The unusual legal agreement behind the ‘blind side’

In August 2004, Michael O’Hare was living with Sean and Lee Ann Twohy and their two children in Memphis. Hanging around several foster homes, O’Hare was a top prospect to play major college football and seemed destined for the NFL when the Tuohys took him in.

But there were complications. Since the Tuohys were not Oher’s parents, providing support for him would have been seen as a violation of NCAA rules against providing benefits to recruits. As significant donors to the University of Mississippi, one of the colleges that recruits O’Hare, the Tuohy family could expose themselves and the school to penalties in the event of a violation.

So they made a plan. They asked the court to grant them broad power over O’Hare’s affairs, including power of attorney, control over his medical decisions and the right to approve financial contracts on his behalf. They believed this arrangement would satisfy the NCAA Oher, who was 18 and legally an adult, and agreed to it.

Anyone who watched 2009’s “The Blind Side” knows what happened next: O’Hare attended the University of Mississippi, the Towhees’ alma mater, and then the NFL. Sandra Bullock won an Academy Award for her portrayal of Lee Anne Twohy, despite the criticism leveled at her. The film perpetuates tropes about black athletes like O’Hare who lack intelligence and need help from white people like the Tuohys.

Now the legal relationship, known as the guardianship, and the motives of the Towhees are under scrutiny. O’Hare, 37, has filed a petition calling for an end to the nearly 20-year conservatorship. The Tuohys allegedly used it to profit from his story, including through the movie deal, in ways he didn’t know about.

The Tuohys, who made millions from the restaurant business, agreed to end the conservatorship, but denied O’Hare’s cheating and called his plea “extortion” in a statement.

And this is clear: Guardianship has departed in many ways from the legal norms in Tennessee. According to the case file, the court granted the Towhees’ petition even though O’Hare did not meet the criteria for a person who needs a guardian. As is usually required, the court did not force the Tuohys to disclose how they handled Oher’s affairs, even though he had the potential to sign him to a lucrative NFL contract.

The unusual arrangement—and the workaround the Tuohys devised to help Oher qualify academically for college play—reflects the football-mad culture at the University of Mississippi, the Tuohys’ deep ties to the university and football program, and the efforts they made to stay within NCAA rules.

“The whole thing is very bizarre,” Susan Mee, a Tennessee attorney who focuses on guardianship, said of the legal arrangement, adding that the Tuohy family should have informed the court when O’Hare became a multi-millionaire professional athlete.

The Towhees and their attorneys declined interview requests from The New York Times, as did O’Hare and his attorneys.

Unusual legal arrangement

Many people are familiar with conservatorship because of the story of Britney Spears, whose affairs were controlled under such an arrangement in California for nearly 14 years.

To arrange custody of O’Hare, the Towhees turned to Debbie Brannan, an attorney and family friend who, like Lee Ann, was a member of the Kappa Delta Women’s Club of Mississippi. She later became treasurer of their foundation, and her daughter, Whitney, had a minor role in “The Blind Side.”

Brannan, whose legal practice includes family law matters and commercial real estate deals, represented the Tuohys in probate. O’Hare had no independent representation. Brannan did not respond to requests for an interview.

under Tennessee lawCourts have created guardianship panels to protect a person “with a disability who lacks the ability to make decisions in one or more important areas.” Prefects are often relatives or caregivers.

“The judge must find a disability or disability that makes them unable to make decisions on their own,” said Amy Bryant, director of the Department of Guardianships for Davidson County, which includes Nashville.

But the Towhees never said O’Hare was handicapped and couldn’t make his own decisions. Indeed, their petition stated that he had been examined by a physician and had “no known physical or psychological disabilities”. They gave no reason for the custodianship, but only that O’Hare had no assets and wanted to live with them, and that they had the means to take care of him.

The petition says O’Hare and the Tuohy family “enjoyed a close family relationship for many years.”

In his December 2004 order granting the arrangement, Judge Robert Benham reiterated that O’Hare appeared to be in good physical and mental health, a finding that did not meet common legal standards for a person who needs a guardian.

Several other typical steps were also skipped, including the appointment of an investigator who would assess O’Hare’s need for a trustee and consider whether the Tuohy family should serve in that role. Benham also did not require annual status reports, which are required of governors in Tennessee.

Benham, 85, retired from the bench in 2013 and lives in Santa Barbara, California. In an interview, he said he did not know the Towhees and did not know at the time that O’Hare was playing football. But he said he wouldn’t have been surprised to learn O’Hare was an athlete.

“I’ve never seen anyone this big,” Benham said. “I wear a size 14, and his shoes were much bigger than mine.”

Benham said he agreed to the regency because no one was against it. O’Hare and his mother, Denise, were present and signed on the dotted line. Benham said he does not agree that proof of disability or disability is a prerequisite under the Guardianship Act.

He said he waived the investigator because all sides wanted custody, and said annual case reports were the prerogative of the clerk, not the judge.

Chris Thomas, who was the clerk of the court at the time the petition was filed, said that the system for enforcing annual status reports in 2004 was not particularly strong and that guardianship of the person was less strictly monitored than that of the estate. Where money was involved.

