The N.Y. TIMES looks at the "unusual legal agreement behind ‘The Blind Side.'" Michael Oher was a "top prospect to play major college football and seemed headed to the NFL" when Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy took him in, but "there were complications." Because the Tuohys were not Oher’s parents, providing support to him could have been seen as "breaking NCAA rules against providing benefits to recruits." As "significant donors" to Ole Miss, one of the colleges recruiting Oher, the Tuohys might "subject themselves and the school to penalties in case of a violation." So they asked a court to "give them wide authority over Oher’s affairs, including power of attorney, control of his medical decisions and the right to approve financial contracts on his behalf," and arrangement, they "believed, would satisfy the NCAA." Oher, then 18 and legally an adult, "agreed to it." Now the legal relationship, known as a conservatorship, and the Tuohys’ motives are "under scrutiny." This much is "clear: The conservatorship departed in several ways from Tennessee legal norms."
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