The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game

If you like Michael Lewis, football, the biblical story of the Good Samaritan, or a good "rags to riches" story, you will love Lewis' latest work, "Blind Side." The book is the true story of Michael Oher, a black kid from the poorest, drug infested part of Memphis (Tennessee), who broke from the cycle of being hopelessly poor to making it as a highly recruited college football player. His is an unusual story because it was the white world that had so unusually aided and abetted his rise.

"Blind Side" tells the story of how Oher's odds in life changed dramatically with the help of a coach, Big Tony, who promised Oher's dying grandmother he would make sure Michael got a good Christian education. Big Tony landed Michael on the doorstep of a rich, evangelical, Republican Memphis family, the Touhy's. "He left a neighborhood in which he could drive all day without laying eyes on a white person for one where a black person was a bit of a curiousity."

Illiteracy, bad grades, car crashes, a night with the Memphis police, and NCAA investigation, men in the street who offered to become his agent could have all sent Oher back to his former home, Hurt village, the prison of his past, if it were not for his social connection to white people. Instead, the world that had once taken no notice of him was now so invested in him that it could not afford to see him fail.

The problem for Michael, as it is for many children mired in the world of poverty, was not intelligence, but rather, access to the system. While sports is the closest thing to a pure meritocracy in America, five of six public school kids with the ability to play college sports (the way out) fail to gain access due to academic disqualification. "Blind Side" is the story of academic and emotional support culminating in access.

Lewis is generous in developing the key figures in Michael's life. The book is full of interesting storylines relating to people responsible for his impoverished background, and for his unusual journey out of poverty. Lewis also devotes considerable space to the emergence of the left offensive tackle (he protects the "blind side") as the second most valued, after the quarterback, position in professional football. The rising importance of the left tackle position is another convergence that plays a key role in Michael's successful outcome.

"Blind Side" is a great, thought provoking read. It may challenge your thinking about those born into poverty and their inability to escape their environment to gain access.

As both an avid sports fan and reader of sports literature I found this to be by far the most outstanding sports related book I've ever read. (I've read lots of them)
Michael Lewis does a superb job of combining football statistics with human life drama as he chronicles the serendepidous coming together of the Touhy family and Michael Oher and all that follows.
If you love big time college football you'll enjoy reading about recruiting tactics of big time coaches, i.e. Fullmer, Saban, & others.
If you love NFL football you'll enjoy the statistical based reasoned explanation of how the game has evolved & changed over the past couple of decades. Throw in descriptions of personalities about prominent NFL people, i.e. Walsh, Ogden, Wallace, and others and you have a statistical based explanation with a genuine human approach.
Lewis is "Grishamesque" in his treatment of Michael Oher - I'm pulling for Michael to become an all pro left tackle.
Details of Michael's struggles, perserverance and successes brought tears to my eyes. Details of the Touhy family's care and nurturing of Michael reinforced my belief in the good of mankind. The world needs more people like them!!
Michael's final encounter with Antonio Turner caused me to jump to my feet, thrust my fist into the air and say, YES!!!!
This book is an incredible read about life, fate,big time sports and the economic value of highly skilled athletes. It is also about something more - the great economic and cultural divide in this country as evidenced by Urban America in general and Hurt Village and Dixie Homes in particular. Political leaders and public policy makers should read this book - it strikes at the heart of one of our country's greatest challenges in the 21st century - how do we close the gap between the "haves and have nots?"

If you are looking for the football version of Moneyball you might be a bit disppointed by Blind Side. It's not really that kind of book. (Indeed, there are few books that completely alter one's view of a subject the way Moneyball did) There are some interesting chapters about Bill Walsh and the innovations he brought to the offensive side of football, but Blind Side is much more of a human interest story. It's a highly readable and engaging story and it will surely make you pay more attention next time an Ole Miss game is on TV. I highly recommend it.

