to pressure them into paying him $15 million ahead of his legal filing in Tennessee last week.

Oher claims he made several attempts to end the conservatorship, but the Tuohys “ignored” the requests.