Benham said his “great hope” at the time was that the Tuohy family, with their knowledge of the business, could one day help O’Hare.

On February 1, 2005, less than two months after the arrangement was awarded, O’Hare, who was widely recruited as a football player, committed to a transfer to Mississippi State. The Towhees said O’Hare made his college decision on his own.

O’Hare would eventually earn millions in the NFL after he was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in 2009. His relationship with the Tuohys also generated income through movies, books, and other opportunities. Through it all, the Touhys remained his bodyguards, responsible for overseeing his contracts. But the court did not order them to provide annual updates, as required by law, and they did not. For nearly 20 years after the conservatorship was granted, there have been no new filings in this case.

Sell ​​the story

Over the years, the Towhees often referred to O’Hare as their adopted son. Their organization prominently marketed this idea, using his story to promote adoptions.

In a 2010 book co-written with Washington Post columnist Sally Jenkins, Ann Twohy told me that our “adopting of Michael” was “merely a formality, the legal continuation of an emotional process that began long before”.

But O’Hare was never actually adopted. Sean Toohey told the Daily Memphis that lawyers told them they could not adopt someone over the age of 18. (This was not the case: adult adoption is legal in Tennessee.) The Twohys said they explained the custody to O’Hare.

O’Hare’s petition states that it was not until this year that he understood that he had not been adopted and that the Towhees had legal control of his affairs. His petition demands that he list all the ways the Tuohys have benefited from his story and from what he calls “the lie of Michael’s adoption.”

Apparently, the success of “The Blind Side” has helped the Tuohy family raise millions of dollars for themselves or their causes. According to Michael Lewis, author of the book on which the film is based, he and the Towhees family earned about $350,000 from the film. O’Hare said he got nothing in exchange for signing over the rights to his life story.

Additionally, Leigh Anne Tuohy has parlayed her fame into becoming a motivational speaker, earning between $30,000 and $50,000 per impression, according to online estimates.

The Tuohys Make It Happen Foundation, which pledges to help kids who “fall into the cracks of society,” has raised more than $1 million since 2010, including some donations from Sean Tuohy’s business, according to its financial disclosures. The foundation has spent less than 20% of all donations it receives on charitable efforts, according to a Times review of records dating back to 2010.

O’Hare’s petition alleges that Sean Twohy modified the agreement regarding O’Hare’s life story in 2010 without his knowledge, after which the foundation received $200,000 from Alcon Entertainment, the production company for “The Blind Side.” Foundation records show a $200,000 gift from a shareholder with the same address as Alcon. On Thursday, the company issued a statement saying it had offered to donate an “equal amount” to a charity of O’Hare’s choosing, which he declined.

Mississippi or bust

In recent days, the Tuohy family said they had arranged for custody so O’Hare could go to Mississippi.

“Obviously, Michael’s been living with us for a long time, and the NCAA didn’t like that,” Sean Tuohy said. Daily Memphian. They said the only way Michael could go to Ole Miss was if he was already a part of the family. I sat Michael down and told him, “If you’re planning on going to Ole Miss—or even considering Ole Miss—we think you should be part of the family.” That would do that, legally speaking.

The Tuohys knew that violating the draft could have serious consequences. Indeed, such a scenario occurred in Mississippi years later. In 2017, the NCAA More than a dozen Mississippi boosters have been named, but not the Towhees, and linked them to improper actions that included helping to recruit athletes and offering “impermissible benefits.” Rule violations resulted in the football team being suspended for two years after the season.

Sports programs are frequently forced to part ways with boosters who violate recruiting guidelines. That would have been a blow to the Towhees, who met in Mississippi and are co-chairs of the $1.5 billion fund-raising campaign.

The Tuohys also used their resources and connections at Mississippi State to help Oher navigate the NCAA’s academic requirements.

O’Hare needed to improve his grades in his senior year of high school to be eligible to play college football under NCAA rules. The Tuohys put together a team of assistants made up largely of Mississippi State alumni, including another Leigh club member Anne Tuohy.

That woman, Sue Mitchell, played by Kathy Bates in the film, taught O’Hare extensively and was later hired by Mississippi State, staying until the year O’Hare was drafted by the Ravens. Mitchell did not respond to multiple requests for an interview.

According to Lewis’ book, the Towhees used an idea from Ed Orgeron, a Mississippi coach at the time, to enroll O’Hare in a program of 10-day courses such as “Character Education”. The idea was to replace bad grades with good ones.

According to Lewis, the Towhees realized that he would be given extra time to attend those classes if he was deemed to have a learning disability. Psychologists ran tests and found that O’Hare’s IQ was much higher than what similar tests showed when he was younger. Lewis wrote that they determined his academic struggles were the result of a learning disability because his performance was not up to par with the new intelligence tests.

On August 1, 2005, more than eight months after the conservatorship was granted, the NCAA told O’Hare that he was eligible to play for Mississippi.

Sean Twohy told Louis he would not dissuade him from helping another person like O’Hare.

“So far, as far as I can see, there is no downside,” he said, according to Lewis’s book. “We can’t look at a child who’s having a problem right now without asking, ‘If we had, could we have changed his condition?’ So what do we do when he leaves? Shall we do it again?”

Susan C Beachy Contributed to research.