Who is Don Barrett? Michael Oher's attorney refutes 'The Blind Side' author Michael Lewis' claim NFL star may have head injury
LOS ANNGELES, CALIFORNIA: Don Barrett, the attorney for NFL star Michael Oher, 37, sharply responded to bestselling author Michael Lewis after the latter claimed that Oher's lawsuit against his former guardians was the result of repeated head trauma.
According to the Daily Mail, Barrett wrote in an email to Mail Sport, "Lewis's goofy comments make me wonder if he is the one with a head injury."
The comment came in response to Lewis' interview with The Guardian, in which the author criticized Oher's ongoing lawsuit against the Tuohys. In Lewis' 2006 bestseller, 'The Blind Side', Sean and Leigh Ann Tuohy were portrayed as Oher's adoptive parents.
While promoting his latest book, Lewis said, "This is what happens to football players who get hit in the head: they run into problems with violence and aggression."
Michael Oher revealed he was never adopted by Sean and Leigh Ann Tuohy
Oher claims that he was tricked into a conservatorship with the couple, who improperly used the arrangement to profit off his story.
The conservatorship was ended by a Tennessee judge in September. The judge voiced that she found it disturbing that such an agreement was ever reached because Oher was 18 when it was signed in 2004 and had no disability that would necessitate the pact.
Lewis was a former high school classmate and long-time friend of Sean Tuohy. 'The Blind Side' details Oher's journey from an impoverished childhood in Memphis to the Tuohy household, and ultimately Ole Miss, Tuohy's alma mater.
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Back then, the conservatorship agreement was publicly portrayed as an adoption and later became the singular focus of the award-winning 2009 film by the same name.
Michael Oher claims the Tuohys profited off his story
His allegations were refuted by Lewis, who insists that the wealthy restauranteurs barely made anything off 'The Blind Side'.
Lewis did admit that the Tuohys' profits from the movie are complicated by the fact that the Tuohys' daughter, Collins, married Cannon Smith, who helped finance the 2009 film.
According to The Guardian, Lewis speculates that Oher sued the Tuohys because he was convinced to do so by attorneys. On the other hand, according to court filings, Oher's attorneys claim he only discovered the existence of the conservatorship in February.
However, Oher referred to Sean and Leigh Anne as "my legal conservators" in his 2011 memoir, 'I Beat The Odds'.
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Oher has questioned the authenticity of the 2007 documents, in which he apparently signed away his life rights to 'Blind Side' producers.
His attorneys state, "Michael Oher believes that the signature on this document is very similar to his own, and he does not know whether the signature was forged."
Oher has recently filed a motion requesting the Tuohy couple's financial records. If revealed that they hid money from him, the couple could find themselves in jeopardy.
Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy have claimed through their attorney that Oher tried to pressure them into paying him $15 million prior to his legal filing in Tennessee last week.
Oher claims that his several attempts to end the conservatorship were ignored by the Tuohys.