An incredible human interest story detailed further below but first.........the author of Liar's Poker and Moneyball is at it again with an offbeat interesting subject, or multiple subjects which are intertwined. This is an analysis of the evolution of the left side tackle designed to protect the quarterback's blind side, particularly from the evolution of speed rushers in the Lawrence Taylor mode. Lewis starts with an in depth analysis of Joe Theisman's famous leg break with some interesting facts even Joe didn't remember including who may really have been responsible. Separate stories are then presented of the new prototype Left Tackles like Jonathan Ogden whose investment banker father showed him that his value at Left Tackle would out way any interest in playing college basketball for his 6'9" son. This part of the book is intertwined with a historical perspective of how the passing game developed mainly through the Bill Walsh West Coast offense which downplays the significance of the quarterback. This section of the book is intertwined around the personal story to be described and while extremely interesting to football fans will have virtually NO appeal the typical female fan or other casual fans.

But what will be of greater human interest is the overlay of the story of Michael Oher, the "man/child" currently playing football at Ole Miss. Oher shows up at a predominantly white Christian school in the 9th grade with virtually no school history and horrible family background. An incredibly shy 350 pound kid struggles but ingratiates himself to faculty and staff and manages to stick around. Finally one Thanksgiving Day a volunteer assistant coach and his wife see him at a bus stop in his usual shorts and recognize that in addition to no money for food, he is traveling to the gym to watch practice just to be in a heated room. Through incredible acts of kindness and caring this young man is taken in by this wealthy Christian family who attempt to socialize and educate him for the future.

But little did they realize that at 6' 6" with an incredible frame and quick feet, football coaches would see their answer to possibly the most important position on the football field and they would relentlessly come calling. This presents many problems as Oher has virtually no chance of attending college with his past educational background. Thus begins the odyssey of the recruiting wars for this individual who by the end of high school has been called the best pro prospect even though he has played in only 15 football games.

This portion of the book dominates approximately 70% of the book. It is incredibly touching and I certainly applaud the sympathetic, caring approach by Leigh Ann and Sean Tuohy. This book is not just for football fans as the issues here are much greater. How does a child get to the 9th grade with virtually no retention of knowledge or ability to function in a social setting? What can a change in culture and caring do for this young man? And other questions will also appear such as is their potential ulterior motives for selecting this student out of so many and wasn't the final steps to eligibility really inappropriate? As to my opinion I choose to believe that the Tuohy's were interested in helping another human being, and in the process, it enriched the lives of their family, this young man and the possibilities that a loving, caring environment can create.

I strongly recommend this book for football fans, sociologists, and people with interest in politics, religion, or Southern Culture as there are many issues intertwined. Once again, the weakness to this book may be that he narrowed its focus by making it a "sports book". It's not. Its main message concerns underprivileged kids and how a change in environment can produce incredible results.

As a matter of disclosure, I live in Memphis, have leased Tuohy's his plane in the past and have many mutual friends. He and his wife have exceptional reputations and I applaud their involvement in helping this man.

Like in Moneyball and Liar's Poker, Michael Lewis examines a culture, e.g., baseball, stock market, and now football, while interspersing a biography illuminating the underlying culture.

In this case, Mr. Lewis shows how the left tackle position has rose from obscurity in the 1960s into one of the highest-paid positions in the current game. The initial focus is in how specialized a person must be to play this position as the highest level (more rare than many other positions). After this description, Mr. Lewis introduces us to Michael Oher, a person who has all of the physical tools and then some but has never played organized sports and has basically been abandoned since early childhood.

The people (parents, coaches, etc.) all want to help Mr. Oher fulfill his potential. However, it doesn't come off as being completely altrusitic as all benefit whom are in his presence, e.g., coach parlays his involvement into a college coaching position. In addition, the recruiting battles for Mr. Oher's services amplify these traits.

His adoptive parents and coaches seem angelic compared to the NCAA in this story. One of the most sobering statitistics quoted in this book is that only one of five players capable of playing in the NFL ever make through the legal and educational morass that is the NCAA.

It's hard not to root for Mr. Oher and I would think we'll see his name at the top of the draft board in 2007-2008. Excellent book and highly recommended.