Auburn’s football coach Hugh Freeze is very, very familiar with former NFL vet Michael Oher and his ‘family’, the Tuohys, so when he finally spoke out on the recent controversy regarding the lawsuit, the blackmail allegations, and all the other ‘he said, she said’ involved, obviously people were going to pay attention.
Freeze and Oher have been in each other’s lives since he was coaching Oher as a high school athlete at Briarcrest Christian High School in Memphis, where Oher first got his start on the gridiron after being taken in by the Tuohys as a teenager. Freeze was instrumental in building up Oher’s athletic ability which helped launched him to play for Ole Miss before getting into the NFL where he played for the multiple teams including the Baltimore Ravens, Tennessee Titans, and Carolina Panthers.
“I love Michael Oher. He’s like part of our family. I love the Tuohys,” Freeze said last week when asked by local press. “I think it’s sad, and I certainly don’t claim to understand all the ins and outs of adoption, conservatory, all of that. But I know what I witnessed and I witnessed a family that totally took in a young man. And I think without that, there is no story.”
Freeze remains optimistic that despite all the allegations and accusations that have gone both ways, that the football player and the people who took him in as there own could work things out.
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“The facts will come out,” he added. “But, you know, I love both sides of it. Sean and Leigh Ann Tuoghy did something that most families… A lot of us talk about doing things, but they actually put the shoes on and pulled the boots pu and got in the arena and did something. I think that’s admirable.”
The controversy that has essentially blown apart the heartwarming narrative created by the hit book and blockbuster film ‘The Blind Side’ began just last week when Oher filed a lawsuit claiming the Tuohys never legally adopted him, but instead set up a conservatorship over him.
He alleges he did not profit from the movie based on his life, while the Tuohys’ attorney claims both Oher and the family received around $100,000 from the film. The Tuohys’ attorney also indicated plans to end the conservatorship, noting Oher’s acknowledgment of it in his 2011 book.
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However, the relationship between Oher and the Tuohys has been strained for about ten years. Oher argues the Tuohys misrepresented themselves as his adoptive parents, and he was unaware of the actual nature of the conservatorship. A lawyer for the Tuohys countered claims, stating the conservatorship was the quickest way to address NCAA concerns and was not about adoption.
The conservatorship, typically used for those with disabilities in Tennessee, was purportedly established to assist Oher with practicalities like health insurance. Oher’s lawsuit highlights that he had no diagnosed disabilities to justify the conservatorship.
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