Transcript of Behind the Hollywood feel-good story ‘The Blind Side’

It was a story tailor-made for Hollywood, a wealthy white family taking in a black, at times homeless teenager, guiding his football career from a high school standout to O'Mis to the NFL. The inspiring story of the Thouy family and Michael Orr, a Super Bowl-winning offensive tackle, was first a book by acclaimed author Michael Lewis, and then a blockbuster movie, The Blind Side. I hope you've done a great job with this young man. And the winner is Sandra Bullock on the Brown side. Sandra Bullock winning an Oscar for her portrayal of Leanne Thouy, a steel magnolia, not to be crossed.

You threaten my son. You threaten me. You so much as cross into downtown, you will be sorry. I'm in a prayer group with the DA. I'm a member of the NRA, and I'm always packing. In.

But now, Michael Orr claims he was blindsided by the movie so many of us know and love.

When you go into a locker room and your teammates don't think you can learn a playbook, that way is heavy.

In an epic plot twist, no one saw coming, or now suing the family who took him in. The former NFL star in court this week, alleging the celebrated Thouy family owe him millions. The case now in the hands of a judge. The retired NFL star questioning everything he thought was true or doubting his once close relationship with the Thouy family. He thinks I birthed him. It's gotten to the point where I think I birthed him.

They just consistently referred to Michael as their son, and sometimes as their adopted son. And so that's what the world believes, that they adopted him.

And coming to terms with the damage he says the movie did to his life and career.

The movie is something that will shadow Michael Orr for life.

People don't know anything about me. I mean, you might see something on TV and think you know, but you got to get to know me as a person. You'll never know a person by watching a movie or reading a book.

His lawsuit, alleging that Sean and Leanne Thouy saw him as a gullible young man whose athletic talent could be exploited for their own benefit, in that the Touhies claimed he was their adopted son, when in reality, he wasn't. He entered a conservatorship with the Touhies, which Which is wildly different than an adoption. The petition accusing the Thouies of negotiating a movie deal where they would reach millions while Orr received nothing. Alledging the Thouies only negotiated payment for themselves and their biological children, and that he received no payment whatsoever for the life rights to his story. Orr asked for a full accounting of the money earned off the use of his story and unspecified damages.

Michael sees it all as as wrong from the start.

Or would not comment to ABC News for the story, but he did speak to journalist Michael Sokolow, the story published in the New York Times magazine.

Whether we agree with how he sees it I think it's understandable that someone would feel differently as a 38-year-old adult than they would as an 18-year-old or even a 26-year-old in the midst of trying to stay in the NFL.

Forty-eight hours ago, So a bomb dropped on our clients. To say they were devastated by these allegations is truly an understatement.

Lawyers for the two-e's countering Each family member, including Orr, made an equal amount of money from the film.

Imagine a pie divided by five, okay? We estimate each person received $100,000, each person in the family.

In court filings, the Thouy is submitting an accounting statement of what they say shows the full payments to Orr for his equal share, a little over $138,000. The Thouy family, also claiming Orr, is trying to extort them. Tax The messages they say are between them and the former NFL star allegedly show Orr demanding they pay him millions. The Thouies' filing, also stating the use of the term adopted, was always meant in its colloquially sense. It was never meant as a legal term of art.

People use legal terms all the time. I'm going to murder this Big Mac. And a lot of legal terms become colloquially. Adoption is not really one of them.

The Tuey is contesting his suit.

This is a sad day. It's devastating to the family, and we hope that it doesn't have a chilling effect on others who want to help needy individuals.

Michael Orr's inspiring story story of escaping an impoverished childhood in foster care, then making it to the NFL, inspired millions. He was the first-round NFL draft pick in 2009. The Baltimore Ravens select Michael Orr. Selected 23rd overall by the Baltimore Ravens. The Thouies were there by his side. Just months into Orr's NFL career, the blindside phenomenon swept the nation.

If not for the movie, Michael would have been as famous as most offensive of linemen who toiled in the NFL, which is to say, not all that famous. It's a pretty anonymous position. Shot, guys. The movie made Sean and Leanne very famous. It cast them as heroes. The movie made Michael famous, but not in a way that he would have ever wanted.

The Thouies becoming advocates for foster care and adoption. There's kids falling through the cracks of this society every single day, and they our time. But in fact, the Thouies didn't legally adopt him. Instead, they filed to be his legal conservator in August of 2004, when Michael was already 18 and legally an adult.

Legally speaking, an adoption is the legal act or fact of taking another person's child into your own family as your own. A conservatorship is when you appoint an individual to take care of another person, either their financial or medical needs, because they're either incapacitated a minor.

The Touis declined to comment to ABC News. But in an interview with the Daily Memphian last year, Sean Touis said a conservatorship would allow Orr to play football for Ole Miss, the couple's alma mater, and that lawyers advised them that they couldn't adopt Michael since he was over the age of 18. However, it is legal to adopt an adult in Tennessee.

I think it's important to realize that they could have adopted him by law. Instead, they chose this conservatorship. It's unclear why they did that.

While Orth thrived at Ole Miss and says he does not regret going there, he has long said parts of the movie weren't true. He spoke about it on the Jim Rome show last year. Can I leave now?

I'm honored to have the position it's given me, but You have to understand before I moved in with the family, I was an All-American.

See, this just means that you're going to block whoever's in front of you or on your inside shoulder if you're not covered by a defender. Was it annoying that the movie portrayed it as if you had to learn to play football?

Yeah, that part right there, it really got me because I knew it wasn't anything. It wasn't ever like that. But I've always known how to play the game of football.

Or played for eight seasons in the NFL and retired in 2017 after suffering a serious concussion. After his retirement, his relationship with the Thuies began to deteriorate.

Michael's resentment had been building for a good many years, and I think it came to a head with the lawsuit.

Just last year at Orr's request, a probate court judge dissolved the nearly 20-year conservatorship. The Thouy family offering to remove all mentions of Orr's supposed adoption from their websites, and not to mention adoption in public speeches. On the day the lawsuit was filed, John Thouy told a reporter for the Daily Memphian, We were going to love Michael at 37, just like we loved him at 16. The legal battle between the Tooies and Orr continues. Now, or looking ahead to a future where he can chart his own path.

You don't want to be seen as a miracle. Explain to people what you mean by that.

Well, I shouldn't be a miracle. And no kid, we shouldn't be miracles. And we should have opportunities and resources to go out here and live a normal young adult kid, child life, teenage, and go out and be successful.

Our thanks to Ashan. For more on this story, watch the full Impact by Nightline, Behind the Blind Side, streaming now on Hulu.